Demand cocoa transparency from General Mills

General Mills must be more transparent and clean up their cocoa supply chain! 

Sign the petition here!

Forced labor and forced child labor have plagued the cocoa industry in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana —which produce 60% of the world’s cocoa—for decades. Despite promises from the world’s largest chocolate companies to eradicate the problem, evidence reveals that many companies, like General Mills have fallen far short. ¹ 

Together with our partners at Be Slavery Free, we are committed to eliminating forced and worst forms of child labor from the cocoa industry. We are also promotion partners in the Chocolate Scorecard ² and signatory of the Global Call to Action for a Just Cocoa Industry. We are calling on the world’s top chocolate companies, such as General Mills, to take concrete steps to address the gaps in protection and the underlying drivers of child slavery and child labor in the cocoa sector.

The Chocolate Scorecard expert knowledge team has undertaken an extensive examination of General Mills’ Global Responsibility Report and Modern Slavery Statement and has expressed concern over its ongoing lack of transparency regarding its cocoa supply chain.  

Participating in the Chocolate Scorecard is one way to provide the transparency consumers need and civil society seeks to make informed decisions about purchasing the company’s products, which include Häagen-Dazs ice creams, Cocoa Puffs and Cookie Crisps cereals, Fiber One products, and Betty Crocker baking goods.  

What an ethical cocoa supply chain looks like:

Pay cocoa farmers a living income within the next five years.

Paying a fair price for cocoa will help to prevent cocoa farmers from turning to cheap and exploitable child labor, which in some cases constitutes child slavery. Based on research by VOICE Network, this means a farm gate price (per metric ton) of $3,166.³

Scale up child labor monitoring and remediation systems.

Child labor monitoring and remediation systems have been successful in identifying cases of child labor, including cases of forced child labor, in conjunction with local communities. This approach must be scaled to cover 100 percent of cocoa sourced, including direct and indirect supplies. This also means the enactment of mandatory human rights due diligence within your own supply chains.

Increase transparency and traceability.

The industry has made progress on both traceability and transparency; however, we encourage all companies that have yet to make their cooperatives public to do so. Additionally, we encourage all companies to reach 100 percent traceability of their direct and indirect supply chains within the next five years.

End all deforestation, regardless of legality, in both direct and indirect supply chains.

The economic pressures on cocoa farmers have forced them to push deeper into West African forests to meet production demands, contributing to environmental damage and continued use of forced child labor to clear land.

Rapid and large-scale reduction in pesticide usage.

Pesticides pose a risk to the health of all child laborers—including those in forced labor—along with surrounding communities and communal resources, such as water and soil. The continued use of pesticides at this level is essentially poisoning children and their environments, taking away from both their futures and their future livelihoods. There are proven alternatives, and as such, there is no reason for pesticide usage to continue in this way.

Prevent child trafficking and prevent child labor.

Children from neighboring West African countries who choose to work on cocoa farms in Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire must be informed of their rights and working conditions pre-departure. Companies also need to support preventative measures against child labor, such as making education about modern slavery more accessible for communities that are vulnerable to exploitation.

Chocolate should not be on the market unless it is produced ethically and is free from modern slavery. 

TAKE ACTION!

Sign the petition today to demand that companies like General Mills step up its cocoa transparency efforts so that we can end modern slavery in the cocoa sector!