Update on Clif Bar Campaign – January 2013

Thanks to everyone who has signed our petition to Clif Bar and shared with others how this corporation’s lack of transparency is a stain on their so-called sustainability record.

Food Empowerment Project has contacted more than 100 companies asking that they simply disclose the country of origin for where they source their cacao. And more than 100 companies have responded; even if they do not fall on our recommended list, they have at least disclosed.

With more than 70% of the world’s cacao coming from West Africa, where slavery and some of the worst forms of child labor have been found in the cacao industry, our goal is to help consumers be more informed.

Clearly, Clif Bar is not the only company that has not disclosed, but they are definitely on the top of the list when looking at companies that claim social responsibility.

I met with Clif Bar representatives in late September 2012. They stated once again that the country of origin on the ingredients of their products was proprietary information. I asked them to please share with their board that they should take a different stance on cacao, given the controversy surrounding its procurement. 

They encouraged us to speak with Rainforest Alliance about their cacao suppliers. I explained to them that we have companies on our recommended list (regardless of how we feel about their certification scheme) that use Rainforest Alliance. The responsibility of transparency lies solely with Clif Bar.

We had agreed to meet again in six weeks. 

At the end of December, we spoke on the phone for 15 minutes, and I was told that the company has decided that they can reveal the country of origin for all of their ingredients, but that the country of origin for their cacao is still proprietary.

At this point the conversation has ceased, as they are only interested in connecting us with Rainforest Alliance.  

Given the serious nature of slavery and children working under the worst forms of child labor in the cacao industry, this is not an issue that Clif Bar should claim as propriety and hide behind. We need them to take a strong stand against the abuses in the cacao industry. 

We hope that you will continue to help us to encourage Clif Bar to live up to the company image they continue to offer the public.  

Photo ©Romano

UPDATE: Food Empowerment Project Announces Clif Bar Campaign Victory

Get the Duck Outta Here!

To commemorate my 25th year of being a vegan, I have decided to share some stories from various investigations I have done of factory farms, auctions and slaughterhouses. Though these investigations were conducted with the organization I started and ran, Viva!USA, they are a powerful part of my life and hopefully will help many understand why veganism is a key part to Food Empowerment Project’s goal of a more just food system. 

Although the investigations I conducted of ducks being raised for food in the US were not my first investigations, this seemed like a good place to start, as many ducks are eaten at the start of Chinese New Year.

Viva!USA was the sister group of Viva! in England (honestly, it was our parent group), which had been running a campaign exposing how ducks were raised for food. When they asked me to start a similar campaign, I told them that we didn’t eat ducks in the US. But then I thought, “How would I know that? I never go to the ‘meat’ section of store.” So, I went and sure enough found duck meat in every single grocery store I visited. In fact, I found that duck meat was sold year round, not just around the holidays. I decided that our campaign would focus on getting grocery stores to stop selling duck.

My first investigations took me and a friend to Southern California. There we found Pekin ducks kept in long sheds. One shed was right off the highway and so we drove the length and found it was half a mile long. Inside, the quacking of the ducks was defeaning, and ducks were visible as far as your eye could see. These birds already had their white feathers and many of their eyes looked crusty. 

(When updating our duck campaign, as we had already had an impact, we went back to this farm and it was no longer in business.

The next farm we went to had ducklings who did not even have their feathers yet. Here, it was easy to see one of the main injustices inflicted upon ducks in farms:  water was provided to them via bell drinkers or in the form of nipple drinkers – so only droplets of water would come out. Here you would see ducklings striving to put their bills and faces under a pipe with holes in it. 

Without enough water to immerse themselves, ducks cannot regulate their body temperature properly and they can go blind. Like hens in the egg industry who are debeaked, ducks also endure having the tips of their bills burned off.  This was most apparent in the Muscovy ducks, also raised for their flesh.

Just like chickens raised for food, ducks are bred to grow fast and fat. We found many ducks who had fallen backward who could not right themselves. In fact, on one farm I investigated in Ohio, there was a duckling who had his wings caught in the grate under the water. With his fragile wings in the grate, I tried to pull him out. I even took my shirt off in the shed to protect him more while I tugged (I laughed later what they must have thought if they had a camera in there), eventually I had to get my partner to go in and get him up.

