Chocolate and Slavery
The Problem
Forced labor is a problem affecting the entire world. Human beings are considered an expendable commodity. Children are being used and discarded. The information presented here is an attempt to bring about awareness of this problem. Based on existing surveys, documents and reports, it brings to light disturbing facts that many choose to just ignore.
What was supposed to happen but didn't.
CHOCOLATE MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION LAUNCHES INITIATIVE TO ADDRESS WEST AFRICAN LABOR ISSUES
FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 2001 – Leading chocolate manufacturers, through the Chocolate Manufacturers Association (CMA), today launched an initiative to address the workers' rights issues recently identified by the government of the Ivory Coast. As part of its initiative, the CMA plans to collaborate with international aid organizations, such as the United States Agency for International Development, local governments and human rights organizations to support the Ivorian government's efforts to end child trafficking.
What is supposed to happen now.
“Sharing Lessons Learned - Developing Ways Forward”
London, 1-2 April 2008
ICI Conference Recommendations
The International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) hosted child labour experts from across the globe at
an event at the London School of Economics. The conference, “Sharing Lessons Learned -
Developing Ways Forward”, focused on efforts to eliminate child labour in agriculture with a
particular reference to the cocoa sectors of Ghana and the Cote d’Ivoire. The participants
included senior Government representatives of Ghana and the Cote d’Ivoire, the cocoa
trade, the chocolate industry, members of international agencies, civil society from producer
and consumer countries, as well as internationally acknowledged experts on child labour.
Harkin and Engel letter dated March 19th 2008 to Mars Corp. on urging them to get their act together quickly.
Our biggest culprit here in the US is probably Hershey Food Corporation. In their 2007 annual report they mention they get 70% of their cocoa from West Africa but nowhere to they mention any expenditures related to the Harkin-Engel Protocol. I am sure its all legal but where is the integrity here folks?
Mars, Nestle promise ethical cocoa supply
By Charlotte Eyre
07/02/2008- Global confectioners Mars and Nestle have joined a sustainable cocoa programme, which aims to establish a traceability system for all farmers in the Ivory Coast.
The Good Inside Cocoa Programme, established by the Dutch non-profit organisation Utz Certified, aims to eliminate environmental and humanitarian problems such as child labour, deforestation and low salaries.
Inside the:
The Good Inside
Cocoa Program and Utz Certification
The potentially bigger problem
Like wages for chocolate
BY HUMPHREY HAWKSLEY
25 August 2007
Having put their trust in western trade, millions from the Ivorian cocoa belt and tens of millions elsewhere in Africa feel let down. They see themselves at the bottom of an international supply chain that refuses to spread wealth to the poorest and weakest. It is only natural that they seek alternatives.......it may be the inflexibility of the free-market right that threatens the future of Western liberal democracy.
Starbucks and Hershey in bed together with thier own solution
The folllowing is devoted to Fair Trade :
Is compliance to Fairtrade certification the best solution?
Synopsis from Fairtrade.net (FLO certification)
Much of our chocolate comes from the Ivory Coast region of West Africa, where cocoa production is an enormous part of the economy. In Ghana, 40% of the country’s export revenues come from the sale of cocoa. Unfortunately, very little of the profit goes to the farmers who grow the cocoa beans. Cocoa farmers receive about a penny for a candy bar selling for 60 cents.
Opponents of Fairtrade:
Fairtrade branded unfair by UK think tank
2008 - A UK-based policy institute this week slammed Fairtrade, saying that the practice distorts the market and traps some of the world's poorest farmers in a cycle of poverty.
Click here to add text.04 March 2009
STOP THE TRAFFIK campaigners around the world are waking up to the news that in summer 2009 Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate bars can be part of their diet.
Cadbury have announced today that Cadbury Dairy Milk, their best known product, is to receive Fairtrade certification by late summer 2009.
