ADM, Kraft, Godiva, And Fowler’s Chocolate In 2005, three Malian nationals who were forced into working on cocoa plantations in the Ivory Coast filed a class-action lawsuit in a federal court in California claiming that ADM, Cargill (in 2015 Cargill acquired ADM’s global chocolate business for an enterprise value of $440 million) and Nestlé — through purchasing cocoa harvested by child laborers — “aided and abetted” slavery, child labor, and torture. As the decade-old lawsuit against ADM continues, one of the world’s largest processors of cocoa liquor, powder and butter sold its cocoa business for $1.3 billion in August 2015 to Olam International Ltd, a Singapore-based agribusiness company. In 2012, Cadbury and Kraft Foods owner Mondelez International pledged $400 million to improve the lives of cocoa farmers and create a sustainable cocoa economy. But the efforts by the company, which has struggled for years to take forced labor out of its supply chain, have been ineffective so far. More than 60% of the world’s cocoa, including Godiva’s, is sourced from West Africa. Unlike other major chocolate makers, Godiva has not made a commitment to trace its cocoa supply chain and work with locals to ensure it has not been harvested by child labor. Though it announced its committed to sustainable sourcing of 100% of its cocoa supply by 2020, it is unclear what concrete steps the company is taking to ensure fair payments, safe working conditions, and no child labor. While Fowler’s Chocolate condemns child slavery, it continues to use Ivory Coast cocoa and can’t guarantee consumers that their chocolate products are slavery-free. A 2010 BBC investigation into the supply chain that delivers much of the chocolate sold in the UK, not just found evidence of human trafficking and child slave labour, it also found that there is no guarantee, despite safeguards, even with chocolate marketed as Fairtrade, that child labour has not been involved in the supply chain.Have a heart! Don’t buy chocolate from areas with the worst forms of child labor & slavery! https://t.co/hWKAffGr9l pic.twitter.com/DYYty46j5S
— Food Empowerment (@FoodIsPower) February 6, 2016
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