Do You Really Want Change?
Many of the familiar candy bars we’ve grown up with, passed out for
Halloween, and chocolate we’ve baked into holiday treats, contain
ingredients created by enslaved child labor. This candy is available
now at a store near you, but the low, low prices are only possible
because of business practices that would turn your stomach.
Lawyers representing Nestle and Cargill were in the Supreme Court
yesterday because the companies for decades chose ingredients that
they knew were grown and processed with enslaved child labor.
The largest, most profitable multinational chocolate corporations
confirm they were aware the children were working without pay or
liberty, and that they were not working on their own family farms.
These corporations have publicly confirmed that they are buying
ingredients that they know use internationally trafficked children.
The case before the Supreme Court is not about whether these practices
exist today, or who knew about them. The question is why these large,
profitable US corporations have been able to get away with this for so
long without accountability or consequences.
They have long acknowledged the problem but have made no meaningful
progress in solving it, despite having the resources to do so.
Let’s be honest. Choosing to not take action will continue the problem
It doesn’t resolve it.
Choosing profits over ethics prolongs unacceptable colonial traditions.
Can we, as Americans, finally acknowledge that these corporations are
not going to change unless there are consequences? At what point is
the cost of not actually doing what is ethical, decent and right
become too much, unacceptable and intolerable? These corporations are
making conscious choices to see how long they can get away with it.
At what point do the corporation’s continued broken promises and lack
of meaningful action have consequences? How long are we going to allow
them to get away with this?
These are important questions the Supreme Court and US citizens need
to address right now.
This case before the Supreme Court is about making these corporations
accountable and having consequences for not really doing anything
about it. Shouldn’t there be consequences if that is the only thing
that will finally make these corporations do what they promised and
could have changed long ago?
These US corporations shouldn’t be exempt from laws and accountability
because they pretend that they are going to resolve this issue at some
date pushed further and further into the future when all they have
proven to us so far is they have made a choice to try to get away with
it for as long as they can.
Shouldn’t the US judicial system hold these US corporations legally
accountable for their actions (and knowingly choosing to not take
meaningful action) even when they occur out of sight in a faraway
country?
When is the US Justice System, and laws of our nation that make the US
such an economic powerhouse, going to give these corporations
meaningful consequences so they will finally make the change?
When US corporations enjoy the many benefits like freedom of speech,
laws and judicial process that are fundamental to doing business (such
as enforceable contracts and reliable, dependable financial
institutions), as well as use of our public assets (from our taxpayer
investment in roads, bridges, and airwaves to defense spending
investment that created GPS and the Internet they use), shouldn’t
these corporations also be held responsible too?
Here is our opportunity to do what is right. Our US corporations
should reflect American leadership and values.
America has a choice to make. This is our time to lead and not follow.
Please let our US Supreme Court justices know how important our
integrity and values are as a nation, a people and a US corporation.
Let us be leaders of doing what is right so we can hold our heads
high.
If you would like to support more ethical chocolate companies, put
your money where your mouth is and vote with your dollars,
www.slavefreechocolate.org has many suggestions.
Erin Andrews
Founder and CEO of indi chocolate (Seattle, WA)
Co-Founder of Cotton Tree Chocolate (a Belize company)