The holiday season is filled with familiar comforts—spiced drinks, chocolate treats, and family feasts. But behind these traditions lies a history that continues to shape today’s global supply chains. From the nutmeg plantations of the past to the cocoa farms of the present, many of the products that define holiday indulgence in the Global North are still linked to systems of slavery and exploitation affecting racialized and marginalized workers around the world.
The violence behind “pumpkin spice”
Nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves—the core spices behind one of the world’s most beloved flavor combinations—are all indigenous to Asia. Yet today, they’re closely associated with celebration and comfort, especially in the United States. Their path into holiday traditions, however, is rooted in violence. Long before the US was a country, the global spice trade was shaped by genocide, slavery, and exploitation.
As Meher Mirza notes in the BBC,
The Dutch, desperate for a monopoly over the expensive, rare nutmeg that grew only in Indonesia’s Banda Islands, would annihilate nearly the entire Bandanese population, keeping the rest in near-slavery, while selling the spice for massive profits in Europe.
They used similarly brutal tactics to control the clove trade in Indonesia. The Portuguese, English, and Dutch also subjected Sri Lankan workers to violent, coercive labor to harvest and process cinnamon. And in the Caribbean, the English, Spanish, and French depended on enslaved labor to cultivate ginger.
By the 17th century, these four spices—and the exploitation that fueled their production—had become embedded in the recipes and food cultures of colonizing nations around the world.
Not so “ancient history”
In 2015 #DecolonizePumpkinSpice started trending on social media. A movement linking the popular drink to colonialism and privilege emerged due to the violent history of those four spices. Contrarily, cookbook author Maya Kaimal recently stated it was “good to be aware” but it was “ancient history.” Although that may be true for those particular spices, the pattern of labor exploitation is still shaping our global food supply chains today.
Just this year, a federal class-action lawsuit was filed against Starbucks. The suit alleges they knowingly profited from coffee harvested through forced labor in Brazil. A petition was also launched urging the US government to block imports of Brazilian coffee tainted by forced labor—not just from Starbucks, but also from Nestlé, Dunkin’, Illy, McCafé, and Jacobs Douwe Egberts.
Etelle Higonnet, Coffee Watch’s founder, stated,
This isn’t about a few bad actors. We’re exposing an entrenched system that traps millions in poverty and thousands in slavery.
Starbucks and others also have a problem with slave labor in their cocoa supply chain. Likewise, other luxury items like seafood and champagne also have well documented ties to labor exploitation. Clearly, the legacy of colonial exploitation of workers is still alive and well. It’s time to stand up and reject the colonial pattern of exploitation and slavery and clean up our celebrations.
Colonization turned into corporate exploitation
As with the colonizers who fueled the spice trade, it’s a lack of transparency and accountability that has allowed the corporations fueling today’s economies to evade responsibility for the welfare of their workers for decades.
A champagne union member said:
It should not be possible to harvest the grapes of champagne using human misery.
Unquestionably, it shouldn’t be possible to grow, harvest, or produce anything using human misery. But sadly, just as in the past, producers are still prioritizing profits over the basic rights and dignity of their workers, making it all too possible. It’s time to claim our right to indulge in the holiday slavery free. We must demand workers be able to labor free from modern slavery.
Stand with us and call on Starbucks so more to address farmer poverty, exploitative child labor, and deforestation tied to the cocoa in their supply chains. That would be something truly worth celebrating this holiday season!
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