article I will write: Warring against GMO's vs growing food

Date:   9/21/2013 5:21:59 AM ( 11 y ago)

Interesting Model here:
http://www.yourfamilyfarmer.com


Also, I am convinced more than ever, that while we are working with farm bills, wars against Monsanto, Marches, etc,, investigations of ingredients and transparency, the key to our economic salvation and a healthy city will be recognizing that The Know How to Grow Your Own Food goes hand in hand with the Right to Know.

We will win or lose the "battle" over ingredients, likely spend gobs of energy on these, and eventually come out with the same predicament in the end, we need to grow our own food and support each other in making peace with nature.

I just came back from teaching at the National Heirloom Expo in Santa Rosa September 10-11-12, 2013. I spend three days after with the Frey Family at their Organic and Biodynamic Vineyard and Farm in Redwood Valley.

It was an eye opener spending time with Luke Frey who meticulously raises three family cows.

I would like to San Diego's network of food growers have a shared family cow somewhere within our community of food growers.

If such a family cow already exists who is treated in a sacred way, please let me know. We need the manure here at the Enchanted Garden Intentional Community.

For those who want to invest some of our limited energy reserves on helping to save our sacred seeds, I will be establishing in the next six months a good supply of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds at our home. Call me if interested in ordering some supplies.

I wish you all well.


On Sep 20, 2013, at 1:17 PM, Mariah SDFNL wrote:

FASCINATING information/discussion...
(three emails below are in chronological order)

Not sure what y'all might do with this info, but it seemed worthy of sharing for some sort of consideration...
~Mariah


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Claudia Delman
Date: Thu, Sep 19, 2013 at 2:43 PM

Dear Comfooders,

I have had several email interchanges with Clif Bar headquarters to ask them to disclose where they source their chocolate. After repeated requests from me for disclosure, they have refused to say whether or not it comes from West Africa. Please know, therefore, that I believe they are sourcing from West Africa -- why would they refuse to tell me where the cocoa comes from for any other reason?

So you can be informed, much of West African cocoa is harvested at the cost of slave labor where there are severe human rights violations and about 1.8 million children toil in the chocolate industry. The children harvesting cacao may be exposed to the worst forms of child labor, including very hazardous work and slavery. Please join me in signing Food Empowerment Project’s petition to ask Clif to disclose their sources of cocoa beans: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/229/288/148/.


And, please consider removing Clif from your shopping list until they come clean and join other socially responsible companies (like Newman's Own) to end these cruel practices.

Thank you,

Claudia Delman, MPH



On Fri, Sep 20, 2013 at 8:39 AM, John Brittell wrote:
Dear Claudia,

This is a great post and you’ve touched on one of the more secretive commodities (for whatever reason) on earth. This is such a complex topic that I’ll break it up into sections/themes based on some ongoing research I’m doing now with the Institute for Corporate Responsibility at GW in DC.



Is child labor bad?

At first glance when we consider Western ways and culture, using children to produce a product at low or no wages is outrageous and we could never conceive of allowing such things – we no doubt consider this exploitative. However, the situation on the ground, we’ve found, is different. Yes, children are taken from Mali and Burkina Faso onto cocoa farms in Cote d’Ivoire (which, again at first glance, disrupts both communities and the labor supply to move towards more responsible policies on cocoa farms, however, there are many who enter cocoa farms on their own volition since this is their only chance at paid labor) however, we do not know the scale to which this is happening. In other words, many farms use family child labor, where if there are no other opportunities such as education, then this is how they can support their families. The question/focus here should be, what can we do to offer better opportunities to children?



I’ll note that references to democratic societies must be put in perspective, especially since the US in particular has been dealing with the issue of child labor for well over 100 years in its legislative, commercial, and civil society sectors – whereas West African countries have not. Key events such as the Progressive Movement, Industrialization, and Agricultural Industrialization have shaped how society relates to its children in the workforce. The first child labor laws were passed in 1852 for compulsory school attendance; in 1916, 1918, and 1922 laws related to preventing transport of goods made by children and taxing goods produced by children were introduced. The landmark success for children came in 1938 when the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed establishing a standard minimum age for working and limitations on the number of hour’s children can work. But has Cote d’Ivoire or Ghana been through this long and locally oriented process within its institutions (and therefore its own people)?



Which farms use child labor and which ones don’t?

