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Totally Slave-Free
The following chocolate brands are fairtrade certified:
- Scarborough Fair
- Cocolo
- Maya Gold (from Green and Blacks)
- Alter Eco
- Dagoba (not their whole range - look for the label) - also note that Dagoba is owned by Hershey who are definitely NOT slave-free.
- Chocolatier (not their whole range - again look for the label)
- Oxfam Shops carry a range of Oxfam Fairtrade Certified chocolates
Totally Slave-Free, but....
The following brands are slave-free. However, ethically-sourced cocoa is not a core value in their business. Rather, it is more a by-product of either gaining more profits (by appealing to ethical consumers); or because it is a condition of them gaining organic accreditation. As a result, I believe these chocolate brands should be kept on a "watching brief" as I believe that if accreditation standards change or if ethical consumption proves to be unprofitable, then these chocolates *may* end up buying cocoa harvested by child slaves.
- Green and Blacks - organic chocolate that is also slave free. Having said that, this brand is owned by Cadbury's who are NOT slave-free.
- Kaoka
- Rupunzel
- Tava
- Abundant Earth
- Endangered Species (also carries a strong environmental message and 10% of profits go to save endangered animal species)- I've put Endangered Species here because they are saying they are carrying out audits on their suppliers BUT those audits are no longer independent. Still they are listing their suppliers, so to my knowledge they are slave-free.
- Just Organic
- Loving Earth
- Any other chocolate that has Australian Certified Organic accreditation. (There are heaps of accreditation systems but ACO requires that all ingredients in the product are produced in accordance with Internation Labour Laws (this includes no slavery in the production process).
- Chocolate that has NASAA Certified Organic Accreditation. The NASAA standards includes the following standards:
8.1.1 Where national laws fail to address social justice then operators shall have a verbal or written policy on social justice. Operators who hire fewer than ten (10) persons for labour and those who operate under a state system that enforces social laws may not be required to have such a policy. At a minimum, and where relevant, such a policy should include:Note that I'm unsure how they check this or how rigorous it is.
8.1.2 In cases where production is based on violation of basic human rights and clear cases of social injustice, that product cannot be declared as organic. The certification applicant shall not engage in or support the use of corporal punishment, mental or physical coercion or verbal abuse.
8.1.3 Operators may not use forced or involuntary labour.
8.1.4 Employees and contractors of organic operations have the freedom to associate, the right to organise and the right to bargain collectively.
8.1.5 Operators shall provide their employees and contractors equal opportunity and
treatment, and shall not act in a discriminatory way.
8.1.6 Operators shall not hire child labour. Children are allowed to experience work on their family’s farm and/or a neighbouring farm provided that:
• Such work is not dangerous or hazardous to their health and safety
• It does not jeopardize the children’s educational, moral, social, and physical
development
• Children are supervised by adults or have authorisation from a legal guardian
8.1.7 Employers shall provide all employees with potable drinking water, latrines or toilets, a clean place to eat, adequate protective equipment and access to adequate medical care.
8.1.8 All employers shall ensure that workers have received safety training.
*Not* Slave-Free but....
These brands are not slave-free, however they have policies or programmes in place that try to minimise the more negative practices of slavery (ie beatings, torture etc) in their chocolate. They have education programmes for their producers in a (small) effort to change the more abusive nature of slavery.
- Cocoa Farm - have concrete plans in place to harvest cocoa ONLY from Australian crops. At this stage its unclear whether their crops are mature enough now to use in their chocolate or whether this is a future plan of theirs. I am emailing them now to see what is happening.
- Cadbury Range - including Picnic, and Fry's Turkish (owned by Cadbury Schweppes) EDIT: 5 March 2009 - Cadbury UK has announced that they hope to have gained Fairtrade accreditation for their Cadbury Dairy Milk range by the end of 2009!! To date they have not said anything about applying for Fairtrade accreditation for their subsidiaries too (including Cadbury Australia). So watch this space!!
- Streets (owned by Unilever)
- Arnotts - now apparently have ONE supplier who belong to the Cocoa Initiative. Not a great step but at least its a step.
Definitely Use Slaves and They Don't Care
The following companies absolutely disgust me with their absolute commitment to profit at the cost of abuse and deaths of children. Note that while many of the companies below belong to the International Cocoa Initiative, I have yet to see any real commitment by these companies to actually do more than just pay lip service to this issue.
