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.

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.”

     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!

    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. 

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 4^th 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 4^th 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.”

In 1999 the US Department of Labor issued Executive Order 13126. “Prohibition of Acquisition of Products Produced by Forced or  Indentured Child Labor,” was signed on June 12, 1999. The EO is intended  to ensure that federal agencies enforce laws relating to forced or indentured  child labor in the procurement process. It requires the Department of Labor, in  consultation with the Departments of State and Homeland Security, to publish  and maintain a list of products, by country of origin, which the three  Departments have a reasonable basis to believe, might have been mined, produced  or manufactured by forced or indentured child labor. Under the procurement  regulations implementing the Executive Order, federal contractors who supply  products on a list published by the Department of Labor must certify that they  have made a good faith effort to determine whether forced or indentured child  labor was used to produce the items listed.  Please see about link for detailed information.

There is a “mistake” on this order in regards to chocolate.  Cocoa  beans from The Ivory Coast and Nigeria is listed. Yet, companies like Hershey’s, Cargill and ADM to name a few who buy Ivory Coast cocoa beans still supply our federal government with their chocolate.  During my trip to capitol hill I found out why.  The federal government doesn’t buy cocoa beans, it buy it’s derivative product chocolate. If that ins’t a bunch smoke and mirrors malarkey, then what is?

We believe that in  order to be in line with its intention, these words need to be added: ”and its derivative products.”  If the big candy players can no longer sell to the feds, it would really wake them up.  Additionally, the bids for chocolate would go to ethical chocolate companies!!  What a great way to give them opportunity they deserve.

A powerful way to get our government in action is to appeal individually to our elected officials.  It seems that if we all write the exact same letter with the exact same subject line (email or written), at the same time, then the offices of our public servants have to take note. Addressing the “mistake” in Executive Order is something in their scope as a public servant.

It should take only about 15 minutes to send 3 emails. One to each of your Senators and one to your district Congressman on either Feb. the 13th or 14th. Here is a link that will lead you to the contact information of your politicians.  Below is the letter. Please spread the word it’s a numbers game at this point.  Thanks!!!!

THE LETTER WE SHOULD ALL USE:

Subject:  Put some love in Exec. Order 13126 this Valentine’s Day

Dear __________

As your constituent, I am writing you on behalf of DOL Executive Order 13126: “Prohibition of Acquisition of Products Produced by Forced or Indentured Child Labor”, signed on June 12, 1999.   It’s wonderful that we live in a country concerned for the global welfare of children, unfortunately  there is a mistake on this order that needs to be fixed.

Currently, listed is cocoa from Cote d’ Ivoire and Nigeria. For this to have any effect at all I would like to see the words “and its derivative products” included on that line.  To my knowledge the federal government has never purchased raw cocoa beans, but it does, through procurement channels, purchase chocolate where the cocoa originated from the two countries in question.  I personally see no ethical difference between the raw beans and chocolate.

If your office is unfamiliar with the current situation regarding worst forms of child labor situation in West Africa, may I suggest you take a look at Tulane’s latest Report on the Harkin-Engel Protocol.

Adding “and its derivative products” will mean that our federal government will have to shift purchasing to smaller chocolate companies that only use ethically sourced cocoa.  I see that as a win for both the sake of the children and a bonus for the many small business that would love to have more opportunity for growth.

Thank you in advance for your help.

• Vancouver Sun  ”Has missing jounalist been found in The Ivory Coast?”
• The Canadian Press   ” Ivory Coast authorities find remains; may be missing Franco-Canadian journalist”
• The Associated Press ”Ivory Coast finds Remains; Maybe Missing Reporter”

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.