Gina sent a message to John P. Bilbrey – President and Chief Executive Officer of The Hershey Company – Email Address that said:
Dear Mr. Bilbrey,
With over $6 billion dollars in sales every year the Hershey's company is one of the world's largest producers of chocolate and candy products. Although all of Hershey's factories are located in the U.S. with manageable conditions, the cocoa that is being used for all of Hershey's irresistible chocolate candies, is coming straight from sweatshops in Western Africa. This is very disappointing to find out and I'm sure you are not very proud of it either, but what has Hersheys done about this? Does having underpaid workers represent or follow any of Hershey's values? How soon is there going to be any progress?
Cocoa; the main ingredient in most of Hershey's products. But are the customers from over 70 countries aware that the cocoa is being made by children as young as five years old?
Most of the cocoa comes from East Africa with over 1,000,000 cocoa plantations with about 2-4 hectares. With 700,000 working on the Ivory coast alone, â
of them being children. Children who work on plantations are about 12-15 years old but in some cases children as young as five years old are harvesting cocoa. Children are having to work in horrible conditions just so there families don't starve to death. Just to add on the harvesting process does not follow any safety regulations.
The harvesting process includes using a machete to cut cocoa beans about as large as your head, separate the beans from the bean, then lay them out to dry for the perfect flavor. There is nothing about this process that is safe. 5 year olds with their tiny hands using a sharp machete that is most likely bigger than half their body to slice a bean just so that their family can have enough income to be fed every night. Not only is the process of the bean not safe but the actually gathering of the bean is dangerous too. The field that the men, women and children have to work in are full of snakes and insects. Some are even venomous to the point of if you get bitten you can die. In cocoa farms there are hazardous pesticides that no child or person for that matter should be breathing in or being exposed to. These can cause serious, permanent effects, such as brain damage and death. No 5 year old should be exposed to any of these conditions.
But when you think it can't get worse it does. Some kids get taken away from their families and are treated as slaves. In 2002, there were 12,000 children who were trafficked in just the cocoa business. They can't go to school, they don't have a family, they don't have a home, they don't have anything to look forward to, they are abused and suffer from the horrible conditions every single day. Small children getting theirs lives practically ripped right out of there hands just so some greedy obese child can have all the chocolate they desire. But by far the worst is that Hershey's is aware of these horrible conditions and havent actually done anything about it.
In an article written by the University of New Mexico says “Hershey's hopes to expand its cocoa community programs by investing in West Africa and working closely with agricultural experts and the government.” Hershey's also announced that “over the next five years, we will invest 10 million in West africa in order to reduce child labor, improve the cocoa farming community, and directly benefit 750,000 african Cocoa farmers.” This would be a fair way to solve some of the problems but is there any actual proof that this actually going to happen or is Hershey's just creating a false Impression?
The Labor issues are not only unethical but are complex and connected to the poverty within West africa. I understand that there is not much you can do but there is some improvements that can be done. I hope to find out that the investment is not a sham and that I can not feel as guilty when I enjoy a sweet milk Chocolate Hershey's bar.
Sincerely,
Alayna
