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In 2000, Americans ate approximately 3.3 billion pounds of chocolate and spent $13.7 billion on the consumption of chocolate. Mars is one of the largest American chocolate companies and a leader in the global chocolate industry. They are the fourth largest private company in the US and their three owners are worth a combined $31.2 billion. Though the chocolate industry is a very lucrative business, the majority of the farmers that grow and harvest cocoa are living on the brink of debt and starvation. Cocoa is a billion dollar industry yet the annual revenue the cocoa farmers receive is between thirty and one hundred and ten dollars per household. West African countries are dependent on cocoa. The six largest cocoa producing countries are the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil, and Cameroon. In Ghana cocoa accounts for forty percent of total export revenues and two million farmers are employed in cocoa production. The Ivory Coast supplies forty three percent of the world's cocoa. As a result of the low income families have no choice but to send their children to work. At times the children will stay home and work at a local field, but many times children are sent away to farms and plantations. Parents send their children away believing that in exchange of their work and labor, they will receive an education, something their parents cannot afford to give them. When the children arrive at the farms it becomes clear that what the conditions that they were promised were lies. They are forced to work from sun up to sun down seven days a week harvesting the cocoa. According to a USAID and IITA study in 2002, an estimated 284,000 children are working in cocoa farms doing hazardous tasks such as using machetes and applying pesticides and insecticides without the proper protection. It's estimated that more than sixty percent of working children on the West African Coast cocoa farms are below the age of fourteen and sixty six percent of them have never attended school. This is a problem that needs to change, and there is hope.
The movement of Fair Trade is sweeping across the globe and is bring hope to families that had previously none. Fair Trade promises families sustainability in a number of different ways. Farmers receive a salary that is enough to cover their basic needs; food, shelter, clothing, education and medical care. Workers are guaranteed freedom of association and safe working conditions, women are encouraged to participate in the leadership of the cooperatives, and human rights and child labor laws are strictly enforced. Importers purchase from Fair Trade cooperatives as directly as possible eliminating unnecessary middlemen and empowering farmers to develop the business capacity necessary to complete in the global market place.
TransFair USA is an independent nonprofit organization that is a member of Fair Trade Labeling Organizations International (FLO) and is the only Fair Trade certifier of the US. They audits transactions between US companies offering Fair Trade Certified products and the international suppliers from whom they source, in order to guarantee that the farmers and farm workers behind Fair Trade Certified goods were paid a fair, above-market price. In addition, annual inspections conducted by FLO ensure that strict socioeconomic development criteria are being met using increased Fair Trade revenues.
In 2001, after reading shocking media reports concerning the chocolate industry, Representative Eliot Engel (D-New York) proposed a federal system to certify qualified cocoa products as slave-free. The measure passed in the House of Representatives -- and created a public relations scare for Mars, Hershey's, Nestle, and other chocolate manufacturers who wouldn't qualify for the label. So before the bill could reach the Senate, the Chocolate Manufacturers Association hired former senators George Mitchell and Bob Dole to lobby against it.
The industry sidelined the bill by crafting a document, in negotiation with Engel and Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), which would have the industry voluntarily adopt key portions of it. This compromise, the Harkin-Engel Protocol, permitted the companies to escape the label mandate by accepting a four-year plan that would end the industry's worst abuses by July 2005.
Two months after the Protocol was signed, more than 70 advocacy groups collectively known as the Child Labor Coalition asked corporations to commit to ending exploitive child labor on cocoa farms worldwide -- not just in West Africa -- and to ensure fair compensation for farming and agricultural work. The average cocoa farming family earns between $30 and $110 dollars per household member a year.
To follow through with the protocol's initiatives the corporations formed the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI). The partnership is made up of NGO's, trade unions, cocoa processors and major chocolate brands. The members include Barry Callebaut, Cadbury Schweppes, Dignite, Education International, European Cocoa Association, Ferrero, Free the Slaves, Global March, Hershey Foods, International Confectionary Association, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers Associations (IUF), Kraft Foods, Mars Incorporated, Nestle, US National Consumers League and Toms. ICI is an independent body, established under Swiss law in 2002, governed by a Board that reflects the partnership principle. Nine members are drawn from the cocoa industry, seven are from civil society groups, and one is a Swiss lawyer. The International Labour Organization (ILO) acts as an advisor to the Board. ICI works from community action to national policy. With the active support of ICI and its local partners, communities develop action plans to address the underlying causes of the worst forms of child labour and forced labour in a sustainable way. At the same time ICI actively supports a positive national policy environment and effective capacity to reinforce change.
The ICI has a number of activities that they focus on. First they work on building awareness among communities of the need to eliminate abusive labour practices, in local cocoa growing communities. They support community initiatives t o improve access to education, protect children and change labour practices. They focus on Training of key local partners, including NGOs, labour inspectors, local government officials, customs officers, police officers, and industry, on child and forced labor issues. They support rehabilitation centers for trafficked children and child workers and national authorities in strengthening policy and legal framework. They help organize local and international workshops and symposia, to share information and lessons learned. Finally they work on increasing awareness internationally and advocating for change.