- Entire Nestle Range
- Hershey (actually has a policy to *not* reveal its cocoa sources, despite a Supreme Court action to do so.... legal case still going...)
- Mars Company (includes M&Ms)
- Lindt
Edit 14 July 09 - I have further explained my sources of information - in particular for category 4 of this post: http://consumption-rebellion.blogspot.com/2009/07/pr-messages-of-chocolate-companies.html
28 comments:
You are a horrible friend - I will never be able to enjoy a Lindt chocolate again without feeling guilty - and they are YUMMY....
oh wow, Lindt too. Goodness me. I need to reevaluate.
Thank you for this update. I heard a program about this on ABC the other day, or part of it at least, and it just sickened me.
Thanks for this update E, I've been buying Green & Blacks thinking they were all 100% OK. Ooops. Still, better than Nestle!
Hi E, not quite true about Cocoa Farm - they have started growing the only commercial crop of cocoa plants in Australia but they are not yet harvesting on a commercial scale - here's what they told me in October last year:
"Hi Rebekka,
Thanks for your interest in our products. Our cocoa is about 18 months away from being used in our chocolate, so we are just starting to fiddle with trial batches. Let’s hope it tastes like no other chocolate. We will also make some powder at this stage.
Regards,
Simon Armstrong"
As far as I know, there is no cocoa being grown in Australia that's being turned into commercial chocolate at this stage.
Their website says the first beans will be harvested for commercial use in 2008.
Oh thanks for that Rebekka! I had talked to them early last year and they said they would be using their Aust-grown cocoa probably at the beginning of this year. I also talked to one of their suppliers and they were under the impression that it had already happened. Their packets are saying that too. But now I see their website is saying otherwise.
I might have to email them to check. THANKS for the heads up!
Janet - scarborough fair dark orange is a GREAT chocolate! Maybe you might enjoy it just as much as Lindt? Next time I see you, I might bring some over for you to try. :)
Thanks Eilleen. It's good to have those differentiations.
Eilleen, I spoke to Cocoa Farm about the slave-free aspect and the origin of the cocoa in March 2008. My purpose was to ensure that, as a retailer, I was only stocking slave-free brands. They assured me that as of March 2008, they only used Australian grown cocoa. They also said that there would be a noticeable taste difference between the previous supply and the new all-Australian supply, as our climate produces a milder cocoa flavour. Hope this helps.
Thanks for compiling all that info! It's absolutely fantastic to have it all set out so clearly!
I was just wondering where you got your information from? Did you contact each of the companies personally or do they display this sort of information on their website?
Welcome Anonymous to my blog!
The source of my information are:
1st category (slave-free): Cameron from the Fairtrade Association of Australia and New Zealand (see link to their database on the right side of my blog) helped me compile that.
2nd category (organic): A friend of mine directed me to the Organic standards websites of the ACO and NASAA pointing out that adherence to International law on labour standards was part of the certification process. So therefore, all chocolate that had ACO and NASAA got included. I separated them though because I could see that chemical-free was the main focus of the certification standard rather than human labour.
Endangered species is actually one of my favourite chocolates and I have been tracking their company record. I was eating Endangered species when they used to be fairtrade certified, but then they decided not to keep up the costs of independent audits and therefore lost their certification. See Endangered species website.
3rd and 4th part of the post (the slave chocolates), some friends and I wrote to every company and I categorised them this way based on their response or non-response. I also went to their websites. You will find that most of those businesses will actually have something on their websites but buried in the detail. For example, Cadbury Schweppes have it in their website under their Corporate and Social Responsibility report (a pdf document).
Then for the last 2 categories, I also read up on the International Cocoa Initiative and criticisms of the International Cocoa Initiative. I also read up on what antislavery.org had to say about these companies.
I also then cross-referenced my list with http://vision.ucsd.edu/%7Ekbranson/stopchocolateslavery/main.html and also http://www.laborrights.org/files/COCOAVDayList.pdf
I hope this helps!
Thankyou so much for posting this information. I was wondering if you know what brands of actual cocoa are slave free? I buy a lot of this for cooking and have always purchased Nestle - up until today that is.
Thankyou,
Mel
What a great resource E. I am bookmarking this one as a permanent reminder to eat more ethically, even when it comes to my chocolate sins ;-).
