Drugs are obvious, but what are some other products that are “blood diamonds” we should be aware of that promote slavery and other evils?
The vast majority of the textile and clothing industry. Unless you raise the cotton, spin the thread, weave the cloth, and sew the clothes yourself, you are practically guaranteed to be buying from a sweatshop at some point in the chain.
Wait, we have to be wary of “blood chocolate” now?
Mmmm… blood chocolate.
There are mass fishing methods in use that result in damaged ecosystems, wasted bycatch, etc.
Tantalum. It’s an element used in capacitors in virtually every electronic device out there.
The issue is that the Congo is a main source of the ore. The proceeds have funded their civil war as well as many later conflicts.
I think the violence has mostly died down (the war officially ended over a decade ago), and many manufacturers promised to use “conflict free” sources, but I doubt that anyone can guarantee that their cell phone doesn’t contribute to ongoing violence.
What’s unethical about buying chocolate?
A speculation – Coffee, if it’s not fair trade.
I buy certified fair trade coffee at Costco, although it just now occurred to me that the decaf I buy is likely not fair-trade certified. I’ll have to be more careful.
Apparently canned dolphin cannot be produced without condemning innocent tuna to an unpleasant death. I’m weak, though. I eat my dolphin salad sandwiches anyway.
Almonds are basically stealing water from California and making their drought worse.
Wikipedia has a page onConflict Resources
Many consumer electronics rely on minerals mined in eastern Congo. Proceeds of that mining have been used to fund ongoing military conflicts. So strike cell phones and laptops off your socially conscious shopping list.
ISIS is purported to be selling petroleum to fund its horrors.
Post of the thread.
What if you buy used clothing?
? Anyone ?
Virtually no one buys all of their clothing used (underwear? socks? lingerie? shoes?). You are making a statement about the size of the contribution to the problem, not that it is practical or even feasible to avoid it completely. Used clothing made in a sweatshop is still just that anyway. If it is high quality, you may just be helping the former owner to buy more from the same source.
That said, I used to work in the corporate headquarters of several well-known shoe labels and those companies do take human rights abuse claims seriously because they know the PR backlash that will result if an investigative journalist exposes their manufacturing practices to be unethical. They regularly send inspectors to China, Indonesia and elsewhere to make sure nothing blatant is going on.
I am not saying those factories are places where you would want to work yourself but there are some minimum standards and major shoe factories are high-tech and contracted by many different major brands to produce individual lines. The companies themselves do not own the factories and they can move their business to a different one if there are too many ethical violations so there is competitive pressure to adhere to some standards.
The people that work in them also tend to be people that were desperately poor not very long ago and now have much better income now than they did before. It was the same situation in the steel mills and other factories in the U.S. not so long ago. Not everywhere is a First World country yet and those that aren’t have to go through the steps necessary to get there.
De-pooped shrimp. Is that still a thing?
How about: is there anything you can buy that’s not conflict free? 
Everything you buy is trucked in burning greenhouse-gas-emitting fossil fuels … if you’re not living off the land, then you’re part of the problem.
That’s called “work adjustment,” and Goodwill doesn’t get to decide how much they will pay someone. The adjustment is done at voc. rehab. A person’s rate of production as a percentage of a typical rate is calculated, and then it is legal to pay that person the same percentage of whatever the pay rate is for their job. If their production rate is 78%, and the job pays minimum wage, then the person can be paid 78% of minimum wage. If the job pays $15/hr., then the person is paid $15x.78/hr. People get periodically re-evaluated, and evaluated doing a specific job once they are hired somewhere.
A person is also eligible for SSI (supplemental security income) from Social Security, which makes up some of the difference.
It’s not “slave labor.” It’s the only chance a lot of people with serious cognitive disabilities have to work outside a sheltered workshop. Goodwill is not the only employer who takes employees on work adjustment. Lots of places do.
I have personally known people who started out earning just a couple of dollars an hour on work adjustment, but as they worked the job, and got good at it, their speed increased, and they worked their way up to normal wages, and then sometimes even merit raises.