Among the tribal people of India's Thar desert, the now pervasive addictions to opium, tobacco and tea have been the result of rather slow and smooth processes, often encouraged by the establishment of public liquor stores. To date, there are few individual or societal mechanisms available to tribal people by which they could perceive on their own the massive drain these products cause on their thin resource base. In such cases, people are often pressured into taking loans at very high interest rates. These debts are paid with labour, but are usually managed in such a way that the debt can never be paid off, resulting in permanent indentured labour. Any attempt to evade can result in imprisonment, and in extreme situations, debtors are murdered and their killers rarely prosecuted.
Coffee represents the second source of income in Mexico, after oil.
In Oaxaca, it is the first source of income. This grouping allows them to have access to a larger market, to consolidate their regional organizations, to coordinate their production and marketing activities, and to provide training and advice in regards to management, organization and relations with government and companies. Small producers are victims of behaviours from both governments which weakened the International Coffee Organization either by encouraging dumping practices or by protecting consumers' interest, and from transnationals who buy at the cheapest price. This situation makes it almost impossible for small producers to make a living and to shift to organic coffee production because such a shift requires an adjustment time lag. A similar sexual division of labour in these societies resulted in the marginalization of women and their female children with the change in the nature of the economy.