Great blog btw.
xx B
Hi Eileen, after reading this post (in nourished mag)I wrote a letter to Lindt and they sent me a lengthy reply. I would like to send it to you. Where shall I send it to?
I could not find much on their website to condemn them, so i was wondering what they said to you that makes you think they source from slave trade cocoa.
Thanks for a great blog!
Katrina.
I have read what you stated about Lindt chocolate and I would like to agree with Katrina I also looked into Lindt and got a response from them. I did not see anything in that response that makes me think they are involved in slavery. I also went to antislavery.org and found nothing to state otherwise. I think it is irresponsible of you to post comments condeming these companies with no facts to back it up. You are writing this as if there are solid fact and not just your feelings based on the wording of their response to you! If what you say is true I would like to see facts to show this!!!
To ANONYMOUS,
How weird - you demand more accountability from me but choose to remain anonymous yourself so that you are not accountable for your own accusations?
Having said that I have chosen to respond to your request - not becaue of how you said it but because you have highlighted that my explanation of how I wrote my list needs to be expanded.
I also commend you for doing your own "research" but as a suggestion, you may want to try and deconstruct messages that are churned out by PR departments. That will be the angle from which I will write my article. You will see that the 3rd and 4th categories are based on not just on irrational feelings but on my deconstruction of PR messages.
I will try to write the article and post it tonight.
I notice you don't mention nestle - is that just because they are so generally appalling that they don't warrant it?
Oops - just reread! I don't buy any Nestle products (unless they buy out a brand I usually buy and haven't realised it yet!) because of their appalling human rights activities and their complete disregard for local culture.
Thanks for the overview!
Question: What is your opinion of Dagoba's relationship to Hershey...as its subsidiary? Even though Hershey has sworn to keep a "hands off" approach to Dagoba's production, this production is now subsidised by the selling of "slave" chocolate under the Hershey brand. Can one buy Dagoba chocolate without also supporting Hershey and their practices? Should we be supporting Hershey's greenwashing efforts by continuing to purchase Dagoba? I'd love to read your thoughts! Thanks!
Cpcable - thank you for letting me know that Dagoba was owned by Hershey!! I started to compile my list back in 2006 - prior to Dagoba being sold to Hershey and this one must've slipped through the cracks. I have now amended my post to reflect this bit of extra info.
As for my views - I think its important to support the fairtrade (or fair trade) lines of these companies. I truly believe that Cadbury UK's decision to go fairtrade was, in part, influenced by the strong performance of Green and Black's Maya Gold and of Green and Black in general. The stronger the performance of these lines, then the more investment the parent company would make in ethical trading.
I think too that one would have to weigh up whether it is a "token" gesture and more about cashing in on the ethical movement. As a result, just simply continuing to buy these ethical lines is not enough. There still needs to be a concentrated movement to pressure parent chocolate companies into moving their entire products on ethical terms. And if they so happen to have ethical production lines already, we can also point out that they have even less of an excuse to *not* do so because they already have existing infrastructure to become more ethical. :)
Hi Eileen
I respect your views and concerns - we are afterall talking about children - but there is a comment I want to reply on.
The statement that companies 'definately use slaves' based on not having seen their commitment, seems a little harsh to me.
I work in the industry, with Australian manufacturers and have seen first hand the united global efforts across governments, non-government organisations and industry to eliminate the worst forms of child labour in West Africa (for readers of your blog, this ILO term includes the uncommon, but horrendous cases of forced labour and the common issue of children working on the family farm in hazardous conditions)
The labelled certification schemes are one approach, but are not yet scalable to cover whole of countries (2 million farms in West Africa). So an alternate approach - the (public)Certification Process is underway. This is the work you referred to with the ICI and more can be found out about it on their website. The important point is that the companies you've named have been actively involved in this program and others for many years.
I know that because I work in the industry you may think this response is PR messaging. It is not intended that way, I just hoped to provide some alternate information.
Regards
Trish Hyde
Thank you Trish for commenting and, most of all, for stating up front your affiliation with the industry.
Some things I would like to find out. You stated that a public Certification system is underway. It is my understanding that the certification system was a central feature in the Harken Engel protocol.
However, when the industry missed its 1 July 2008 deadline (which was an extension from the 2001 deadline), the certification system was changed to become essentially a survey instrument.
