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End child labor in cocoa: big chocolate companies must act now!
After nearly 20 years of big chocolate companies promising to end child labor in cocoa, children are still illegally working to produce the cocoa that ends up in chocolate bars.
To make matters worse, children are being exposed to harmful pesticides that can cause lifelong health problems, including neurological development delays and cancer, and poison the planet.
Chocolate is a $100 billion per year industry, but most cocoa farmers live on less than $1 per day. Cocoa farmers deserve to be paid a living income and children deserve to grow up free from the harms of child labor.
Join Green America and our partners in calling on the world’s ten biggest chocolate companies, including Hershey, Godiva, Mars, and Nestle, to finally put an end to child labor in cocoa and an end to deforestation!
To Nestle, Hershey, Mars, Lindt & Sprungli, Godiva (Pladis), Ferrero, Mondelez, Meiji Co, Orion Corp, and Ezaki Glico Co,
I am deeply concerned that child labor and deforestation are still happening in the cocoa industry! No child should be engaged in exploitative and illegal work so multi-billion-dollar companies can profit off chocolate bars.
After nearly 20 years and many broken promises, chocolate companies must stop profiting off child labor and environmental destruction. These companies must:
- Pay cocoa farmers a living income within the next five years.
Farmer poverty is a leading cause of a high prevalence of child labor. Paying a fair price for cocoa will help to end child labor. - Scale Up Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation Systems (CLMRS) to reach 100% of cocoa supply chains and prevent child labor.
CLMRS programs, working with local communities, have been successful in identifying cases of child labor, including cases of forced and trafficked child labor, and returning children to school. This approach must be scaled to cover 100% of cocoa sourced, including direct and indirect supplies, and it should be accompanied by preventative measures to reduce child labor and child trafficking, such as education and awareness raising efforts. - Increase Transparency and Traceability.
Industry has made progress on both traceability and transparency; however, all companies need to publicly disclose all the cooperatives they source from. Additionally, we encourage all companies to reach 100% traceability of their direct and indirect supply chains down to the farm level within the next five years. - End all deforestation, regardless of legality, in both direct and indirect supply chains.
The economic pressures on cocoa farmers have forced them to push deeper into West African forests to meet production demands, contributing to extensive environmental damage and continued use of child labor to clear land. All companies must support robust agroforestry practices where deforestation has already occurred. - Engage in a rapid and large-scale reduction in pesticide usage.
Pesticides pose a risk to the health of all child laborers – including those in forced labor – surrounding communities, and communal resources, such as water and soil. The continued and extensive use of pesticides is poisoning children and their environments, taking away their futures and their future livelihoods. Farmers need to be trained in pesticide reduction and then elimination.
Green America, 1612 K St NW Ste 600, Washington DC 20006, 1-800-58-GREEN
www.greenamerica.org