Mars, Nestle, and Hershey's Moving Towards Sustainable, Ethical Chocolate!
Oxfam Action Corps of MN has spent the last three months gathering petitions and raising awareness for more sustainable and ethical cocoa production. Four Companies have been of target interest and three have already responded! Nestle, Mars and Mondelez have been brought to light by Oxfam America's Behind the Brands Campaign and Hershey's has been of interest through our work with Global Exchange.
Mars and Nestle have responded to Oxfam with commitment to be more involved with how women are treated in their cocoa supply chains, to commit to a plan of action, to work to sign on to the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles, and to work with industry organizations to address gender issues. (Learn more about their commitments here.) We are very excited with the positive impact this will have on so many lives of women and communities around the world! Thank you so much for contributing to this important movement!
However, we must continue to apply pressure to Mondelez who have yet to respond. Help us maintain the momentum by calling on Mondelez International (maker of products like Oreos), to follow suit. Please Add your voice today.
Hershey Commits to Use Some Fair Trade Chocolate in Products!
Hershey has recently announced its commitment to use
some fair trade chocolate in some of its products. Specifically, according to Global Exchange,
Hershey “announced its next step toward 100%
certified sustainable cocoa by committing to source cocoa through three of the
world’s most recognized cocoa certifying organizations, including Fair Trade
USA.” Fair Trade USA is a third-party
organization that certifies that the farmers in developing countries who are
harvesting food, are paid a fair wage for their labor.
Thank you for the work that you have done to pressure Hershey to
take this major step! Thank you for attending “The Dark Side of
Chocolate” documentary viewing in February, and spreading the word about the
existence of child labor in Africa, within the chocolate industry. Thank you for signing petitions to Hershey,
in which you recommended that it eliminate child labor in its chocolate supply
chain and develop fair trade chocolate bars.
It is because of your actions
and the actions of like-minded activists that Hershey has committed to use some
fair trade chocolate in some of its products! Your work is truly an example of the power
that each of us has to be a changemaker and create a better world for our
neighbors in developing countries.
You can access Global Exchange’s full
article about Hershey at http://www.globalexchange.org/blogs/fairtrade/2013/03/22/victory-hersheys-choose-fair-trade/ . We are supportive of
Global Exchange’s efforts to monitor Hershey’s next steps.
