Author Archives: sfcwebmaster

Ben and Jerry’s and Cocoa.

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We heard that Ben and Jerry’s are using slave free cocoa in their products.  This is what I found on their websites regarding this issue.  They don’t use the word slave ever but below are their statements on ethical sourcing in general and specifically with cocoa.  You can also find these on their website page about Fair Trade.

This is what they say about Fair Trade:

Fair Trade Progress
Ben & Jerry’s continues its journey down the Fair Trade sourcing path this year. We are the first ice cream company to use Fair Trade ingredients and it started with our coffee flavors in 2005. Ben & Jerry’s is committed to sourcing Fair Trade-certified ingredients when they are available by 2013. This transition is the most intensive product overhaul that the company has ever undertaken, everyone is involved, from the people supplying the ingredients, to the Flavor Gurus. To learn more about Fair Trade Certified products and the Fair Trade movement, visit www.FairTradeCertified.org

Ben & Jerry’s is about making the world’s best ice cream in the nicest possible way; remembering that business has a responsibility to give back to the community.

This is what they say about cocoa.

Fair Trade Cocoa
We source some of our Fair Trade cocoa powder from cooperatives in the Ivory Coast. This one country sells about 40% of the world’s cocoa, yet only a small percentage of their harvest is sold on Fair Trade terms. The higher prices the farmers receive with Fair Trade, the more they are able to invest in health care, women’s empowerment, micro-credit programs, education and environmental conservation.  

We are also sourcing Fair Trade Certified cocoa powder from producers in Ghana. The impact of purchasing Fair Trade Certified cocoa powder is seen across Ghanaian communities.  The funds from purchasing Fair Trade cocoa has allowed for Mobile Health Programs to visit the cooperative member’s villages. They have provided money for medical supplies, buildings, and treatment for over 1000 farmers in 2010.  

Improvement in the quality education in Ghana is seen where the Fair Trade Certified cocoa funds have aided in numerous school buildings projects, support for rural schools and distribution of school kits. Child labor sensitivity workshops are held to help educate communities and scholarships are given to mothers and children in cocoa communities.

Our chocolate ice cream is made with Fair Trade Certified cocoa powder. You can also find Fair Trade Certified Chocolate at your local Scoop Shop.

The position they are taking is wonderful.  But, again we must keep iterating that sourcing everything Fair Trade is only part of the pie.  An important part of the pie, no less. Fair labor practices are a trickle down benefit of a Fair Trade program.  If we had treated the commodities world from day one with a Fair Trade philosophy we wouldn’t be in this mess. As Ben and Jerry’s points out, only about 4% of the cocoa is stamped with a Fair Trade mark.  That isn’t enough for them or any bigger player to use exclusively.  BUT, if we had a separate certification program like was promised by those who signed the Harkin-Engel protocol then it wouldn’t matter that only 4% of the cocoa was fair trade.  Remember that no Fair Trade program is designed to eradicate or re-mediate the current problems of the worst forms of child labor in our cocoa or any other sector for that matter.  In some ways, its an easy out for corporations.  If the Ben and Jerry company could be real heroes by announcing that while switching to fair trade sourced products when available they are ALSO going to their suppliers and to our DOL and to Harkin’s and Engel’s office and demand a Certification program that insure that the cocoa they buy is slave free whether it is fair trade or not.

 

Child labor and our Election

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To us outside of the Washington D.C. bubble it often seems as if not much gets done in normal times.  With the elections coming in 6 months it now seems like nothing is going to get done.  Perhaps, I am wrong, and if I am, please email me and I will correct myself in this post but, I am sure I am not alone in this sentiment.  So as much as I’d like to do a continuation on our EO 13126 campaign, I think were are getting too close to the election to expect any public servant do anything with their time other than campaign for their own positions.  That, though doesn’t keep us activists from continuing on with solving this issue.  So while our public servants are busy with the elections, we are going to focus on the private sector.  More to come on that, in the meantime the following came from the DOL a couple of weeks ago.

