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Chocolate Purist: An Interview with Sam Madell
As a long time staffer of the Rainforest Alliance, based in our Costa Rica office, I’m moved to respond to a couple of unfounded complaints in the interview with Sam Madell.
We are indeed very proud of the tremendous progress made by the cocoa farmers in Ecuador. These certifications are done by the Rainforest Alliance’s local partner in Ecuador, Conservación y Desarrollo, an honorable and hard-working grassroots environmental group. The farms are also certified by Fair Trade.
I guess it’s hard for many people to see children working on a family farm in a developing country and not assume they are being exploited. We can assure Madell that the kids he saw are not receiving wages, are not on the payroll and are most likely the children of the farm owners. Where I grew up, we called this “chores.” It’s a long standing tradition, in the USA, Ecuador, Australia, and all around the world, that kids help out around the family farm. Further, Rainforest Alliance standards ensure that farm workers’ children have access to health care and schools. This is a very different situation from what is happening in Cote d’Ivoire.
Since organic standards (which I think are important...it’s just another approach from Rainforest Alliance certification) do not have social or economic requirements, I wonder how Madell can call Rainforest Alliance standards “much weaker” than organic’s? On what basis is he saying they are weaker than Fair Trade, since Fair Trade doesn’t consider the treatment of workers in their standards? I don’t get that at all, but probably because I’ve worked alongside farmers who have dedicated so much time to improving worker housing, building facilities so they can more properly manage solid waste, planting trees along waterways to prevent erosion and help protect wildlife.
Do we have to continue to have this battle among different certification programs? It’s fine to challenge programs when we think they need to be more vigilant, but all this comparison and accusations that one is somehow “better” than the other seems like a waste of energy to me. They are all doing something positive, but with different approaches. They are all striving to make the world a better place and give consumers a role in doing that.
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Hi again, Sam. I’m sure you didn’t mean your response to sound so sarcastic and mean-spirited. Of course, I don’t think it’s acceptable for children to do heavy labor. I was merely saying that sometimes kids of farm owners do chores around the farm and house. I did not characterize chores as heavy labor nor did I say it was “ok for a boy to do the work of a man” as you say above; perhaps I was unclear, so I apologize for confusing you.
Not for one minute, however, do I think that what you saw is the norm on Rainforest Alliance Certified farms. But you say you saw children doing heavy labor on a Rainforest Alliance Certified farm. Please send us (canopy@ra.org) the name of the farm, and we will have our partner conservation group investigate. They will be very upset that they certified a farm where this is happening, since they are hard-working and honorable Ecuadorians and obviously do not want the children of their friends and neighbors to be exploited in this way! They audit the farms annually and do surprise audits too, but can’t always be aware of everything that happens. I know correcting the problem is as important to you as to us, so your passing along the name and location of the farm will at least help out the kids you saw there.
Listen, I just have to tell you that I’m not far removed from our certification standards, which are here: http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/programs/agriculture/certified-crops/standards_2005.html
... I helped develop them and have been on hundreds of farms throughout the tropics and talked with hundreds of farmers and workers. So I feel quite close to and quite proud of our certification program. You may be interested in reading more about our cocoa work here: http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/programs/agriculture/certified-crops/cocoa.html
... and a profile of one of our certified cocoa farms http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/profiles/documents/ecuador_cocoa.pdf
Thanks for your concern and dedication.
In response to Diane J from the Rainforest Alliance: I stand by everything I said in this interview.
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In her comment, Diane J says that the children laboring in the cocoa industry in Ecuador are really just doing "chores". According to my dictionary, a "chore" is a small routine task, especially a domestic one. Most Westerners would associate the concept of "chores" with household tasks like washing the dishes, or doing the laundry.
What I saw (and photographed) in Ecuador were pre-pubescent boys struggling to move sacks of wet cocoa beans, within the context of a commercial enterprise which was certified by the Rainforest Alliance. The boys were not working at home or on a family farm - they were working in a fermentation co-op. The type of sacks these boys were handling weigh 60kg (130lb) when the beans are dry. When the beans are wet, they're even heavier. I run a chocolate factory, and I can assure you that maneuvering these sacks is very hard work. It is by no means a "chore" fit for children.
According to the United Nations, "the cruelest forms of child labor are those that force children to work for long hours in dangerous conditions for little to no compensation".
Heavy manual labor is considered dangerous for children under 18. The children I saw working in Ecuador were undoubtedly doing heavy manual labor. And, what's more, Diane from the Rainforest Alliance "assures" us that these children were being paid nothing for their work!
So, let me get this straight: according to Diane from the Rainforest Alliance, it's OK for a boy to do the work of a man - as long as he's "not receiving wages"! But, according to the UN, this is one of the cruelest forms of child labor. It also happens to be against the law in Ecuador (and every other country I've studied).
What's more, according to the Rainforest Alliance's own standards for cocoa production (PDF doc):
5.19.c Minors must not carry large or heavy loads (no more than 20% of a minor's body weight), and
5.19.f Minors must be remunerated in cash for their labors.
It seems that Diane, if she really is a "long time staffer" of the Rainforest Alliance, is totally out of touch with her own organization's certification standards. (Incidentally, under these rules, a child shouldn't be attempting to lift a 60kg sack unless he weighs 300kg, or 660lb).
Child labor typically exists when the parents are so poor that they are financially compelled to have their children work for direct (or indirect) economic gain. One way to combat child labor is to pay the parents enough money so that they can afford to send their children to school. The premium prices guaranteed by organic and Fair Trade certification help to make child labor unnecessary. Sadly, Rainforest Alliance certification guarantees no such premium - indeed, the Rainforest Alliance only states that laborers must be paid the local minimum wage.
However, a 2006 report by the US Department of State found that Ecuador's national minimum wage "does not provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family". (They reached the same conclusion about Costa Rica's minimum wage). Of course, many thousands of workers in the USA also know from first-hand experience how hard it is to support a large family on a single minimum wage.
But, nevertheless (according to Diane J) the Rainforest Alliance's own staff in Costa Rica believe that it's acceptable for minors to be paid nothing for their labor. This is a disgrace.