Is Hershey's Secret Ingredient Child Slavery?

by Amanda Kloer · 2009-06-23 08:24:00 UTC
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What do you think is the secret ingredient of a Hershey bar? Sugar, milk, or cocoa? What about the slave labor of thousands of children?  Across Western Africa, and especially in the Ivory Coast, children are held in slavery and exploitative labor situations. And it's all in the name of chocolate produced by the world's leading corporations.   

Children enslaved and abused in the cocoa industry are made to work excruciatingly long days, and are often beaten if they try and leave or refuse to work.  Many have been forced to pick cocoa with open wounds, or covered in their own excrement.  The cocoa farms of the Ivory Coast where some of the worst cases of child slavery and labor exploitation have been found are also the world's largest supplier of cocoa, making up 40% of the global market.  The Hershey Company, on their website, specifically mentions sourcing cocoa from the Ivory Coast and Western Africa.

Right now, there is something you and the Hershey Company can do to help ensure that child slavery isn't the secret ingredient in a Hershey Bar.  Ask Hershey to end child slavery and go fair trade. The best way to end child slavery in the chocolate industry is for major chocolate companies like Hershey to buy Fair Trade Certified cocoa.  Other large chocolate companies like Cadbury and Mars have recently made a commitment to ending child slavery in Africa by buying Fair Trade.  However, Hershey has not agreed to any third-party certification programs for their cocoa supply. In fact, Hershey since owns the license to produce Cadbury products in the US, Hershey could become a global leader in Fair Trade cocoa sourcing. But the Hershey Company needs to know that we want an end to child slavery in our chocolate! We want our cocoa to be to be Fair Trade certified!

Please, take five minutes to tell Hershey how important it is for them to help end child slavery in Africa by calling them today at 1-800-468-1714 as part of the International Labor Rights Forum's call-in campaign, or by sending a letter to the Vice President of Marketing and Vice President of Global Sourcing for the Hershey Company here. 

Together, we can help end child slavery in cocoa.  Because exploitation should never be the secret ingredient.

 

Amanda Kloer is a Change.org Editor and has been a full-time abolitionist in several capacities for seven years. Follow her on Twitter @endhumantraffic
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