Labor Department statement on withdrawal of proposed rule dealing with children who work in agricultural vocations

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor today issued the following statement regarding the withdrawal of a proposed rule dealing with children who work in agricultural vocations:

“The Obama administration is firmly committed to promoting family farmers and respecting the rural way of life, especially the role that parents and other family members play in passing those traditions down through the generations. The Obama administration is also deeply committed to listening and responding to what Americans across the country have to say about proposed rules and regulations.

“As a result, the Department of Labor is announcing today the withdrawal of the proposed rule dealing with children under the age of 16 who work in agricultural vocations.

“The decision to withdraw this rule – including provisions to define the ‘parental exemption’ – was made in response to thousands of comments expressing concerns about the effect of the proposed rules on small family-owned farms. To be clear, this regulation will not be pursued for the duration of the Obama administration.

“Instead, the Departments of Labor and Agriculture will work with rural stakeholders – such as the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Farmers Union, the Future Farmers of America, and 4-H – to develop an educational program to reduce accidents to young workers and promote safer agricultural working practices.”

 

 

Loving the media coverage this Easter!

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     Slave Free Chocolate has been around for going on 6 years now.  Every year we see an increase in media coverage but it has really soared this last 12 months in the US!  Those that make up Slave Free Chocolate are if anything persistent. At times it seems we just roll a marshmallow down the street with a stick, but we remind ourselves that all important change in the world started this way.  We also know that when this issue can be scratched off the list of areas where the worst forms of child labor exists, then the sense of success can be transferred to other areas like cotton and coltrane whose fights are just beginning.

     As an example we’ve seen this from the Huffington Post: 5 Ways to Insure your Holiday Treats are Slave Free. and How many slaves produced your Seder?  From the CNN Food Blog Eatocracy: The Bitter Truth Behind the Chocolate in your Easter Basket.  From HAHA,JK: Slavery Chocolate Extremely Popular this Easter and from Bloggers like Heather Huffman with Dreaming of a Slave Free Easter.

   With all of this media coverage around Easter and Passover (supposedly the biggest chocolate buying holiday of the year) we will be able to leverage this awareness in our next campaign.

     So KUDOS to all of those currently  writing about this issue.  You are making out job as activists much easier.  I know we can scratch this one off of our list!

Call for Certification of Slavery Free Cocoa

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“A man never stands to tall as when he kneels to help a child” Knights of Pythagoras

    We are getting lots of questions in regards to the Press Releases and changes some of these big chocolate companies are making.  As Slave Free Chocolate does nothing but monitor and work on this issue, we can comfortably say that these companies wouldn’t have come as far as they did if it wasn’t for caring consumers using their voice, energy and dollar as a vote.    NGO’s such as Slave Free Chocolate are here as a resource but it’s the student groups, faith based organizations, proactive consumers, journalists and bloggers that are the catalyst to get these companies moving in the right direction.  Everybody who has participated in any activity is a hero to these kids who don’t even have a clue we are working on their behalf.   

   Our work, though, is actually getting more complicated.  It’s simply due to the fact that as the candy companies (Hershey, Nestle, Guittard etc.) announce their ethical labor initiatives through their involvement with fair trade organizations, they are skirting the most important piece of this which is certification.  Fair Trade is a wonderful program and Slave Free Chocolate supports it 100%.  As fair trade co-ops help improve the conditions of the farmer at the end of the supply chain, it doesn’t have the structure to directly remediate the worst forms of child labor including child slavery and trafficking in that supply chain.  That goes for organic cocoa as well.  As organic cocoa is less likely to have slave tainted cocoa, there is no guarantee as again there is no structure in organic farming to clean up a decades old mess of child trafficking.  Also, only about 5% of cocoa is fair trade.   Even if one of the big players committed to only using fair trade cocoa, currently there isn’t enough anyway.

   This is why the promise of a certification program can’t be left out.  Part of the original Harkin-Engel Protocol included a certification program which would state that the cocoa was free of the worst forms of child labor. Of course that costs money that was promised and never spent.  The structure though is in place, just not funded.  So whether those farms participated in a fair trade program or not  wasn’t  tied to eradicating the worst forms of child labor.  And remember, since fair trade programs don’t have a structure or funding for finding these kids and getting them back home.   Additionally,  there isn’t funding in fair trade co-ops to police every farm. 

