Kraft: Don't Bury Cadbury's Ethics

by Cameron Scott · 2010-01-19 15:57:00 UTC
Topics:

Back in 2005, when Hershey's bought Bay Area-based Scharffen Berger Chocolate, I interviewed the co-founder, John Scharffenberger, about the buyout, looking for a gotcha moment that would allow me to write a piece for the local muckraking paper, the Bay Guardian, where I was then working.

He told me that Hershey's had agreed to let Scharffen Berger continue to be autonomous, and thereby to produce ethically-sourced and delicious chocolate. There was no gotcha to be had ... yet. But eventually, Hershey's brought Scharffen Berger into its fold, forcing the local company to abandon its Bay Area headquarters and its sustainable bent.

Chocolate lovers began waiting for a similar gotcha moment a few months ago when Kraft began jockeying to buy Cadbury -- which, while not as delicious as Scharffen Berger, had built a reputation for ethical sourcing.

Indeed, in the long negotiations that have followed, Cadbury's desire to hold on to its aggressive corporate social responsibility policy has reportedly been a sticking point.

Today, the deal went through, and Change.org is asking Kraft to agree to maintain Cadbury's CSR policy.

Cameron Scott writes The Thin Green Line blog at SFGate (San Francisco Chronicle).
PREVIOUS STORY:
Weighing the Risks of GM Food
NEXT STORY:
Join the Social Media Day of Action to Rid Girl Scout Cookies of Forest-Destroying Palm Oil

COMMENTS (1)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.