Human trafficking, or modern day slavery, is the fastest growing industry in the world, occurring in most of the countries of the world. Human trafficking has infiltrated the clothing, cosmetics, food, electronics, and sex industries. Both adults and children are impacted. Children as young as three years old are lured into slavery under the false pretense of earning money for their impoverished families, or they are forcibly taken. According to the Not For Sale Campaign, human trafficking is enslaving more than 30 million individuals today. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has also stated that, “after drug dealing, trafficking of humans is tied with arms dealing as the second-largest criminal industry in the world.” Human trafficking generates 32 billion dollars across the globe every year.

Human trafficking has had a major impact on the cocoa industry. According to the World Cocoa Foundation, Ghana and the Ivory Coast, where much of the child slavery is taking place, supply 75% of the world’s cocoa market. I'm calling on Nestle, Hershey’s, Mars, and Girl Scouts of America, who currently are supplied primarily by non-fair trade sources, to switch to fair trade sources for their products. According to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, fair trade is " a movement whose goal is to help producers in developing countries to get a fair price for their products so as to reduce poverty, provide for the ethical treatment of workers and farmers, and promote environmentally sustainable practices." In other words, I am calling on these companies to eliminate human trafficking from their supply lines.

Trafficking of children in the cocoa industry is often based in the Ivory Coast. In addition to video evidence of the issue, many former cocoa slaves have given testimonials regarding their enslavement. One such former slave, Aly Diabate, stated, “Some of the bags were taller than me. It took two people to put the bag on my head. And when you didn’t hurry, you were beaten.” According to the CNN Freedom Project, “UNICEF estimates that nearly a half-million children work on farms across Ivory Coast, which produces nearly 40% of the world’s supply of cocoa.” The few that escape, and most do not, are forever damaged, the memories of slavery haunting them their entire lives.

Raise your voice for the voiceless. Call for the major non-fair trade companies and organizations to switch to fair trade.

The fair trade standards read:

" Companies trading Fairtrade products must:

• Pay a price to producers that aims to cover the costs of sustainable production: the Fairtrade Minimum Price.

• Pay an additional sum that producers can invest in development: the Fairtrade Premium.

• Partially pay in advance, when producers ask for it.

• Sign contracts that allow for long-term planning and sustainable production practices."-FairTrade International

I am calling on Nestle, Hershey’s, Mars, and Girl Scouts of America to commit to use only fair trade ingredients in their products and earn the fair trade symbol.