Tristan Lecomte

Issue / Trade Inequality

The current economic model is mostly aimed at business success and profit. However, when seeking raw materials, many greedy business people try to buy at the lowest price possible in order to increase their profits. This practice exploits and victimizes the people at the very bottom of the chain of production, who are often small farmers in developing countries of the Southern Hemisphere.

Isolated by their poverty and lack of education, the small Third-World farmers that often supply raw materials to industry are very vulnerable to the constant fluctuations of market prices and to the exploitive practices of middlemen. In fact, the prices paid to small farmers for their products sometimes barely cover the cost of production, making it impossible for them to improve their farming methods in an effort to improve their lot.