Detailed Information:
What's it all about?
Though companies like Mars, Inc (maker of MandM's, Milky Way and Snickers) make a lot of money selling chocolate to kids, chocolate is no treat for the children who work on cocoa farms in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Some of these children work on their families' farms instead of going to school because their parents cannot afford to send them to school or hire other people to work for them. Other children work for just a little money, or even as slaves, for cocoa farmers far away from their homes. While the US chocolate industry has made a plan to child slavery by 2005, their plans don't do anything to raise the low world cocoa prices that have caused child labor and child slavery, and that make it hard for poor farmers' children to go to school. There is a better solution solution- Fair Trade. Fair Trade guarantees a fair price for cocoa farmers, does not allow child slavery and forced labor, and gives children the chance to go to school instead working full time to help their families make ends meet. Unfortunately, companies like Mars have refused to offer Fair Trade. Global Exchange is working with parents, and teachers across the USA to add children's voices to this campaign - voices that Mars will listen to! Please join us!!
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