Mars Incorporated is very involved with ICI. They are also working very closely with a number of other organizations to help solve the problem of child and forced labour in the chocolate industry. They work to improve the livelihoods of cocoa farmers and their families by participating in the Sustainable Tree Crops Program (STCP). The STCP is a public-private partnership between the cocoa and chocolate industry and government supporters. Operating in West Africa the STCP has successfully promoted farmers' organizations and cooperatives leading to improvements designed to help farmers achieve better prices for their cocoa. Through its Farmer Field Schools Program (FFS) , the STCP also helps farmers gain increased yields by improving farming techniques. Experts in sustainable agroforestry, agroecology, and agroeconomics have come together to create "schools without walls." These in the field schools use a formalized curriculum to provide cocoa farmers with relevant training in areas such as improved productivity, pest and disease management and crop diversification, all factors that can significantly strengthen cocoa farm income. In addition, during the 15 to 20 week program, specific lesson modules address social issues that confront farmers and their families- such as school attendance and defining safe and appropriate working practices. The goal of STCP is to improve the economic and social well being of smallholders and the environment sustainability to tree crops farms.
Mars is also a member of the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), a global organization of cocoa and chocolate companies, processors, traders, and others who are dedicated to improving the conditions of cocoa farmers and the communities in which they live. Members provide financial contributions as well as technical expertise and guidance to partners in West Africa and other program locations. Mars sees education as the key to the sustainability of rural livelihoods. Working alongside Winrock International and others, Mars is helping children from cocoa farming communities as they learn to become the farmers of tomorrow. Programs offer access to vocational skills that will be relevant for the children and their communities now and in the years ahead.
Another company from the chocolate industry that is involved in improving the sustainability and rights of the farmers of cocoa is Ferrero. Ferrero is a member of the ICI but is also associated with the Chocolate, Biscuit & confectionary Industry of the EU. (CAOBISCO) and the Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate and Confectionary Association (BCCCA), both of which are working towards improving labor conditions and providing sustainability in the farmer's lives by implementing the WCF's certification process. Cocoa certification is a transparent, credible, and ongoing program that reports on labor conditions in the West African cocoa farming sector. The cocoa certification program also measures the effectiveness of work to ensure that cocoa is grown responsibly without the worst forms of child labor or forced adult labor. The Certification process addresses two principle questions: What child and adult labour issues exist on cocoa farms in West Africa? And are steps being taken to address these issues? How are the lives of children and families on cocoa farms improving? Cocoa certification will include data collections at the community and farm level that provides a statistically representative view of child labor and forced adult labor problems. The process will also include transparent, publicly available annual reporting on the findings from the data collection and on the impact of efforts to improve labor conditions. It will include remediation- a range of activities designed to improve the well being of children and address the issues brought to light by the survey. Finally the process will end with independent verification of the data collection, reporting, and efforts to improve labor conditions.
Though the organizations and efforts of the chocolate industry has put to improving the lives of the farmers of cocoa, it has not put a stop to the problem. There are still hundreds of thousands of child working on farmers in West Africa because they don't have any other choice. In June 2002, more than 200 faith-based, labor, environmental, child labor, and student groups signed a letter supporting Global Exchange and Campaign for Human Rights campaign demands – asking Mars to offer Fair Trade Certified Chocolate. In 2004 they requested a meeting with Mars to discuss Fair Trade purchasing, the meeting unfortunately never happened.
Despite such overwhelming appeals for Fair Trade, Mars continues to refuse to offer Fair Trade Certified chocolate, and reiterates total faith in the industry Protocol and other developmental projects. Despite the good intentions behind these efforts, none ensures the minimum price producers need, and the independent certification that consumers want. At the same time, though there has been no campaign set against them, Ferrero has not chosen the make any Fair Trade products.
Though Mars and Ferrero are both members of the ICI, I don't find that they are doing enough to promoting more sustainable living for the farmers that they are effecting though their sales and products. The ICI is comprised of a number of different board members from different chocolate corporations to NGO's. The board ultimately makes the initiatives and the goals of ICI and the fact that the co-president of the board is an executive member from Mars is very suspicious. The co-president along with the other co-president makes all the final decisions and plans for the initiative, meaning if they didn't like a goal or policy they could simply throw it out. Now there is no evidence saying that all the things that the ICI said they have done is not true, but I just don't understand why if they are going through all this trouble to build schools and improve the conditions of all these farmers and their families, why don't they go all the way – they have the funds. Also while doing research to find out the different initiatives and organizations that they are involved, it was extremely hard to find.. Since the information was so hard to come by for both companies, I wonder why they don't put the information out where it is easier to get access to. Wouldn't they want people to know about how they are bringing sustainability to others lives, or are they hiding something?
Also on the certification process that the BCCCA and CAOBISCO are promoting, though it may seem like a great plan and I believe that it has some great goals, however I believe that it is missing one very important aspect for true change. Never does the certification process ever talk about increase in wages. Come to think of it none of the companies that either Mars or Ferrero are working with ever talk about increase the income of the farmers. The true under lying factor in the problem of slavery is poverty and without a livable wage child labor and forced labor is going to continue to exist no matter how many organization work towards improving labor and education of the children. Also the BCCCA says that they are trying to promote fair trade, which is why they are going through this whole certification process. If they truly wanted to promote fair trade then why don't they go through the entire fair trade process se t up by Trans America, the official fair trade certifier?
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