![]() Food Empowerment Project logo | |
Abbreviation | F.E.P. |
---|---|
Formation | 2006 |
Legal status | Non-profit |
Purpose | Food justice, veganism, animal rights |
Headquarters | San Jose, California |
Website | foodispower |
Food Empowerment Project (F.E.P.) is a volunteer-based non-profit organization focused on veganism and food justice. Its mission statement is "to create a more just and sustainable world by recognizing the power of one's food choices." [1] The organization was founded in 2006 by Lauren Ornelas, who continues to lead it. [1] Based in San Jose, California, the F.E.P. opened an additional chapter in Seattle, Washington, in 2016. [2] [3]
The organization is composed of a team of activists from various animal rights, environmental and social justice organizations. [4] They work on encouraging healthy food choices that reflect a more compassionate society by spotlighting the abuse of animals on farms, the depletion of natural resources, unfair working conditions for produce workers, and the lack of access to healthy foods in low-income areas. [5] In January 2011, the organization began researching companies that make vegan products containing chocolate to find out if they source their cocoa beans from countries where child labor and slavery can still be found. The frequently updated list of companies [6] is available on the F.E.P. web site. [7]
In April 2008, the Food Empowerment Project supported California Senate Bill 1443 which would require that a written contract between a retail food facility and a purchaser include an option that allows the purchaser to direct the facility to donate leftover food to a non-profit food bank or provide it to the purchaser. [8]
In March 2009 the F.E.P. began surveying supermarkets, convenience stores and other retail businesses that sell food in Santa Clara County. The resulting 2010 report, "Shining a Light on the Valley of Heart's Delight", [9] found that higher-income areas had more than twice as many large supermarkets per capita than lower-income areas, while lower-income communities have nearly twice as many liquor stores and 50 percent more markets that sell an abundance of meat products. Neither of these latter store types offers a variety of healthy food options, like fresh fruits and vegetables.
F.E.P.'s first corporate campaign targeted Clif Bar, maker of energy bars and drinks, for not disclosing the source of their chocolate. [10] [11] This worried F.E.P. because two West African countries, Ghana and the Ivory Coast, which supply 75 percent of the world's cocoa market[ citation needed ] were documented by a handful of organizations and journalists to employ child labor and in some cases, slavery on cocoa farms. [12] On December 2, 2014, F.E.P. declared victory with Clif Bar & Company publicly disclosing that its cocoa sources included both suspect countries. [13]
F.E.P. holds an annual school supply drive for the children of farm workers. [14]
Beginning in January 2022, F.E.P. launched a boycott against Amy's Kitchen, maker of organic convenience and frozen foods, after workers reported widespread injuries, low wages, and unreliable healthcare. [15] Workers also cited unreasonable and unsafe workplace conditions, including defective equipment, blocked fire exits, workloads that led to repetitive-stress injuries, a lack of bathroom breaks and access to clean water, and being expected to roll 10 to 12 burritos per minute, while an understaffed line was expected to assemble as many as 72 plates of food per minute. [16] The boycott, which was called for by the workers and was also supported by the group Veggie Mijas, ended on June 12, 2024, after eight months of discussions with Amy's executives. [17] Gains made by workers include increased wages, increased workplace safety measures, a commitment to having bilingual representatives to help workers navigate company benefits, and that the company will not use labor relations consultants, which often force workers into captive audience meetings. [18]
F.E.P. received the 2012 Top-Rated Award from GreatNonprofits. [2]
Chocolate, or cocoa, is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form for at least 5,300 years starting with the Mayo-Chinchipe culture in what is present-day Ecuador. Later Mesoamerican civilizations also consumed chocolate beverages before being introduced to Europe in the 16th century.
The cocoa bean or simply cocoa, also called cacao, is the dried and fully fermented seed of Theobroma cacao, the cacao tree, from which cocoa solids and cocoa butter can be extracted. Cocoa trees are native to the Amazon rainforest. They are the basis of chocolate and Mesoamerican foods including tejate, an indigenous Mexican drink.
The Hershey Company, often called just Hershey or Hershey's, is an American multinational confectionery company headquartered in Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States, which is also home to Hersheypark and Hershey's Chocolate World. The Hershey Company is one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the world; it also manufactures baked products, such as cookies and cakes, and sells beverages like milkshakes, as well as other products. The Hershey Company was founded by Milton S. Hershey in 1894 as the Hershey Chocolate Company, originally established as a subsidiary of his Lancaster Caramel Company. The Hershey Trust Company owns a minority stake but retains a majority of the voting power within the company.
Nestlé S.A. is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 2014. It ranked No. 64 on the Fortune Global 500 in 2017. In 2023, the company was ranked 50th in the Forbes Global 2000.
Mars, Incorporated is an American multinational manufacturer of confectionery, pet food, and other food products and a provider of animal care services, with US$45 billion in annual sales in 2022; that year Forbes ranked the company as the fourth-largest privately held company in the United States. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, the company is entirely owned by the Mars family. Mars operates in four business segments around the world: Mars Wrigley Confectionery, Petcare, Food, and MARS Edge, the company's life sciences division.
Milk chocolate is a form of solid chocolate containing cocoa, sugar and milk. It is the most consumed type of chocolate, and is used in a wide diversity of bars, tablets and other confectionery products. Milk chocolate contains smaller amounts of cocoa solids than dark chocolates do, and contains milk solids. While its taste has been key to its popularity, milk chocolate was historically promoted as a healthy food, particularly for children.
