Advocacy Opportunity: Accountability for Slave Labour

This Advocacy Opportunity comes to us from our friend Amanda Kloer @ Change.org...

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Dear VAST,

Huu Lung was a teenager battling drug addiction when he was sent to a rehab center in Vietnam that ended up being a forced labor camp. Rather than receive treatment for his addiction, however, Huu Lung was forced to shell hundreds of cashews a day for no pay. His fellow workers ranged in age from 14 to 56 and were threatened with beatings if they refused to work.

When many of the world's cashews are produced by child and forced laborers like Huu Lung, it’s unacceptable that a major snack nut company like Diamond Foods refuses to say exactly where its nuts come from.

Advocacy group Fairfood International wants Diamond Foods to come clean about where all of its cashews come from. The group has started a petition on Change.org calling on the mega-snack food company (Diamond Foods owns Emerald Nuts, Pop Secret, Kettle Chips and Pringles) to be completely transparent about its cashew sourcing to make sure they’re child and forced labor free.

Will you sign Fairfood International's petition telling Diamond Foods to provide the proof that it's not buying child and forced labor cashews?

Processing cashews is incredibly labor intensive. The shells cause blisters and rashes on skin (it has the same toxins as poison ivy), which is why many cashews end up being shelled by child and forced laborers like Huu Lung. And advocacy groups have documented that at least 144,000 pounds of cashews from fake drug treatment centers in Vietnam have been sold under the Diamond Foods brand, making it even more important for Diamond Foods to be completely transparent.

American companies fear the negative publicity that comes with disclosure of bad labor practices overseas. Earlier this year, Change.org members took on forced labor in the flower industry: Within 72 hours of 50,000 Change.org members signing a petition directed at 1-800-Flowers (the largest florist in America), the company agreed to offer a Fair Trade collection, publish information on flower sourcing, and create a code of conduct for suppliers that prohibits forced and child labor. We can get the same results from Diamond Foods by amping up the pressure.

Please sign the petition asking Diamond Foods to reveal where it buys its nuts and to ensure it sells cashews free from forced and child labor:

http://www.change.org/petitions/diamond-foods-emerald-nuts-wake-up-and-join-the-fight-to-stop-child-labour

Thanks for being a change-maker,

- Amanda and the Change.org team