Hershey’s has announced that it is going to certify its chocolate by 2020. First of all, Hershey’s announcement is part of a growing trend in the chocolate industry to go fair trade. Lots of other small companies already have 100% certified fair-trade chocolate. Also, they're doing it because they want to join their rival, Mars, who also announced they will be certifying all their chocolate. Secondly, Raise the Bar, an organization that has been pressuring Hershey’s for years to certify all their chocolate, is pushing Hershey’s to make at least one fair-trade bar by next year. Raise the Bar is also asking Hershey’s how they plan on certifying their chocolate by 2020. Finally, personally I don’t trust that Hershey’s will certify its chocolate by 2020. Hershey’s signed a protocol that they were going to stop using child labor in 2001 and 2008 but they broke both protocols. Also, Hershey’s is only using nine-million dollars to do this which is only 0.03 percent of their 2012 income. In conclusion, although Hershey’s said they're going to certify their chocolate, I have my doubts because they broke both of their previous protocols. However, I hope they are going to use fair trade chocolate.
Here is a link to a news article:
S.O. & G.A.
Awesome opinion piece! As I was reading your post, I at first thought that it would be wonderful of Hershey's to declare their use of fair trade chocolate by the year 2020. I was grateful, however, that you also included details about Hershey's past broken promises, because now I know not to get my hopes up too high. It would be wonderful if Hershey's actually does use fair trade chocolate in the future, although it makes me wonder if it will change the brand in any way. Will the cost of their candy go up? Will the taste of our favorite chocolates change? It will be interesting to see what happens! Thank you for bringing it to my attention. :) ~Miss Nakamura, 4th Grade Teacher, Oak School
ReplyDeleteHi Ms.Nakamura,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment, we appreciate it.We are not certain about chocolate prices going up for being fair trade, but fair trade is more expensive than regular chocolate usually. It's not that more expensive though, usually only 50 or so cents. Anyway,that extra 50 cents is helping to end child slavery, so it's worth it. And no, we don't think the taste of our favorite chocolate would change. It's still cocoa. What changes is that it is fair trade.
Hope you join the boycott! - A.G., 5th Grade Student