Cadbury
- Details
- Published on Thursday, 06 December 2018 23:12
- Written by editor
Cadbury is supporting deforestation by refusing to commit to sourcing only sustainably grown cocoa beans.
Tell Cadbury to make a commitment to agroforestry, go deforestation-free worldwide, and help bring back the rainforests!
A,
‘Twas a few weeks before Christmas, and all through the trees
Not a creature was stirring, thanks to Cadbury.
This holiday season, stockings will fill with chocolate Santas, Toblerone triangles, Milka bars, and more goodies from Cadbury and its parent company Mondelez. But that sweetness comes with a bitter aftertaste: Mondelez could still be using unsustainably grown cocoa, fuelling the loss of tropical rainforests.
Companies like Hershey’s, Lindt, and Godiva have recognised the devastation they’ve caused to forests through bad cocoa practices. They have committed to transforming their whole supply chains from harmful full-sun monocultures into shade-grown agroforestry cocoa.
But Cadbury and Mondelez have stayed silent: no global commitment to agroforestry, no global zero-deforestation cocoa sourcing policy. As Christmas approaches, it’s time to remind them they’re on our naughty list -- and urge them to do better.
The Ivory Coast and Ghana -- the two countries from which Mondelez sources most of its cocoa -- are on the brink of irreversible, catastrophic rainforest destruction. An investigation last year found that national parks and protected areas had been slashed and burned to make way for farms that supplied illegal cocoa to traders like Cargill, who in turn sold cocoa to Mondelez. Meanwhile, cocoa farmers are so poor that most of them will never taste chocolate in their lifetime. They can’t even afford to buy a Cadbury bar.
Only a nationwide transition to shade-grown agroforestry can re-green those countries' rainforests and bring back the birds, bugs and bats that have been driven out. It’s better for the soil, better for farmers and better for the climate.
It’s not enough simply to stop buying cocoa that’s illegally grown in Ivorian national parks, as Mondelez has done. Mondelez needs to commit to buying deforestation-free cocoa worldwide. Just like elephants in the Ivory Coast, chimps in Cameroon need their forest homes too, as do gorillas in Nigeria, orangutans in Indonesia, jaguars in Brazil, or sloths in Peru.
Yet Mondelez still refuses to commit. Cadbury’s website proudly touts its new sustainability initiatives, but its spokesperson told us only that the company supports agroforestry “wherever appropriate”. That’s PR-speak for “barely ever”.
The good news is, together, we can change the company’s mind. Just last month, your pressure helped convince Lindt to publish one of the chocolate industry’s most ambitious anti-deforestation action plans yet, including a commitment to agroforestry.
Let’s ride that momentum and send the best possible Christmas present to elephants, chimps and other endangered animals around the world -- by saving their beautiful forest homes.
Thanks for all that you do,
Eoin, Anne and the team at SumOfUs
More information:
Lindt responds to online petition to commit to more sustainable sourcing of cocoa beans Confectionery News, 8 November 2018
Chocolate industry drives rainforest disaster in Ivory Coast, The Guardian, 13 September 2017
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