My Introduction

My name is Ellinor Couchman.  I have yet to make that my legal name; however, as a transgender woman, I prefer to keep my legal name a widely guarded secret.  Either way, my current pursuit is a BS in Information Networking and Telecommunications.  More specifically, I’m a lifelong learner in an eternal pursuit for data.  I’m simply here because a passion for research is in my blood.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a fascination with understanding the way foreign societies think.  I remember countless random anecdotes hoisted onto me as a child, and I’ve personally spent hours poring over geopolitical studies.  Most often, however, my main point of interest involves the society we live in right here and now–The United States itself–because many Americans paradoxically seem to have a foreign understanding of their own lives.

What I mean by this is a phenomenon I first discovered while browsing the History Channel.  I stumbled upon a 2011 documentary called The Epic History of Everyday Things.  It goes over various common household items and their surprisingly in-depth lineage.  The documentary is so thoroughly forgotten that History Channel doesn’t even have a primary webpage about it anymore, but as a 10-year-old, I made the effort to buy a DVD copy for future safekeeping.  Since then, I’ve had a deep fascination with uncovering more info about the entities I previously took for granted.

Usually, I prefer to work with historical research.  Unfortunately, as evidenced by its passage on page 20 of Patten and Newhard’s Understanding Research Methods textbook, I’ll need to look elsewhere for that emphasis.  In the meantime, there’s still plenty to be learned from researching the modern origins of our common knick-knacks.

For example, most Americans don’t think about the origin of their baking goods, and I want to illuminate more about that.  In our globalized economy, understanding every step of production and distribution is important in making informed decisions.  In the case of chocolate, Nestlé, Inc. has long been known to exploit child labor and extralegal forms of slavery in the Ivory Coast for cocoa production.  They were tried by the International Labor Rights Forum in 2005 on account of failing to meet basic necessities for labor rights, but the case ultimately proved indecisive (Athreya & Collingsworth, 2006).  I firmly believe that, if all Americans were properly informed about this problem, they’d be more conscientious in their buying habits.

My goal as a researcher is to quantify these economic forces and qualify the testimonies of victims who we often never acknowledge.  I’d also like to inform Americans about possible alternatives, such as the Free Trade Certified organization, which are devoted to ending child labor and slavery in cocoa production (“Fair Trade Chocolate”).  In my opinion, more premium brands such as Guittard, Inc. or Lily’s Sweets, Inc. should be more widely acknowledged for their free trade compliance (Guittard; 2021).

Overall, I’ve devoted to teaching people more about their own lives and inviting them to question what they support.  This can be through analysis of history or the ignored issues of today.  Whatever the case may be, there will always be a need for research.

Works cited

Athreya, B. & Collingsworth, T. (2006, October 30). On Halloween, Nestlé Claims no Responsibility for Child Labor. International Labor Rights Forum. Retrieved January 24, 2022, from https://laborrights.org/stop-child-labor/cocoa-campaign/news/10993.

(2021). Cultivate Better Cocoa Progress Report. Guittard Chocolate Company. Retrieved January 24, 2022, from https://www.guittard.com/assets/images/CBC-Annual-Report-2019-20.pdf.

Where to Buy Fair Trade Chocolate. Fair Trade USA. Retrieved January 24, 2022, from https://www.fairtradecertified.org/shopping-guides/fair-trade-chocolate.