Vote for Fair Trade Chocolate

Here's what you can do!

M&M/Mars is currently asking consumers in 78 different countries to vote for a new color of M&M's. Struggling cocoa farmers need concerned citizens around the world to tell M&M's "No matter what the shade, make my M & M's Fair Trade, the color of dignity and freedom!" You can help rally the vote for Fair Trade by collecting special ''Fair Trade M&M's Write-In Ballots'' in your community. To get everything you need (special ballots, flyers, background information, etc.) e-mail: melissa@globalexchange.org

You can also help in the following ways:

• Send a FREE FAX to M&M's:

  http://www.globalexchange.org/cocoa/faxMMMars031402.html

• VOTE for Fair Trade Certified M&M's at the M&M's color vote website.

  Go
  to http://gcv.mms.com/us/, choose ''Write in Your Own Color,'' type ''Fair Trade Certified!'' in the box, and click to submit your vote!

• WRITE/E-MAIL M&M/MARS:

  Paul Michaels, President, M&M/Mars Inc., 6885 Elm St., McLean, VA 22101
  
  consumer.affairs@mmmars.com, askmms@mmmars.com

  See http://www.globalexchange.org/cocoa/faxMMMars031402.html for a sample
  letter

• CALL M&M/MARS at 1-800-627-7852.

  See http://www.globalexchange.org/cocoa/mmmars.html for "talking points."

Background: Crisis in the Cocoa Industry!

POVERTY WAGES: ''We had very hard times in the 1980s when the price of cocoa beans went down. The money we used to get from selling our cocoa beans to the government didn't give us enough to buy materials or a pump for our own water supply. Many farmers were so desperate that they sold the cacao trees for wood.

-- Asamoah, cocoa farmer from Kuapa Kokoo

CHILD SLAVERY: The US State Department, the ILO, and UNICEF have recently reported child slavery on cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast, the origin on 43% of the world's cocoa. ''Beatings were a part of my life. Anytime they loaded you with bags and you fell while carrying them, they beat you and beat you until you picked it up again. I was always thinking about my parents and how I could get back to my country. I had seen others who tried to escape. When they tried they were severely beaten.''

-- Aly, 14, former slave

The Problem?

Global cocoa prices have plummeted in recent years, leaving cocoa farmers unable to meet their own needs or pay their workers adequately.

Some US Chocolate companies including M&M/Mars have pledged to work towards ending child slavery by 2005. However, their plan does not guarantee fair wages for adults, which is the only way to insure that
slavery and poverty are both brought to an end.

The Solution!

Fair Trade Certification, which guarantees a minimum price of $.80 per pound, would allow cocoa plantation owners to pay their workers a living wage AND cease the practice of child slavery.

Mars is one of the largest American chocolate companies and a leader in the global chocolate industry. They are the 4th largest private company in the US and their 3 owners are worth a combined $27 billion. Surely they can afford to offer the Fair Trade alternative!

** Don't Delay! Contact us today to get started right away! **

• 116 Human Rights