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Hershey's: Be Fair!

It has been almost a decade since major chocolate companies committed to ending abusive child labor, forced labor and trafficking in their cocoa supply chains, but these abuses continue today. While many major companies have started to work with third party, independent organizations to trace their cocoa and institute labor standards among their suppliers, the Hershey Company lags behind all of its competitors in this area.

Tell Hershey to Be Fair! and source fair trade cocoa!

For more information on the need for fair trade cocoa, please read Fair World Project's article Chocolate: the Bitter and the Sweet.

Subject:

Your Letter:

As a conscientious chocolate consumer I am writing you to urge you to source more certified Fair Trade ingredients. Fair Trade assures me that the chocolate I buy is not produced with forced or child labor. Fair Trade is also an important marketplace mechanism to provide fair wages to farmers and producers, avoid dangerous agrichemicals, while channeling essential community-directed funding for much needed development projects. Fair Trade facilitates direct relationships with producer groups and include pre-harvest credits or funding.

Consumer demand for Fair Trade products in the United States is steadily growing with over $1 billions in sales in 2010 and close to 10,000 Fair Trade products. With major manufacturers, from Nestlé to Green & Black’s and Ben & Jerry’s committing to sourcing 100% Fair Trade, it is clear that consumers the marketplace are ready for more Fair Trade. Additionally, the emergence of new reputable Fair Trade certifiers provides businesses with more options for certifying their products sourced both abroad and at home.

IMO’s Fair For Life Fairtrade certification (www.fairforlife.net) is a new fair trade labeling initiative in the marketplace that focuses on entire companies and all their major supply chains.  Mission-driven fair trade companies such as Dr. Bronner’s, Equal Exchange, Theo Chocolate and Guayaki are all certified fair trade through IMO’s Fair For Life certification program.  Many more dedicated fair trade companies are moving to the IMO FFL certification so they can distinguish themselves as fully dedicated brands rather than just offering a few fair trade products.  IMO’s FFL certification requires a company-wide audit of all products and supply chains in order to earn the FFL seal on labels, which ensures over 95% of their products by sales volume have a majority of Fairtrade content,

The Agricultural Justice Project (AJP) (www.agriculturaljusticeproject.org) is a new certification that focuses on domestic fair trade production.  Currently the international fair trade system focuses on marginalized communities in underdeveloped countries, but American farmers and farmworkers also face similar issues of volatile pricing and unfair wages and working conditions. AJP is a homegrown domestic fair trade label that represents the gold standard for social justice in agricultural and food jobs, rigorous third party certification, and a system based on the experiences and input of the farmers, farmworkers and business owners themselves.  Food Justice Certified is based on the AJP standards which were developed specifically for North American food system operations. Many social justice labels in the marketplace today, such as Fair Trade, have been developed to meet the needs of small farmers in the southern hemisphere selling to buyers in the northern hemisphere. Food Justice Certified brings the concept of fair trade to the domestic setting.

I ask that you Be Fair by:

* Committing to sourcing 100% Fair Trade cocoa beans by 2012 for at least one of your top five selling chocolate bars that prominently displays the Hershey name

* Committing to making at least one additional top five selling bar 100% Fair Trade Certified™ every two years thereafter, so that Hershey’s top five selling cocoa bars will all be 100% Fair Trade within 10 years.

I look forward to the day that I can choose a Fair Trade Hershey product to satisfy my chocolate cravings.

Sincerely,