I just got back from doing a lecture at Georgetown U. as part of their Lecture Fund Series.  It went well and now that I have this speech and presentation, I am going on the road with it.  I also had a few meetings on capitol hill where I  met with Harkin’s office, Engel’s office and the head of Africa for the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

     Both Harkin’s office and Engel’s office clearly explained that as far as legislation, the public needs to push for the “No Slavery Here” stamp.

Public opinion is going to matter. Ten years out from the Harkin-Engel Protocol and we’ve only made about 4% headway. But 4% is still better than nothing and shows that there is a structure in play that has hope.  Over the next few months, Slave Free Chocolate is going to execute a couple of campaigns targeted at our elected officials.

    One of my talking points with Harkin’s office was to clear up something I didn’t understand.  The Department of Labor has a particular Executive Order (13126) that states a list of products that is illegal for our federal government to purchase as the items are tied to child slavery.  Cocoa from Ivory Coast is on the list and cocoa from Ghana is being considered.

What I didn’t understand is if that is the case, then why are M&M’s available in the vending machines in every federal office building across the country?  Why are M&M’s included in MRE’s going to our service people in Afganistan and Iraq?  Well, the answer is simple.  The federal gov’t doesn’t buy cocoa, it buys chocolate.  That is considered a derivative product.  Well if this loophole/rouse isn’t a slap in the face to Harkin’s and Engel’s office, the horrifically underfunded ICI and in particular, the 1.8 million children that we promised to serve, then I don’t know what is.

   My contact at the Foreign Affairs office gave me a campaign idea that Slave Free Chocolate is going to jump on.  We are also going to enlist help from our sister organizations that are also fighting against child and forced labor.

This campaign is going to have every concerned person send 3 emails or letters.  One addressed to their Congressman and one to each Senator in their state.  I’ve heard that when an elected official get multiple copies of the same message with the same subject line, it doesn’t go unnoticed.  Slave Free Chocolate and others will have this message completed with a subject line that catches attention.  As Congress is going to recess soon for the holiday’s we need to wait until early next year.

This message is going to ask our elected officials to change the wording on Executive order 13126 to include “derivative products”.  If we can get that changed it will shake up those that signed the Harkin-Engel Protocol big time.  It would mean that they and their resellers couldn’t bid on  RFP’s to provide chocolate to the federal gov’t.  No Hershey bars in the vending machine would catch just about everybody’s eye.  Plus, this would open the doors for chocolate companies that source ethical cocoa to have an opportunity at growth.  Sure big candy would squawk that jobs maybe lost but its really about shifting the opportunity.

Over the holidays, I am going to be working on rallying the troops.  Any of you who would like to help, please contact us by clicking on the CONTACT US button in the top left corner.