Although we did not rescue that duckling from the farm (more about this type of pain in another blog), we were able to liberate some ducklings from other farms – some who had fallen over and could not stand back up, some who were stuck between the feed troughs, and even one duck whose head was turned 180 degrees and would walk backward – clearly a neurological problem. After a few hours in a bathtub, he started to get better.

We also would head out early in the morning and videotape the ducks in transport cages at the slaughterhouse. One morning, I was videotaping a duck whose leg was cut on the wires of the cage. Blood was dripping from the wound. Trying to keep my composure, I continued to videotape when all of a sudden I felt something wet and my video camera went dead. One of the ducks had pooped on me and my camera and it stopped working. My friend and I rushed to Denny’s (the only place open at 5am) and cleaned off the camera. Feeling shaky and sad, we were amused by what happened and how the ducks had stopped our work to help them! 

I have spent years with ducks – either in factory farms, slaughterhouses or transport trucks. And now, more than before, I find myself staring at these remarkable birds in ponds, just noticing how much they love water and how they swim. I think back and am amazed that grocery stores, and even animal rights groups, claimed ducks didn’t really need water (I thought their webbed feet was evidence enough) – but I guess when someone seeks to make a profit, they can and will ignore the facts.

I believe that when doing investigations of these types of farms, it is best to do so with the goal of not only informing but creating change. With our videos and photos of ducks in factory farms, we were able to get a few small natural food stores to stop selling duck meat and Trader Joe’s to stop selling all duck meat and Pier 1 Imports to stop using feathers. Again, thanks to the footage and to activists across the country who spoke out for these gentle birds.

For more on ducks raised for food and some images from these investigations: http://www.foodispower.org/ducks.php

Chipping Away at Injustices

I consider myself a fan of sci-fi, but I also consider myself a Trekkie, though I don’t know the name of the grain that kills the Tribbles, and I am really more of a fan of the original and Deep Space Nine. Real fan or not, I do like to watch it. Those of us who like sci-fi know that one of the beauties about it is how cleverly writers can weave in commentary about things such as racism, animal exploitation, sexism, etc. – setting these issues in another time and place while making them relevant to the here and now.

My husband and I have been watching all of the Twilight Zone episodes, and one struck me that I can’t shake. The episode is called “He’s Alive,” and the description from IMDB is this, “Around 1960, a tiny neo-Nazi organization struggles pathetically to succeed in a big city. A mysterious figure begins to ruthlessly guide a young, insecure U.S. Nazi leader, and the group begins to draw more attention.”

An old man who survived WWII is speaking to a bartender across the street.

The bartender says, “Used to be people would laugh at him, and lately he gets the crowd and not many people laugh either.”

The old man says, “I’ve seen it before. I have seen it all before.”

Bartender: “That was another time, another place, another kind of people that doesn’t go here.”

The old man: “That is what we said, too. They were brown scum, temporary insanity, part of the passing scene too monstrous to be real, so we ignored them or laughed at them because we couldn’t believe there were enough insane people to walk along side of them. [Sigh]… and then one morning the country woke up from an uneasy sleep and there was no more laughter. … But not again. It must not happen again. I can’t let it. We simply can’t let it happen again. All that nightmare. Oh, no. No, not this time.”

I guess it had me thinking about how people treat various forms of discrimination from racism, homophobia, cruelty to animals and the treatment of immigrants. You have those who speak hate and vitriol, those who listen and are uncomfortable with it but laugh as they do not know what to say, those who agree and those who speak against it.

I often think many of us are put into these situations, mostly with people we don’t know well or work with.

I was faced with this when my husband and I chose to protest Prop 8 in California (Prop 8 made marriage equality illegal) by having our wedding in Massachusetts, which has legalized marriage equality. I was asked, and continue to be asked, why we married out of state. People want to know if it is because we had family there or if we met there.

Every time someone asked, I knew this was an opportunity. An opportunity to make a statement against hatred and discrimination. I told the truth and said it in a way that would assume that any decent person who does not believe in discrimination would agree with me and understand why we had to make this choice. Did everyone agree with us and embrace what I had to say? Certainly not. Should I worry about offending people whose point of view is different? To me, that would be no different than being silent and not speaking up about other forms of discrimination.

And that is a small way in which we all can use our voice. It doesn’t mean we have to scream (although clearly there are times when this is necessary), but we must not be silent. We must not laugh or ignore the hatred that is being spouted these days. We should not listen to these shock jocks and laugh. We should not give them anything.

Why should those with the most constant and loudest voices be those who speak such absolute disgust? Even if we don’t have the microphones they do, we must use our voices because collectively we can be loud.

I remember when I started Food Empowerment Project and explained to fellow animal rights activists about some of our goals. I was told that racism isn’t that bad. Well, I don’t think that anyone can deny now the blatant racist comments and actions that are taking place across the country. The time is up for us to ignore it; we must constantly use our voices to speak out against it. 

Now most people who are reading this (if you have continued to read) are not ones who would remain silent when animal cruelty is involved. However, I start to worry that this trend is creeping into our movement in an insidious way. Every time someone talks about “humane” meat or cage-free eggs, it is as if the discussion of the reality of the actual suffering, cruelty and deaths of these animals is erased, because the conversation, for the most part, stops there. 

Why is it that those who bring up these injustices are seen as not allowing others to have a good time? Why are not those who make homophobic, racist or sexist jokes seen as the killjoys?

These conversations, as uncomfortable as they might be, must see the light of day and not be overshadowed by laughter or the thought that it will all go away if we don’t talk about it.

I don’t want to have to worry that my group will lose support because a racist or a homophobe reads this. Enough. We must take stands against those who seek to oppress people, even if they support animal issues.

We must use our collective voices to speak out against all forms of injustice if we think we can ever chip away at it.

And below is the end of that episode from the wise and talented Mr. Rod Serling:

Where will he go next, this phantom from another time, this resurrected ghost of a previous nightmare (Adolph Hitler) - Chicago; Los Angeles; Miami, Florida; Vincennes, Indiana; Syracuse, New York? Anyplace, everyplace, where there's hate, where there's prejudice, where there's bigotry.  He's Alive.  He's alive so long as these evils exist. Remember that when he comes to your town. Remember it when you hear his voice speaking out through others. Remember it when you hear a name called, a minority attacked, any blind, unreasoning assault on a people or any human being.  He's alive because through these things we keep him alive.

When Will It Be Enough?

It has happened to many of us, but admittedly it had not happened to me in a while. Having recently moved from a very urban area to a more rural area, I had forgotten how common it is. So I was not prepared for the incredible emotional reaction I would have. Mostly that of anger.

When I saw it ahead I had to make the decision whether or not to look to see if anyone was inside. 

While driving down the highway, I passed a transport truck, filled with animals destined for a slaughterhouse. 

Now, I am someone who has done investigations of numerous factory farms, slaughterhouses, and auction yards. I have a tendency to not turn away from such atrocities. I prefer to confront it.

But I wasn’t sure I could deal with it that day.

I looked and, yes, I could see there were animals inside. I admit to being relieved that I could not see them staring back.

After I gave the driver an incredibly dirty look (which, even if he saw, he would not have understood), I drove on, thinking about the encounter and the decades that I have dedicated to trying to educate others in order to stop animals from being killed. 

And I know that many of us are looking for that one thing that will make those people who eat animals open their eyes and see the millions of deaths they contribute to so that they stop eating them.

Which direction do we, as animal activists, take? Do we only talk about the ethical aspects of animal consumption? Or do we talk about the environment? Or just stick with the health benefits? Is there one of these approaches that will help people stick with it? Which one is the best? Do we do them all, or does it weaken our credibility if we do?

In terms of outreach, is it leafleting? Is it protesting? Is it vegan food giveaways? Is it investigations? What reaches the public in the most effective way to make change?

The animal rights movement has certainly been going down a dangerous path of becoming homogeneous.

I have always been an activist who believes in the “we need all of the spokes in the wheel” philosophy to move us forward. Yet I felt anger and frustration when I saw that truck. I wondered, why is none of what we do enough?

I wish I was going to have some wonderful answer here, but I don’t. I still believe that it is going to take all forms of outreach and reasons to spread the word (although as a vegan food justice organization, Food EmpowermentProject focuses on the ethical stance as we do for all food issues), but I do worry that we have lost sight of the real goal.

I worry that some animal rights activists have gotten so focused on the living conditions of the animals (which I agree are deplorable and should be worked on by some) and have forgotten that we need to stop them from being forced into these trucks—that all of our attention and energy needs to be focused on stopping these animals from being trucked off to slaughter. Regardless of how they are raised, they will end up here and at the slaughterhouses.

We need to keep our eyes on the prize, and that prize is saving their actual lives and preventing more from being kept in cages and crates.

To see, hear and smell their fellow beings be killed is an incredibly traumatic aspect of these animals’ lives – actually the end of their lives.

Truly, I can’t think about it in too much detail; I don’t feel like my mind can handle it. But we know from humans who have had to endure such situations that it is psychological terror.

I really worry that we can get so caught up in other things that we forget that what is most important is stopping these trucks from continuing down the highways to the slaughterhouses. 

And saving their lives. As we know, getting more and more people to go vegan is what will accomplish this.

Continuing my drive, with tears in my eyes and anger in my heart, I saw a sign of hope. A car drove past me with a paw sticker on the bumper that read “Who Rescued Who?”

And, well, that gave me hope. Now, do I think that the person driving that car was vegan? Not necessarily; however, it reminded me that at their core, most people truly care about animals, and our job is simply to open their hearts and minds to the plight of all beings.

Thankfully I know that is a task we can do.

When did slavery get a pass?

All of us are raised in a society that indoctrinates us to believe that animal consumption and, in fact, many forms of animal exploitation (animal testing for cosmetics or keeping animals in captivity for human amusement, for example) are acceptable.  So, I tend to give people some latitude if they haven’t thought about these issues and don’t really know the details about them.

However, none of us have been raised to believe that slavery is acceptable. In fact, most of us look back at slavery in the US and abroad as a scar on humanity – as something that we later learned was reprehensible and inexcusable.

And yet, it seems that slavery today gets some sort of pass. Now, is that because much of the slavery taking place (and here I am specifically speaking about commercial slavery) is done at the hands of corporations? Is it because some feel it is too inconvenient to make changes in their lives so they don’t contribute to it? Is it because people just don’t know about the issue? Or is it because much of the slavery is happening abroad? 

In this blog post, I am specifically addressing slavery in the chocolate industry, as that is something that Food Empowerment Project is working to expose.

How can corporations talk about how they are working on this issue? Here is what Hershey has to say:

“Over the next five years, Hershey will also expand and accelerate its programs to improve cocoa communities by investing $10 million in West Africa…”(http://www.hersheycocoasustainability.com/)

Is that supposed to make my jaw drop? Unfortunately, it makes my stomach turn.  While Hershey’s $10-million investment sounds magnanimous, it is $600,000 less than their CEO made in 2011!
(WSJ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304724404577293340278881890.html)

And  we don’t think much of the Rainforest Alliance certification they plan to use, and we’re not the only organization to think that way.

But we are talking about slavery here, people – we are talking about kids working in the fields, forced to carry heavy loads and dangerous tools and not being able to leave.

How can a company say they are working on it? Why don’t they say they are outraged and will ensure these farmers are paid a living wage so that they are not forced to enslave children to do the job?  Is it the extra house? The yacht? What is it?

Is chocolate addiction so serious that they know people just can’t give it up even to make this world a more just place? Do they know that people simply accept that the corporations are “doing their best” and leave it at that?

And why is a company like Clif Bar getting a pass from everyone? Why doesn’t our petition have more than 100,000 signatures by now? All we’re asking is for Clif to disclose the country from which they buy their chocolate.

Being an animal rights activist for more than 25 years, I have heard the phrase “Animal liberation is human liberation” more times than I can count, and I see buttons, t-shirts, etc., with the paw and the human fist. So why is it that vegans and vegan organizations can’t get behind this effort?  If nothing else, I hope that vegan organizations can at least not list or promote companies that have not responded to us about the source of their chocolate. 

We don’t need to give up our mission to show solidarity with other causes. 

I am sure you can tell my exasperation is overflowing, but as someone who believes strongly that oppression is oppression and we must work to stop it, I am confused. Very confused.  With something as simple as our food choices and as simple as speaking out to corporations, I just can’t believe that we will give slavery a pass. We aren’t asking people to give us $1,000; we are just asking for a signature that could make real change.

If we can’t get a company like Clif Bar to disclose — if we can’t get people up in arms about child slavery in the chocolate industry — what are we saying about ourselves and what we can accomplish?

I strongly believe in the power of the individual. I strongly believe that we can encourage corporations to be more ethical because it matters to us and we can make it matter to them. And most of all, we can tell those people around the globe, whose exploitation we are contributing to, that we will not be silent anymore.

Please don’t forget to use our vegan chocolate list to help you make your ethical purchases.