Tracking or tracing a cocoa bean to its source is a difficult process, especially with how the majority of the industry works (via small traders who aggregate and then reach middlemen who re-aggregate and sell off to larger middlemen like ADM, Barry Callebaut, Cargill, Ferrero, Hersheys, Kraft Foods, Mars, Nestle – who then supply the chocolate makers or Clif Bars of the world). There are newer models, like direct trade, where the company producing the chocolate product knows exactly which farm their cocoa comes from (see Taza or Medecasse), but these firms are a fraction of 1% of the total market. As of 2011, upwards of 62% of all chocolate came from 4 West African countries (Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, and Cameroon); this is a shift downwards from 70% as countries in South America and also Indonesia produce more cocoa. So more than likely, although not always, the cheapest chocolate will originate from West Africa. But until we can get the industry to accept chain of custody, which due to its costs are only now being tested (see Mars switch to source all cocoa sustainably by 2020; and Hershey following suit, reluctantly), knowing this is difficult. And considering the power of the large cocoa traders mentioned above, it’s going to take time for another 100 Taza’s or Madecasse’s to come forward (but I hope they do, and some already are).



*The Public Certification Process

The public certification process clearly indicates that is does not certify individual bags of beans or farms, it will not generate a label or ‘seal of approval’, it will not certify a country’s cocoa sector as having a ‘clean bill of health’, it will not punish cocoa farmers or divide farming communities, nor will it monitor individual cocoa farms on a constant basis. (these are national policies in place). In developing the certification process, cocoa firms indicated that issues related to antitrust prevent them from working together to synthesize collective action due to the highly competitive commercial activity of product certification. Because of this, 3rd party independent verification companies opened up a market for certifiers which now include Rainforest Alliance, UTZ, Fairtrade USA, Fairtrade UK, and Fairtrade International among others. The issue is that without including businesses in the process of working out what can and cannot be done, from an operational perspective, it remains difficult to truly get a supply chain that is acting in our interests. Meaning, transparency still doesn’t exist, procurement activities don’t change, and we are back at square one with certification simply as a veil to business as usual.



Clif Bar

There is much more to this answer, but I’ll leave it at this unless others want to carry forward the discussion. Leave it to say that YES I wish Clif Bar would be more transparent with its supply chain, but based on the complex cocoa industry, they are following the rules and might not be able to sell you a bar at $1.99 if they used a known cocoa farmer – mainly because that’s not their business (their business is making health bars, not being a fully vertical integrated MNC). They procure chocolate on the market, which is already aggregated a number of times and moved from place to place without tracking/tracing. For them to bear the cost of telling you where their chocolate comes from, they would not be able to operate and sell you Clif Bars. I’m wondering how the new California Transparency in Supply Chains Act impacts folks like Clif Bar?



The Petition

I’m not sure the petition gets to the source of the issue. Why? Because we already have the Harkin/Engel protocol in the US and 2011/2957 RSP in the EU. Both these policies state that child labor is a no-no and both the policies have full support from industry, local NGO’s, local governments, and other stakeholders. And Clif Bar is a part of this.



On September 19, 2001, US Congressman Eliot Engle (D-NY), Senator Herbert Kohl (D-WI), and Senator Tom Harkin (D-IO), along with cocoa industry members, the government of Cote d’Ivoire, and NGO’s signed the Harkin-Engel Protocol which called for the elimination of the worst forms of child labor in the growing of cocoa beans and their derivative products from West Africa. Apparently, this protocol passed because the cocoa industry considered it an alternative to a labeling system for chocolate that would classify cocoa as ‘slave free’ if firms could document that its production hadn’t involved the work of exploited children. And could you imagine if the word ‘slave’ was used in their products? The protocol also asked for the establishment of community based child labor monitoring systems, child labor surveys, a fund, development of a new public certification system (already established), and establishment of a joint international foundation (the International Cocoa Initiative) that will promote best practices. So what’s the problem with all this? The State Dept. offered $10 million to address these issues; the cocoa industry gave $7 million to support data gathering, remediation services, and sustainable livelihoods opportunities. Will $17 million be enough to deal with a problem clearly worth much more, in an industry worth well over $100 billion (this is just the top 10 manufacturers), and impacting at least an estimated 16 million associated with cocoa in West Africa (according to Mars)?



