At what cost

Through his photographs and the accompanying essays, James Whitlow Delano chronicles the lives of individuals from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Moldova, Albania, Romania, Guatemala and Florida, where young men work in sugar cane, women are trafficked into the sex industry, children labor in coffee, and men and women are forced into tomato production. At What Cost presents case studies of these situations to raise public, political and media attention to the ongoing global labor rights crisis. The exhibition also provides information about the immediate ways in which viewers can work to change the global labor problem. Despite being produced over a decade ago, the same industries that Delano documents continue their unethical, exploitative and abusive labor practices today. These industries include sugar cane production in the Dominican Republic, where field workers do not have access to housing, pensions, and healthcare. They work over 14 hours per day and get paid around RD$200 ($3.72 USD) per ton of sugarcane harvested. Despite being aware of the working conditions that these workers face, many countries still import sugar from the Dominican Republic, mainly the United States which received 100% of official exports from the Dominican Republic, totaling 212,533 metric tons of sugar, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

In order for working conditions, wages, and benefits to improve for some of the industries mentioned in this exhibit and for others to be banned and criminalized, the US and other major beneficiaries of such labor, need to demand change and stop participating in unethical and exploitative trade. The key to enacting this change is to educate people on where their food and other items come from, as well as the harmful and violent labor conditions that people around the world are facing.