After weeks of discomfort and uncertainty about the ins and outs of this project, and what was asked of us as designers, from the Netherlands Food Partnership or the United Nations, and the feeling of a disconnect with reality, I would like to propose a catalog of non-solutions. Through the demonstration of the complexity of the cocoa and chocolate industry, I would also like to question the foundations of the subject on which we were asked to work. The underlying issues; our position as designers, the management of systemic problems by a demand for local solutions (solutions that are demanded by institutions such as the UN with a systemic scope), and what questions this relationship of requesting local and individual solutions in a global system raises.
- This catalog will not show any solutions on my part, I want to question and criticize a solutionist system to which design is entirely part.
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After weeks of discomfort and uncertainty about the ins and outs of this project, and what was asked of us as designers, and the feeling of a disconnect with reality, I would like to propose a catalog of non-solutions. Through the demonstration of the complexity of the cocoa and chocolate industry, I would also like to question the foundations of the subject on which we were asked to work. The underlying issues; our position as designers, the management of systemic problems by a demand for local solutions, and what questions this relationship of requesting local and individual solutions in a global system raises.
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Work in progress...
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When as a designer or practitioner we are confronted with such a subject (solving world hunger, in all humility) we try to find an entry point at our scale. As a group, we were interested in the chocolate production/consumption chain. Although this is only one part of the food chain, the study of cocoa production/consumption and the whole production chain is still extremely broad. In this universe, we will look for the precise, the human, the case study that will allow us to act, to take care and to develop a reflection.
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+ In the cocoa chain, there are two poles located at each end of the chain, which allow for specific action: the producers and the consumers. On one side we can act with the producer, favour a short production cycle, act on local issues, create cooperatives. On the other side, the consumer, namely: us, inhabitants of the Netherlands and design students. In order to raise awareness and to bring ringing light to a reality that does not affect us directly; of making our "consumer right" act.
+ Two poles on which we can have an impact, because we act from human to human for individuals. We can take concrete action. This is important, but it can also lead to another problem that I would like to address: the responsibility lies then with the individual.
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+ When we involve a designer, we also engage an individual. This designer will, without being an expert in the system in which s/he operates, try to act on their own scale, with elements that can be grasped. There is this idea that if one person can do it on a local scale, make things happen and apply solutions locally, then everyone can do it. That we need small solutions and that pebble by pebble we move mountains.
+ But when it is a way of working, of thinking, that is promoted by an institution, an entity that has much more weight in the system, what does it mean? Why promote individual initiatives? And why, again from an institution, encourage them?
+ The discourse crystallises around the fact that everyone can somehow find solutions, and this puts the responsibility on the individual: you just have to act if you want to change things! I would like to reorient the trajectory of this critique, and nuance a solutionist approach.
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The farm gate price, the living income of farmers, the cocoa price market, the cocoa price volatility; these are the different notions that are addressed when we look at the creation of a living income for farmers.
How can a living income or a farm price, which to be fair should be fixed and defined, coexist with a market that makes prices fluctuate?
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+ Last modification 22/05/2021
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Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire have introduced a living income (if I understand correctly it is a farm price). The living income differential is calculated on yield forecasts, so it is not adjustable or proportional. It is a fixed income per bag of cocoa, so the farm infrastructure must be able to produce enough bags to ensure a good income for all farm workers.
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+ Last modification 22/05/2021
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The cocoa price market is the stock price of cocoa, which sets the farm-gate price but in relation to the volatility of the cocoa price. the living income differential set up in Ghana and the Ivory Coast ensures a minimum income for farmers to protect them from market fluctuations.
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+ Last modification 22/05/2021
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With the targets still not met in 2010, a new joint statement was issued: reduce the worst forms of child labour by 70% by 2020. In 2011, the cocoa industry had not completed any of the six articles.
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