Mars, Cadbury and Nestle all took this message to heart and have been rolling out significant programs to invite third party monitors and certifiers onto their farms to check for child labor.  The most sustainable of these certification programs is Fairtrade’s holistic approach, which not only checks for child workers, but also works with farmers on securing a better price for their product and developing self-sustaining, democratic structures that can engender cross-farm support and create a ripple effect of farmers who now say “No!” to using child labor.

Hershey has been invited multiple times to engage in this much more straightforward and honest discussion on how to be accountable towards the children harvesting its cocoa.  We continue to wait and hope that we will see them take more direct steps to help the children in their supply chain – not just through charity, but through the first principal of healthcare programs anywhere:  “First, do no harm.”

For more information on Hershey's practices, read the real corporate social responsibility report for the Hershey company, "Still Time to Raise the Bar," published by International Labor Rights Forum, Global Exchange, and Green America, all members of the Raise the Bar, Hershey campaign.