In response to your email regarding M&M’S CHOCOLATE CANDIES.

Thank
you for sharing with us your thoughts regarding working conditions on
cocoa farms. Mars takes very seriously our responsibility to the cocoa
farming families who provide us with this important ingredient. Our
privately owned company’s heritage is based on a genuine commitment to
the communities that are touched by our business.

At Mars,
Incorporated we invest significant resources in both manpower and
funding to help ensure the sustainability of the cocoa supply chain.
Our support is designed to ensure future supplies of cocoa and promote
a responsible approach to its production so that the communities and
the environment in which cocoa is grown can thrive.

Since 2001
Mars has played a leadership role in the global cocoa and chocolate
industry’s efforts to address allegations of child abuse on the cocoa
farms of West Africa. Mars is working with the national governments of
Cote d’lvoire and Ghana (the world’s largest cocoa growing countries),
labor experts and community-based organizations to support the
establishment of a certification process to ensure that cocoa is farmed
free from the worst forms of child labor.

We recognize that
achieving real change requires working in partnership with others who
have skills complementary to our own. To support that approach the
International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), an independent voice dedicated to
eradicating abusive child and forced labor in cocoa production
worldwide, was established in 2002. As a registered charity, the ICI’s
Board of Directors represents a wide range of stakeholders: human
rights and child labor organizations, trades unions, local groups in
the cocoa growing countries, and the cocoa and chocolate industry. We
are proud that one of our senior Mars executives had been chosen to
serve as co-president of the ICI. The ICI is making great strides
towards improving labor conditions in the cocoa growing regions of
Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. For more detailed information on the programs
of the ICI, please visit www.cocoainitiative.org.

We are also
working to improve the livelihoods of cocoa farmers and their families
through our participation in the Sustainable Tree Crops Program (STCP),
a public-private partnership between the cocoa and chocolate industry
and government supporters. This program, operating in West Africa, has
successfully promoted farmers’ organizations and co-operatives leading
to improvements designed to help farmers achieve better prices for
their cocoa. Through its Farmer Field Schools Program, the STCP also
helps farmers gain increased yields by improving farming techniques.
For more information on the STCP, please visit www.treecrops.org.

In
addition, Mars is a member of the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), a
global organization of cocoa and chocolate companies, processors,
traders and others who are dedicated to improving the conditions of
cocoa farmers and the communities in which they live. WCF programs
raise farmer incomes, encourage responsible, sustainable cocoa farming
and help strengthen cocoa farming communities. Members provide
financial contributions as well as technical expertise and guidance to
partners in West Africa and other program locations.

Education
is key to the sustainability of rural livelihoods. Working alongside
Winrock International – an organization skilled in implementing rurual
education programs – and others, Mars is helping children from cocoa
farming communities as they learn to become the farmers of tomorrow.
Programs offer access to vocational skills that will be relevant for
the children and their communities now and in the years ahead.

These
steps to address cococa growing conditions in West Africa are the
continuation of a long-term commitment Mars began in 1998 to improve
the well-being of millions of small farmers who grow cocoa. To learn
more, visit www.cocoasustainability.mars.com.

For information on
the programs of the WCF and for an update on progress made towards the
certification process for cocoa growing, please visit
www.responsiblecocoa.org.

Sincerely,

Consumer Care
Mars Snackfood US

MM/YESUJOHN010646578A

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I love M&M’s! They are by far my favorite candy. I like them with peanuts, almonds, peanut butter, dark chocolate, or just plain old M&M’s. I take them with me on mission trips, vacations, or eat them while studying or writing…especially late at night.

A couple of years ago I was made aware of the slavery problem that the chocolate industry has basically been hiding for years (STOP THE TRAFFIK). Over 10,000 children have been sold into slavery to work in the cocoa fields of Western Africa, namely The Ivory Coast from where nearly half of the world’s chocolate comes. The guy who started this foundation recently spoke at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids. I’d encourage you to listen to Steve Chaulke (12 Weeks – Mars Hill).

I kind of divorced myself from any responsibility because fair trade chocolate was so impossible to find. However, in the time since then, it’s now more readily available and even stores like Target are beginning to make it available for consumption. Now it is time for the rubber to meat the road.

For every time I go to purchase my precious M&M’s I will hear a child say, “With every bite of chocolate you eat, you eat my flesh.” I’m going to send Mars a note to let them know of my conviction. Hopefully they will begin to make moral choices about who is supplying them their raw materials. I encourage my chocoholic friends to do the same.