Tag Archives: child labor

Fairtrade Cocoa Goes Big League

cadburydairymilk

Cadbury, the popular British chocolate maker, just agreed to source Fairtrade cocoa for Cadbury Dairy Milk, the top-selling chocolate bar in the UK. The move effectively triples sales of Fairtrade cocoa for farmers in Ghana, where Cadbury sources from Kuapa Kokoo.  It was one of the first cooperatives there to be Fairtrade certified in the ’90s.  In the late ’90s, Kuapa Kokoo also started its own brand, Divine Chocolate, to keep more of the value that typically gets skimmed by middle-men and big chocolate companies.  Erin Gorman, CEO of the Divine Chocolate USA, welcomes the move, which validates its model of Fairtrade sourcing.   Bama Athreya, executive director of the activist NGO International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF), also supports the development

Read the show transcript

How to End Child Labor on West African Cocoa Farms

Bama Athreya
Bama Athreya
CWR co-host Bill Baue speaks with Mil Niepold, senior policy advisor at Verité, a supply chain monitoring and auditing nonprofit that serves as secretariat of the International Cocoa Verification Board, and Bama Athreya, executive director of the International Labor Rights Forum, an advocacy organization that combats child labor and has collaborated with other NGOs and Fair Trade chocolate companies to propose a “Commitment to Ethical Cocoa Sourcing. Niepold and Athreya present diverse views on how best to address child labor in the cocoa supply chain in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana–Niepold promotes Verité’s multistakeholder initiative supported by industry and West African governments, while Athreya points to progress occurring outside of industry and government influence.

Verité

International Cocoa Verification Board

International Labor Rights Forum

Commitment to Ethical Cocoa Sourcing

February 4, 2008 Fortune article by Christian Parenti: “Chocolate’s Bittersweet Economy: Seven years after the industry agreed to abolish child labor, little progress has been made”

CWR Headlines:

–‘Kyoto II’ climate talks open in Bangkok,
–Carbon prices rising, carbon markets are booming
–Produce giant Ag-Mark settles a pesticide exposure case

Human Trafficking and the Global Slave Trade

David-BatstoneUniversity of San Francisco Ethics Professor David Batstone speaks about his research in writing “Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade–and How We Can Fight It” and his launching of the Not for Sale campaign to help end human trafficking.

David Arkless, senior vice president of global corporate affairs for Manpower, discusses the Athens Ethical Principles, which commit companies to a zero tolerance policy toward human trafficking anywhere in the supply chain for companies. Manpower was the first company to sign the Principles in January 2006, and in December the company challenged 1,000 companies to join in signing the Principles.

Not for Sale Campaign

Athens Ethical Principles

Manpower

SocialFunds article: Alien Tort Claims Act Lawsuit Alleges Slavery and Child Labor on Liberian Firestone Plantation

SocialFunds article: Marriott Combats Child Sexual Exploitation