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The BBC series Blood Sweat & Takeaways came to a close last week.  For the final episode the documentary picked the 6 young Brits up in the rice-farming regions of Thailand and followed them to the bustling capital of Bangkok.  This migration from the countryside is undertaken by many where the city holds potential for a regular income in contrast to the highly seasonal rice-farming industry.  In Bangkok the young Brits worked with food destined for both the local and global market: from a small slum-based fish-processing unit to a chicken factory which processes 140,000 chickens and hires 5000 people.

Blood, Sweat and Takeaways often felt like a programme with two stories: one which focussed on how the British visitors were able to relate to the native workers: make friends, empathise and build respect; and another which focussed on their reaction against the unfamiliar living and working conditions: disgust, shock, physical revulsion.  Seeing the latter was not pleasant, where peoples’ daily lived reality is reduced to a device for shock factor TV.  However it is perhaps these raw reactions that bring home the vast inequalities to be found in the history of a tin of tuna.

Watching the Brits work and live with the workers allowed the programme to explore some of the impacts that the food supply chain has on people’s lives.  From the positives: a regular source of income, funding for children’s education, to the negatives: the splitting of families, poor living conditions and low wages.  Stacey’s view that ‘no-one should have to make such huge sacrifices for Western benefit’ collides head-on with James’ recognition that ‘if we didn’t have the 140,000 chickens coming through a day we wouldn’t be employing those 5000 people… wouldn’t have jobs, wouldn’t be able support a family…’ 

Clearly there are no easy answers; however at Impactt we believe that where the actions of retailers/brands directly impact on the lives and communities of workers/growers in developing countries there is both a great deal of responsibility but also potential for effecting positive change.  To this end Impactt is working towards enabling buyers to make ‘pro-development’ decisions.

Throughout the series the Brits’ realised that by virtue of the opportunities they had access to during their lives they have a myriad of choices unavailable to the workers they encountered.  In the Western context we are perhaps spoilt for choice but with an awareness of the broad-reaching power of our purchasing decisions we can also be empowered by it.   We watch as Josh takes on new shopping choices with gusto; he dips into a strangers shopping basket pulling out a banana like a game show host and asks: ‘are these Fairtrade bananas?’  The final episode attracted 546,000 viewers, 1/3 of which were between 16 and 34 years old, the fact that these issues captured the interest of a young demographic is exciting and begs the question, what next?  May this be a first step for responsible purchasing decisions; from consumers all the way up to the brands.

The crew who filmed the BBC’s “Blood Sweat and Takeaways” stayed at Gecko Villa whilst filming the Rice episode in Thailand. Whilst dramatization is a necessity to ensure viewers, the overall picture generated was – within the confines of the genre – a suitably provocative one for Westen viewers.

Gecko Villa is a vacation villa in the middle of the rice fields of Thailand’s Northeast, and has succeeeded in offering alternative and sustainable employment to the local villagers, and enjoys a good number of repeat visitors who are looking to get off the beaten path and to make a difference when they travel.

If the average Western consumer cannot influence the giants of the food industry, they certainly can make informed choices in respect of their holidays! Had Manos, Stacey or others in the team elected to spend their holidays in the region (rather than in a Bangkok corporate hotel) they could have tried out rice planting or reforestation to the extent they chose, whilst enjoying freshly cooked Thai chicken or Tom Yam Kung, knowing the proceeds would remain entirely within the local community and contribute to education and healthcare for the locals, and guarantee an alternative income stream for villagers who otherwise are often forced into migration as demonstrated by the series.