*I’ll close by noting that Clif Bar is a member of the World Cocoa Foundation which is marketing itself with a focus on sustainable ‘cocoa economy’, cocoa communities, scientific research, and education… but look at the other names on that list and you’ll see why it’s all a big question mark. So, is there a way to work together with Clif Bar (as opposed to attacking them) so that we can get them to consider more sustainable or responsible sources of chocolate? Can we offer a list of possible chocolate makers who source from specific cocoa farms so they can begin improving their supply chain?



Happy to share more and if you want to see more about how we are working on issues related to business and peace in the cocoa industry, please look into the initiative: Responsible Global Commodities Initiative – we are having another Salon Series dialog in October.



With every good wish,

John Brittell

Food Enterprise Architect, Designer, & Developer | Capitol Food Ventures

http://www.capitolfoodventures.com
| brittell@capitolfoodventures.com

+1.202.549.2539 (USA) +256.787365190 (Uganda) | LinkedIn

“Re-shaping our food system thru responsible enterprise.”




On Thu, Sep 19, 2013 at 2:43 PM, Claudia Delman wrote:

Dear John,

Thank you for your thoughtful post and your knowledge of food issues, labor practices and legislation. You are right, the legislation should have helped/could have helped this situation but unfortunately my research has revealed to me that is not the case. The Harkin protocol does not seem to be working.

There needs to be transparency so that we can get the answers we need. I repeatedly asked Clif about where their cocoa was sourced and I never got a straight answer. To me, this was an admission of guilt. If they purchased their cocoa in Indonesia wouldn't they just come out and say it?! When I asked about it, this is what I got: In 2013, 100 percent of the cocoa ingredients in CLIF Bars will be sourced from Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms. Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa farms support a healthy environment, promote the well-being of workers and their communities and adopt more efficient farming practices.

If you have a few minutes (John and Comfooders) take a look at this short documentary which gives me the impression that RAC is another attempt at corporate whitewashing: http://www.shady-chocolate.com.
Unilever uses RAC ... something tells me that this might not be such an amazing designation.

You brought up the issue of children needing to work. Yes, I am sure this sad happenstance is true in some cases but the child slaves are not getting paid even when their families are promised money for their labor. Also, Ghana requires that children be in school and it is illegal for children to use machetes yet the children are not getting schooling, they are doing backbreaking, dangerous labor day after day. Even family farms are exposing children to dangerous conditions and worse to trafficking in slaves: http://www.cocoainitiative.org/en/about-the-issue/child-labour-in-cocoa.
And these farms are perpetuating poverty models by keeping their children out of schools. Cacao farming isn't the kind of farm work that Laura Ingalls Wilder writes about.

Here is an article which discusses how approximately 40% of the chocolate we eat is linked to child slavery and how boys from Ghana, Mali and Burkina Faso are sold as slaves into various forced labor situations: http://activehistory.ca/2010/06/%E2%80%9Cwhen-people-eat-chocolate-they-are-e...


John, transparency works. Here is a list from The Food Empowerment Project of companies who refuse to use slave labor: http://www.foodispower.org/chocolate-list/.
Here is Newman's Own position on utilizing slave labor for chocolate: We source our organic chocolate from producers in Central and South America. Issues surrounding forced labor are primarily centered on cocoa farms in West Africa, principally on the Ivory Coast. Our producers take measures to certify that all of the cocoa they purchase is produced without the use of forced labor.
Our group of cooperatives are inspected to verify compliance with organic standards. They require written verification from the inspector that each farm is "slavery-free".

From my interactions with Clif, it did not appear that they were interested in transparency, I was very disappointed. This was the best that I got from them and it was not an answer, it was corporate whitewash which is something I would not have expected from such a groovy company: Clif Bar is committed to making great tasting, nutritious foods that are good for people and respectful of the planet. To do so, we source the highest quality ingredients available. To that end, we source ingredients from around the world to meet our consumer needs.
As you can imagine, organic ingredient sourcing is highly dynamic and we constantly seek new suppliers to source our quality ingredients.
We know that there are concerns about the social conditions of cocoa farms. We take these matters seriously and are working with our suppliers to ensure sound, sustainable and socially responsible ingredients. Also, we are constantly evaluating our ingredient selection to ensure that we have the highest quality ingredients from the best available sources.
We know we are not perfect and that creating a sustainable supply chain is an on-going process of continual improvement.

I was not convinced and I hope you are not either.

Thank you for your time, everyone. I hope you consider the dark side of this luxury next time you vote with your wallet. There is an app for this list that you can utilize next time you are shopping (it works on both platforms): http://www.foodispower.org/chocolate-list/.


Best regards,
Claudia


 

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