Has this changed again? I did a quick search on the ICI website and could not see any major changes.
Further, while I acknowledge that member companies have been assisting the programmes under the ICI, the investment made by the companies I listed in category four, in these programmes are very very small compared to their overall investments elsewhere.
I have provided more information on how I've ranked chocolate companies in this post: http://consumption-rebellion.blogspot.com/2009/07/pr-messages-of-chocolate-companies.html
In addition, I have provided more information and expressed my views on the progress of the ICI in this post: http://consumption-rebellion.blogspot.com/2008/07/jamie-oliver-chickens-but-what-about.html
Thank you again Trish and I hope to hear back from you soon as I would like to understand the latest news on the ICI's work.
Wow. What an incredible post to stumble across! Thanks for this information! Bit of a wake up call actually... I'm going to print it out and put it on the fridge to try to remind me to make better choices!
Thanks again and I will definitely be keeping an eye on your blog from now on!
You're welcome Kayla and welcome to my blog. :)
As you can see from the comments above that not everyone agrees with how I have made this list. So I would encourage you (and everyone else) to read a little more into it so that you can make up your own mind on how you would rank these chocolates. :)
Thank you once again for taking the time to comment.
Yeah, I read through the comments, but sometimes it is just as important to be made aware of the grey areas as the black and white, and hopefully this will make me consider this issue further. Thanks again.
Wonderful work Eilleen :)
I am wondering about Darrel Lea?
Just wondering why Loving Earth is on the list of companies who need to be watched, since being healthy, sustainable AND fair is what they are all about. In fact, they go further than most fair-trade chocolate companies by paying more than the fair-trade price and putting so much back into the indigenous communities and co-operatives.
Hi Meg!
Loving Earth is currently has Australian Certified Organic (ACO) accreditation - that means that they went through an independent body who assessed whether or not they met the standards for ACO. ACO's focus is to ensure that the product meets high standards relating to the provision of chemical-free products. ACO's focus is NOT to ensure that people are paid a "living wage" (though they do say that no slavery can be used).
I do acknowledge that many chocolate companies claim that they go further than fairtrade. Endangered Species chocolate for instance claims this in their website.
I've put all the chocolates in this category on a "watch" list mainly because of 2 reasons:
1. If the standards for ACO change (ie for some reason ACO decides to drop the part regarding no-slavery), then the company is no longer obligated to keep meeting that part of the standard and there would be no obligation to tell us this either.
2. They do not have have an independent body or auditor coming in regularly to test their claims of fair employment and treatment of workers. The Fairtrade accreditation does this and they do not have that accreditation.
This doesn't mean I *don't* believe that they are doing good works - but it does mean that if I was a regular consumer of that chocolate, I would want to make sure that:
a. the ACO accreditation has not changed; and
b. that they are providing enough evidence that they are doing what they say they are.
I will go back to Endangered Species as an example (because that's a chocolate I regularly buy) - they publically list the names of the auditor/company they pay who go out on their behalf to ensure that workers are being paid and funded projects are going ahead.
This, along with their organic certification, is enough to assure me that they are still doing the right thing.
However, it is still in my watch list as until they get INDEPENDENT auditors and gain Fairtrade accreditation, then I would have to be the one who does the checking. (Which I don't mind doing because its important to me.)
Hi Eilleen. This is a great post, actually it opened my eyes to how many brands out there there actually were! Previously I only knew about Maya Gold.
I am wondering about regular cocoa though, or hot chocolate mixes. In your research have you come across that indicates some brands or lines are fair trade? Because presumably cocoa suffers the same problem as chocolate.
Another issue is lollies that have chocolate in, (ie clinkers or bullets) are there any of those that are okay, or should I assume none are guaranteed good?
Thanks for all the research you have previously put in! It is definitely appreciated (although, like others, I will miss lindt) and I don't mean to ask you to research more, just if you have the information :)
Thanks, joss
Hey Joss and welcome to my blog!
I've tried only 3 brands of drinking chocolate:
Dagoba's Chilli Chocolate Drink
Abundant Earth's Chocolate Powder
Oxfam Chocolate Drink
I prefer the sweeter taste of Oxfam's chocolate drink but do partake Dagoba's richer chocolate. I also quite like Abundant Earth's chocolate but need to add sugar with it as I'm a bit of a sweet tooth. :)
HTH!
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