Chocolates Not So Bad
By
Mars, a huge chocolate manufactuer (M&Ms, Snickers, Twix and Dove to name a few) has assured that it will team up with the Rainforest Alliance in order to make their chocolate more sustainable, and they want to only use sustainable cocoa by 2020. This is huge, because human trafficking and child labor are a huge problem in African cocoa farms so much of the worlds chocolate is linked to abuse. With Mars being such a huge chocolate producer, if they really are to be completely sustainable by 2020, this could mean huge benefits to farmers and wildlife. I would certainly feel better about myself if I could rest assured that a slave had nothing to do with my Snickers bar. I think this will have a very positive impact on the Mars company and others should follow. I think Cadbury has taken a step towards more sustainable cocoa production as well!
5 Comments
May 4th, 2010 at 4:56 pm
I had no idea that there was such controversy around the chocolate industry. Have I been living under a rock or are our news channels just not picking up on this story? Mars should be commended for refusing to support this activity because I’m sure it is less expensive for them to buy chocolate from these African farms!
May 5th, 2010 at 9:41 am
That is really great that Mars is doing though, however like alex i had no clue that there was even an issue with slave labor and human trafficking in the chocolate industry…Kristina is this a recent agreement with the rainforest alignment? If not they definitely should work to make this a more know fact. Also in addition to so many companies pairing up with charities, it seems another trend is broadcasting that your company is green in some way. Right now charitable ads and green ads are the two fads/trends in the advertising industry. Well, hopefully they aren’t fads..
May 6th, 2010 at 9:29 am
Liz, I definitely agree with you that its a big trend for companies to advertise their decision to go green. It makes me wonder whether 70′s and 80′s companies were doing “do good” deeds the way they are now and not advertising it, or if perhaps they just weren’t doing any good deeds. In a way it makes me question the authenticity of big companies when you look at the prevalence of all the way they are going green and “saving the planet”-almost as though they are all competing against each other to one up the other. BUT it is important to note that, whatever the underlying reason is that is motivating companies to “save the planet” it really doesn’t matter. To dissaprove of a company who is taking positive steps towards global/national improvement is to discourage it. In a way we should just take it for what it is and god bless the opportunity to live in a country that offers so many good products and there is so much competition between those that now the pressure lies not only in the product but in what they are doing for the world, and that will impact our perspective of them and even our decision to support the company/brand by purchasing its goods. By the way, here is a link to the Mars news:
http://www.stopthetraffik.org/news/press/mars.aspx
May 6th, 2010 at 9:29 am
Liz, I definitely agree with you that its a big trend for companies to advertise their decision to go green. It makes me wonder whether 70′s and 80′s companies were doing “do good” deeds the way they are now and not advertising it, or if perhaps they just weren’t doing any good deeds. In a way it makes me question the authenticity of big companies when you look at the prevalence of all the way they are going green and “saving the planet”-almost as though they are all competing against each other to one up the other. BUT it is important to note that, whatever the underlying reason is that is motivating companies to “save the planet” it really doesn’t matter. To dissaprove of a company who is taking positive steps towards global/national improvement is to discourage it. In a way we should just take it for what it is and god bless the opportunity to live in a country that offers so many good products and there is so much competition between those that now the pressure lies not only in the product but in what they are doing for the world, and that will impact our perspective of them and even our decision to support the company/brand by purchasing its goods. By the way, here is a link to the Mars news:
http://www.stopthetraffik.org/news/press/mars.aspx
May 6th, 2010 at 9:30 am
Liz, I definitely agree with you that its a big trend for companies to advertise their decision to go green. It makes me wonder whether 70′s and 80′s companies were doing “do good” deeds the way they are now and not advertising it, or if perhaps they just weren’t doing any good deeds. In a way it makes me question the authenticity of big companies when you look at the prevalence of all the way they are going green and “saving the planet”-almost as though they are all competing against each other to one up the other. BUT it is important to note that, whatever the underlying reason is that is motivating companies to “save the planet” it really doesn’t matter. To dissaprove of a company who is taking positive steps towards global/national improvement is to discourage it. In a way we should just take it for what it is and god bless the opportunity to live in a country that offers so many good products and there is so much competition between those that now the pressure lies not only in the product but in what they are doing for the world, and that will impact our perspective of them and even our decision to support the company/brand by purchasing its goods. By the way, here is a link to the Mars news:
http://www.stopthetraffik.org/news/press/mars.aspx