[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 131 (Tuesday, July 27, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H3913]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           ENDING CHILD LABOR IN COCOA AND CHOCOLATE INDUSTRY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Quigley) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Speaker, it is time to discuss the steps we must 
take to end child labor in the cocoa and chocolate industry.
  This issue was brought to my attention by the students at Bell 
Elementary School in Chicago. Through the guidance of their teacher, 
Mr. Barash, these students learned the disturbing relationship between 
child labor and chocolate production.

                              {time}  1015

  During my visit with their class, they shared with me their concern 
for children who are forced into child labor in this industry. Some of 
these children are sold to traffickers or farm owners or are abducted 
only to be taken to cocoa farms for work. Some do not see their 
families again for years--some never again.
  Most children in the industry begin their days before the sun rises 
and end it long after the sun sets. They are forced to wield dangerous 
machetes while climbing up and down trees to cut down bean pods. Then 
they must carry the pods in sacks weighing more than 100 pounds through 
the forest. If the children don't work fast enough, the farm owners 
beat them. When they are finally able to rest, they must sleep on 
wooden planks in small, windowless buildings with little or no access 
to clean water.
  Many of these children will never attend school or receive an 
education. The passionate elementary schoolers who told me about this 
made the compelling case that we must eradicate child labor from this 
industry and make sure these children are no longer forced into 
dangerous, unlawful working conditions.
  How can we justify all of this for the sake of chocolate?
  I am not the first Member of this body to be concerned about these 
practices. This fight was first taken up in Congress by former 
Representative Eliot Engel of New York who worked to establish a 
labeling standard to indicate on chocolate products that no child labor 
had been used in its production.
  While this effort did not succeed, he was joined by former Senator 
Tom Harkin to establish what we call the Harkin-Engel Protocol. This 
protocol was an agreement between governments, chocolate companies, and 
cocoa producers to eliminate the worst forms of child labor within 
cocoa production.
  While the protocol has been effective, this problem persists. In 
2015, 14 years after the protocol's signing, the Department of Labor 
reported that more than 2 million children were engaged in child labor 
in cocoa growing regions of West Africa. Although the chocolate 
industry made a promise to end child labor almost 20 years ago, today, 
no company can guarantee their products are free of child labor. While 
chocolate producers have shown some concern for the lives of these 
children through dedicated funding to eradicate child labor in their 
industry, it has simply not been enough.
  The three largest chocolate suppliers in the world are not even able 
to identify the farms where their cocoa is being produced. As 
Americans, we must recognize that much of the chocolate we enjoy is 
harvested and produced at the expense of these young children.
  We cannot let this continue. Kids should be in schools. Kids should 
be playing. Kids should be with friends. Kids should be kids.
  After speaking with the children at Bell Elementary, I was proud to 
take the first step in the Labor-HHS and Education appropriations bill 
by including language to reinvigorate the Department of Labor's role in 
the international Child Labor Cocoa Coordinating Group and to hold the 
companies in countries involved accountable for the promises they made 
almost 20 years ago under the Harkin-Engel Protocol. But there is still 
much to do.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues in Congress and 
Secretary Walsh to bring an end to child labor in the cocoa industry. I 
also want to acknowledge the amazing 12 and 13 year olds who brought 
this to my attention and are fighting for children they don't know 
halfway across the world. Standing with these students and working to 
further their mission is why I am proud to be a Member of this body: to 
ensure that students like this have their voices heard by Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, I look forward to going back to Chicago and the Bell 
Elementary students to tell them that Congress is listening.

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