The Harkin–Engel Protocol,[A] sometimes referred to as the Cocoa Protocol, is an international agreement aimed at ending the worst forms of child labor and forced labor in the production of cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate. The protocol was negotiated by U.S. Senator Tom Harkin and U.S. Representative Eliot Engel in response to a documentary and multiple articles in 2000 and 2001 reporting widespread child slavery and child trafficking in the production of cocoa. The protocol was signed in September 2001. Joint Statements in 2001, 2005 and 2008 and a Joint Declaration in 2010 extended the commitment to address the problem.
Global Exchange was founded in 1988 and is an advocacy group, human rights organization, and a 501(c)(3) organization, based in San Francisco, California, United States. The group defines its mission as, "to promote human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice around the world." Global Exchange deals with a wide range of issues, ranging from the U.S. war in Iraq to worker abuse and fair trade issues.
Child labour is a recurring issue in cocoa production. Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, together produce nearly 60% of the world's cocoa each year. During the 2018/19 cocoa-growing season, research commissioned by the U.S. Department of Labor was conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago in these two countries and found that 1.48 million children are engaged in hazardous work on cocoa farms including working with sharp tools and agricultural chemicals and carrying heavy loads. That number of children is significant, representing 43 percent of all children living in agricultural households in cocoa growing areas. During the same period cocoa production in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana increased 62 percent while the prevalence of child labour in cocoa production among all agricultural households increased 14 percentage points. Attention on this subject has focused on West Africa, which collectively supplies 69% of the world's cocoa, and Côte d'Ivoire, supplying 35%, in particular.
"Big Chocolate" is a business term assigned to multi-national chocolate food producers, akin to the terms "Big Oil," "Big Pharma," and "Big Tobacco".
Clif Bar & Company is an American company that produces energy foods and drinks. The company's flagship product, CLIF Bar, was created by Gary Erickson and Lisa Thomas. The company is based in Emeryville, California and was privately held until 2022 when it was acquired by Mondelez International for $2.9 billion. In April 2013, Kevin Cleary was named CEO of the company, Rich Boragno was named CFO, and co-owners Erickson and Kit Crawford became co-chief visionary officers. In 2018, Cleary departed the company and Erickson and Crawford became co-CEOs, positions they held previously.
Green America is a nonprofit membership organization based in the United States that promotes environmentally aware, ethical consumerism. Founded in 1982, by Paul Freundlich, The approach of helping consumers find environmentally compliant companies in the marketplace. Green America provides businesses with the Green America Seal of Approval, after completing Green America's screening process and have been approved to be listed in their National Green Pages directory. The Green America Approved seal is given to applicant businesses that operate in ways that support workers, communities, and protect the environment.
Ivory Coast leads the world in production and export of the cocoa beans used in the manufacture of chocolate, as of 2012, supplying 38% of cocoa produced in the world. West Africa collectively supplies two thirds of the world's cocoa crop, with Ivory Coast leading production at 1.8 million tonnes as of 2017, and nearby Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Togo producing additional 1.55 million tonnes. Ivory Coast overtook Ghana as the world's leading producer of cocoa beans in 1978, and today is highly dependent on the crop, which accounts for 40% of national export income. The primary non-African competitor of Ivory Coast is Indonesia, which went from having almost nonexistent domestic cocoa industry in the 1970s to becoming one of the largest producers in the market by the early 2000s. According to the UN FAO, Indonesia overtook Ghana and became the second-largest producer worldwide in 2006. The World Cocoa Foundation provides significantly lower figures for Indonesia, but concurs that it is the largest producer of cocoa beans outside of West Africa. Large chocolate producers such as Cadbury, Hershey's, and Nestle buy Ivorian cocoa futures and options through Euronext whereby world prices are set.
lauren T. Ornelas is an American animal rights advocate for more than 20 years and is the founder of the Food Empowerment Project.
Fair trade cocoa is an agricultural product harvested from a cocoa tree using a certified process which is followed by cocoa farmers, buyers, and chocolate manufacturers, and is designed to create sustainable incomes for farmers and their families. Companies that use fair trade certified cocoa to create products can advertise that they are contributing to social, economic, and environmental sustainability in agriculture.
Mondelez International, Inc., styled as Mondelēz International, is an American multinational confectionery, food, holding, beverage and snack food company based in Chicago. Mondelez has an annual revenue of about $26.5 billion and operates in approximately 160 countries. It ranked No. 108 in the 2021 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.
The World Cocoa Foundation is a non-profit membership organization with more than 90 member companies striving to make the cocoa supply chain more sustainable. WCF and its members are criticized for doing too little to end child labor, deforestation and extreme poverty, with their efforts dismissed as “greenwashing” and “a remarkable failure”. WCF's membership includes chocolate manufacturers such as Mondelez International, Nestlé, The Hershey Company and Mars, Inc. cocoa producers and suppliers such as Barry Callebaut and Cargill, shipping companies and ports and retailers such as Starbucks.
Tony's Chocolonely is a Dutch chocolate company founded in 2005 that produces and sells chocolate. In 2018, the company's market share in the Netherlands was 18 percent, making it one of the country's largest chocolate manufacturers.
The chocolate industry in the Philippines developed after introducing the cocoa tree into Philippine agriculture. The growing of cacao or cocoa boasts a long history stretching from the colonial times. Originating from Mesoamerican forests, cacao was first introduced by the Spanish colonizers four centuries ago. Since then the Philippine cocoa industry has been the primary producer of cocoa beans in Southeast Asia. There are many areas of production of cacao in the Philippines, owing to soil and climate. The chocolate industry is currently on a small to medium scale.
Nestlé have been involved in a significant number of controversies and have been criticised a number of times for its business practices. Nestlé is the largest publicly held food company in the world, owning over 2000 different brands. Since the 1970s, the criticism of Nestlé increased, with criticism leveled at the company over marketing, slavery, product safety, and more.