STOP THE TRAFFIK congratulates Cadbury on this ground breaking decision, which comes two years into the STOP THE TRAFFIK Chocolate Campaign.
Steve Chalke, STOP THE TRAFFIK founder, said, ‘This is a very significant step in our campaign. We congratulate Cadburys on their commitment to justice and now look to their policy being adopted across their entire product range as well as to their lead being followed by other manufacturers. But the STOP THE TRAFFIK Chocolate Campaign marches on. We now call on Mars and other manufacturers to follow Cadbury’s lead and abandon their reliance on the use of cocoa produced through trafficked and exploitative forms of child labour.’
STOP THE TRAFFIK CEO, Ruth Dearnley added, ’Cadbury’s decision demonstrates the power of ordinary consumers to bring about change and freedom. Two years ago, when STOP THE TRAFFIK met with Cadbury we were told that the decision we have witnessed today was impossible and impractical. This is a victory for every person who has complained, campaigned and spread the message. But most of all it is a victory for every child held in exploitative labour on the cocoa farms of West Africa. However, let us not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory - they will not be set free until Mars and Nestle and Lindt and Hershey and all the others have the integrity to put human rights before profit and make similar announcements.’
It has long been known that thousands of children are being trafficked onto cocoa plantations in the Ivory Coast and across West Africa to harvest the cocoa that makes the chocolate that the world consumes. Despite the fact that industry committed in 2001 to remove all forms of exploitative child labour from the chocolate supply chain, little progress has been made.
STOP THE TRAFFIK, a global movement against people trafficking founded in 2006, has been calling for individual companies to take responsibility for the chocolate they sell and asking for it to be traffik free.
Today STOP THE TRAFFIK campaigners around the world celebrate that in summer 2009 there will be another traffik free chocolate bar.
Cadbury Announces Traffic Free Chocolate!!!!
04 March 2009
STOP THE TRAFFIK campaigners around the world are waking up to the news that in summer 2009 Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate bars can be part of their diet.
Cadbury have announced today that Cadbury Dairy Milk, their best known product, is to receive Fairtrade certification by late summer 2009.
STOP THE TRAFFIK congratulates Cadbury on this ground breaking decision, which comes two years into the STOP THE TRAFFIK Chocolate Campaign.
Steve Chalke, STOP THE TRAFFIK founder, said, ‘This is a very significant step in our campaign. We congratulate Cadburys on their commitment to justice and now look to their policy being adopted across their entire product range as well as to their lead being followed by other manufacturers. But the STOP THE TRAFFIK Chocolate Campaign marches on. We now call on Mars and other manufacturers to follow Cadbury’s lead and abandon their reliance on the use of cocoa produced through trafficked and exploitative forms of child labour.’
STOP THE TRAFFIK CEO, Ruth Dearnley added, ’Cadbury’s decision demonstrates the power of ordinary consumers to bring about change and freedom. Two years ago, when STOP THE TRAFFIK met with Cadbury we were told that the decision we have witnessed today was impossible and impractical. This is a victory for every person who has complained, campaigned and spread the message. But most of all it is a victory for every child held in exploitative labour on the cocoa farms of West Africa. However, let us not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory - they will not be set free until Mars and Nestle and Lindt and Hershey and all the others have the integrity to put human rights before profit and make similar announcements.’
It has long been known that thousands of children are being trafficked onto cocoa plantations in the Ivory Coast and across West Africa to harvest the cocoa that makes the chocolate that the world consumes. Despite the fact that industry committed in 2001 to remove all forms of exploitative child labour from the chocolate supply chain, little progress has been made.
STOP THE TRAFFIK, a global movement against people trafficking founded in 2006, has been calling for individual companies to take responsibility for the chocolate they sell and asking for it to be traffik free.
Today STOP THE TRAFFIK campaigners around the world celebrate that in summer 2009 there will be another traffik free chocolate bar.
Cadbury Announces Traffic Free Chocolate!!!!