    What is making our work harder is that these companies, the latest being Hershey’s, are announcing that they are coming out with a fair trade chocolate bar. Hershey’s is announcing the Bliss bar later this year.  As, yes, that is a step in the right direction it does not mean that if you are only committed to ethical chocolate, you can start popping M&M’s again.  Far from it, as Bliss is only one of many products and Hershey’s hasn’t addressed the issue of certification.  Participation in certification is something that they promised to fulfill when they signed the protocol.

   Our best tool as consumers is to buy only fair trade, organic or chocolate where the cocoa comes from other places than West Africa.  If we though truly want to scratch this one off the list of worst forms of child labor situations, we need to push for certification that is apart from fair trade and probably go back to the idea of legislation. 

 

 

On Hershey’s PR Release of January, 30th 2012

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On  January 31st  2012,  The Hershey Company made an announcement regarding child labor in their supply line.  Click here to read the whole statement.   Simply, two commitments have been made :

1.“Over the next five years, The Hershey Company will expand and accelerate programs to improve cocoa communities by investing $10 million  (Over the next 5 years) in West Africa and continuing to work with experts in agriculture, community development and government to achieve progress with cocoa farmers and their families”.

2. “Later this year, U.S. consumers will be able to purchase Hershey’s Bliss® products with 100 percent cocoa from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms. Rainforest Alliance Certified farms have met comprehensive sustainability standards that protect the environment and ensure the safety and well-being of workers, their families and communities.”

Let me first say that I commend Hershey’s on stepping up as far as they have.  Also, kudos to the NGO’s and people that put pressure on Hershey’s with various campaigns.   What though does this really mean?

So let’s look at commitment #1, the $10 million.  So that is $2 million a year.  If you read the recommendations in the 4th and Final Tulane Report you will see that this isn’t enough.  It really should be closer to $8 million a year per player (as in those that have signed the protocol).  The ICI alone needs $1 million a year for overhead alone so you get the idea.  But $2 million is more than zero.  I will address this later as more unfolds.

Commitment #2- Rain Forest Alliance.   Slave Free Chocolate is VERY pro Fair Trade Certified products.  Also, at this point, it’s the only tool that the consumer can use to vote with their dollar.   Simply, the principle behind the Fair Trade is a movement is to bring farmers and producers out of poverty by paying a higher price for their goods or commodities.  Along with a higher price comes a co-op system where the farmers and producers receive education and help so that they can afford to  fulfill the guidelines. These guidelines include rules of labor practices and in the case of children, the certification programs that align with the ILO convention 182.

Currently,  fair trade products amount to around $6 billion dollars of commodities and goods sold around the world and it is rising about 22% every year.  There are about 500 different fair trade labels.

Fair Trade programs though, don’t have in their infrastructure a program to re-mediate the worst forms of child labor.  Meaning, there are no funds allocated in a fair trade co-op to find trafficked children, get them to authorities and fund their trip back home or to someplace that will take care of them.  Although, ideally fair trade farms get paid more for their beans, it’s not enough of an increase to fund schools and hospitals for those kids working on these farms.  Also, fair trade co-ops provide guidelines for the farmers to better prosper but not to police the farms.

Is the fair trade movement today perfect?  No, nothing is. In fact, there is a lot of squabbling, splits and such going on right now.  The movement, though , is based on good intentions and their problems can and will be ironed out in time. More will be addressed in a different article.

What I want to point out it that buying fair trade beans is one thing, cleaning up the situation is West Africa is another.  Hershey’s soon to be announced Bliss Bar is all fine and dandy but it has nothing to do with getting these trafficked kids back home, getting the kids that fall under the worst forms of child labor back on a healthy track. That is what the $2 million is for and it is about 1/5 of where they need to be.  They know that.  They have copies of the 4th and Final Tulane report.

What we need is a certification program and/or Engel’s original legislation of “No Slavery Here” stamp that chocolate companies use in addition to their fair trade labels. Remember The Hershey Company is only one player in this.  We believe the quickest way to get everyone’s attention is to demand that the wording on EO13126 get’s fixed to included “And its derivative products.”