Sunday, February 18, 2007

Fair Trade Chocolate, Help Spread the Word

Nestle and Mars have been implicated in using child labor for farming cocoa. I would like to say a liitle about this due to the fact that I am a firm believer in using freedom of speech as one of my privileges for living here in the US. Remember when Walmart and the Cathy Lee Gifford story came out? A lot of us applauded her for refusing to put her name on items where she knew children were being exploited. Well people, Nestle and their cocoa farms are doing the same thing but no celebrity rebuttle. Do we have to call Leonardo DeCaprio on this too? This is an exerpt from an article done by www.globalexchange.org on the subject:
"With an annual sales of over $65 billion, Nestle SA is not only one of the world's largest manufacturers of chocolate products but also the third largest exporter of cocoa from regions affected by forced and abusive child labor. Through its subsidiary Nestle Cote d'Ivoire, Nestle maintains distribution, administrative and sales offices throughout the Ivory Coast, even as it claims to have little idea where its cocoa comes from or what the conditions are like on the farms with which it regularly does business."

Corporate-types like Nestle seem to have a way of not knowing what is going on when confronted with their exploitive ways. I hope we all take this into consideration when purchasing one of the most consumed items in America. We should ban this like we have banned conflict-free diamonds coming into the country. Children don't have choices in what they are told to do in these countries and corporations like Nestle should be doing a better job of staying aware and make an effort to change practices that have come to their attention by the public.

To find out more, please visit these sites:

www.globalexchange.org/getInvolved/actnow/nestleslavery.html

www.lwr.org/chocolate/index.asp


No comments: