Christian Advocacy Now

Starbucks has 23 drinks containing chocolate on its menu. Consider the powder sprinkled on many thousands of cappuccinos sold every day, to home powder mixes and treats. Starbucks sources its large supply of cocoa from West Africa where 90% of its forest cover has been taken down largely due to cocoa farming. The average cocoa farmer earns less than US$1.2O a day leaving them well below the poverty line. Meanwhile, Starbucks has made profits of over $21 billion alone in 2022, putting them well within a position to ensure that the company’s cocoa purchases are ethical. Furthermore, the cocoa industry in plagued by issues with child forced labor, where children are forced to spray dangerous pesticides, use sharp machetes to clear land, and carry 100-lb bags of cocoa beans. Call on Starbucks to use their incredible industry power to effect transformative change for impoverished cocoa farmers and exploited children. (Source: Freedom United)

Write to:

Example letter (feel free to personalize):

Dear Mr. Narasimhan (CEO),
As a consumer, I’m deeply concerned that Starbucks is not doing enough to address farmer poverty, child labor, and deforestation potentially tied to the cocoa in your supply chains. In order to have confidence that Starbucks is sourcing its cocoa ethically, I expect the company to achieve the following by 2025:

1. Trace and publicly disclose 100% of Starbucks cocoa purchases to the farm level
2. Provide cocoa farmers supplying Starbucks with a credible living income
3. Scale up monitoring systems that identify and address child labor and child trafficking in 100% of the company’s cocoa supply chains
4. End all cocoa sourcing from deforested areas, and support robust agroforestry practices and reforestation where forest loss has already occurred
5. Deploy large-scale programs to rapidly reduce pesticide usage on cocoa farms