M&M's current donation program

[dick_nyc]

A friend passed this along to me. As one who lost his mother to breast cancer, this is definitely something to support:

 

 

http://www.m-ms.com/us/news/promotions/komen/index.jsp

[Ignoto]

RE: M&M's exploitation of child labor

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Parents, children and schoolteachers in the United States should send Halloween candy produced by M&M/Mars back to the candy giant--with an appeal to start buying Fair Trade cocoa, the only kind that guarantees a living wage to cocoa producers, urges a West Coast social justice group. Global Exchange hopes that the largest U.S. candy producer will get the message that children are willing to deny their own sweet teeth in order to make the lives of hundreds of thousands of children who are forced to work on small cocoa farms less bitter.

In a new report released Friday, the group charges that global companies like M&M/Mars are making the ongoing crisis for small farmers worse by keeping cocoa prices low, even though their profits have been relatively unaffected by the ongoing crisis.

 

The report, "While Chocolate Lovers Smile, Child Cocoa Workers Cry," also assails the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund for exacerbating the problem by imposing economic reforms on West African governments that eliminated state-run marketing boards mandated to protect farmers from the vagaries of global commodity markets.

 

"This Halloween, we're seeing an all-out demand for Fair Trade cocoa products, particularly from America's youngest chocolate lovers," said Melissa Schweisguth, the co-author of a new Global Exchange report released on Halloween eve. "Americans want to be sure that Halloween ceases to be full of terror and tricks for cocoa farmers as it is now. By returning chocolate to Mars, children and adults are sending a clear message asking for Fair Trade chocolate, not products bitter with exploitation."

 

Concern about child labor in cocoa production has grown since reports that thousands of West African children were being forced to work on cocoa farms in West Africa surfaced in the western media. While most of the children were working on their family farms, the U.S. State Department and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) found that thousands of children from poor countries like Burkina Faso and Mali were also being sold to work on farms in Cote d'Ivoire, where almost half of the world's cocoa beans are produced.

 

http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/cocoa/1222.html

[guyinsf]

RE: M&M's exploitation of child labor

 

Hmmm. Wouldn't it be better to NOT buy the candy and send the letter to M&M/Mars telling them what you think? The company will get a lot stronger message if sales drop off dramatically than if their bottom line is still being supported by people making "protest purchases."