RE: It's time for M&M/Mars to sell Fair Trade Certified chocolate!

Dear Mr. Michaels,

I join many concerned consumers in urging you to sell Fair Trade Certified chocolate. Concerned citizens have been asking and waiting for years for your company to take this urgent step. To your credit, M&M/Mars was part of a group of chocolate companies and NGO's that agreed in 2001 to a Protocol and Joint Statement for eliminating slavery and forced labor on cocoa farms. While this was a positive move, the Protocol and Joint Statement do not address the low world cocoa prices that are the root cause of slave labor practices and dire poverty. Clearly, Fair Trade is best solution for M&M/Mars, cocoa farmers, and concerned chocolate lovers like me.

As you know the ILO, the US State Department and others have reported that 284,000 children work in hazardous tasks on West African cocoa farms, that more than 66% of Ivory Coast child cocoa workers don�t attend school, and that some Ivory Coast farms use abusive child labor. The cause of these problems is poverty � annual cocoa revenues average $30 to $110 per household member. Only Fair Trade guarantees the minimum price producers need to send their kids to school and pay their workers.

Over 200 established national groups formally asked M&M/Mars to sell Fair Trade chocolate two years ago. Since then, M&M/Mars has received overwhelming requests for Fair Trade� from schoolchildren and citizens across the nation and around the world. Recently, a coalition of highly respected national organizations requested meetings with M&M/Mars to discuss Fair Trade purchasing�your company refused. It is high time that M&M/Mars sell Fair Trade and meet with concerned groups to discuss this issue immediately.

While the intentions behind the Protocol are noble, nothing except Fair Trade ensures the minimum price producers need, and nothing else involves the independent certification consumers want. As the world�s biggest chocolate company, M&M/Mars has the responsibility and resources to sell Fair Trade. It is possible for M&M/Mars to start right now since Fair Trade co-ops currently sell only about 10% of their crop at Fair Trade terms.

I will join many concerned citizens in continuing to monitor your response to this vital issue.

Most Sincerely,

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