EURweb |
THE CHOCOLATE/SLAVERY CONNECTION: Is this issue Black History in the making?
An EUR columnist calls for a boycott on Valentine's Day
Steffanie Rivers, an EUR contributing columnist and the catalyst of the boycott, also is organizing a protest in front of M&M/Mars Company headquarters near Washington, DC. M&M/Mars is the largest chocolate company in the world with annual sales of $16 billion.
“M&M/Mars Company owners are contributing to child slave labor practices today in Africa because they refuse to pay cocoa farmers fair prices for their product,” Rivers said.
She said their act of omission has a ripple effect.
“When farmers make little to no profit on their cocoa, they pay farm workers – mostly school-age children – no money for their year round labor.”
Much like in the U.S. tobacco industry, fair trade cooperatives guarantee a minimum price paid for products. Coffee beans and bananas are products successfully sold through international cooperatives.
“When children are forced to work for little to no pay and they’re kept from getting a quality education, everyone involved is contributing to the creation of a permanent underclass. That’s mental and physical abuse no matter how you look at it.”
Not only does M&M/Mars hold the distinction as the largest chocolate company in the world, it’s the fourth largest, privately owned company in the United States. The company’s three owners (members of the Mars family) are worth more than $10 billion each. With money like that, Rivers says they can afford to pay Ivory Coast farmers fair prices on the front end for their cocoa without raising consumer prices for their chocolate on the back end. Americans spend more than $13 million every year on chocolate products. Most of that money is spent during Valentine’s Day, Easter and Halloween.
Rivers is calling for a 28-day chocolate fast starting Feb. 1st. Valentine’s Day, the biggest moneymaker in the chocolate industry, is two weeks away.
Rivers said saying no to chocolate could improve the health and personal wealth of consumers, as well as increase their collective bargaining power with M&M/Mars.
Readthe full story via Steffanie's column, HERE.
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