Poverty Wages & Slavery Making Your M&M¹s Bitter?!
03/15/2002

Here¹s what you can do!:

M&M/Mars is currently asking consumers to vote for a new color of M&M¹s. On March 30th, participate in a Nationwide Day of Education and Action to rally the vote for Fair Trade Certified chocolate, the color of freedom and dignity!

No matter what the shade, make my M & M's Fair Trade!!

On March 30, activists across the USA will go to their biggest local movie theaters to ask people to fill out special ³Fair Trade M&M¹s Ballots!² It is easy to organize something in your community!  We can send you a packet of materials including everything you need: special ballots, flyers, background information, guidelines for planning your event, and more.  E-mail melissa@globalexchange.org with your address to have the materials sent to you. If you can't organize something on March 30th, don't worry- you can still help by collecting ballots before and after the day.  Get in touch today!

For more information e-mail melissa@globalexchange.org or see http://www.globalexchange.org/cocoa

BACKGROUND: CRISIS IN THE COCOA INDUSTRY!

€ POVERTY WAGES:  ³We had very hard times in the 1980s when the price of cocoa beans went down. The money we used to get from selling our cocoa beans to the government didn¹t give us enough to buy materials or a pump for our own water supply.  Many farmers were so desperate that they sold the cacao trees for wood.

- Asamoah, cocoa farmer from Kuapa Kokoo

€ CHILD SLAVERY: The US State Department, the ILO, and UNICEF have recently reported child slavery on cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast, the origin on 43% of the world¹s cocoa. ³Beatings were a part of my life. Anytime they loaded you with bags and you fell while carrying them, they beat you and beat you until you picked it up again.  I was always thinking about my parents and how I could get back to my country.  I had seen others who tried to escape. When they tried they were severely beaten.²

- Aly, 14, former slave

THE PROBLEM?

€ Global cocoa prices have plummeted in recent years, leaving cocoa farmers unable to meet their own needs or pay their workers adequately. € Some US Chocolate companies including M&M/Mars have pledged to work towards ending child slavery by 2005.  However, their plan does not guarantee fair wages for adults, which is the only way to insure that slavery and poverty are both brought to an end.

THE SOLUTION!

€ Fair Trade Certification, which guarantees a minimum price of $.80 per pound, would allow cocoa plantation owners to pay their workers a living wage AND cease the practice of child slavery.

Mars is one of the largest American chocolate companies and a leader in the global chocolate industry.  They are the 4th largest private company in the US and their 3 owners are worth a combined $27 billion. Surely they can afford to offer the Fair Trade alternative!

**Don¹t Delay!  Contact us today to get started right away!**

Melissa & Deborah

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Deborah James, Fair Trade Director

deborah@globalexchange.org Melissa Schweisguth, Fair Trade Coordinator melissa@globalexchange.org Global Exchange 415.255.7296  x245 or x352 415.255.7498  fax 2017 Mission Street #303, San Francisco, CA 94110 http://www.globalexchange.org/economy/coffee http://www.globalexchange.org/cocoa

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