#21 Terry Collingsworth - Child Slavery and the True Costs of Our Cheap Commodities

Death in The Garden

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we interview human rights lawyer, Terry Collingsworth. Terry has worked for decades as an advocate for people all around the world who have suffered human rights abuses by corporations, and is the Executive Director for International Rights Advocates, an organization that promotes human rights and corporate accountability through legal advocacy. Terry and his organization have worked tirelessly to hold cocoa companies accountable for the child labor and slavery that is occurring in Côte d'Ivoire, as well as other human rights violations such as the flagrant disregard for human life in cobalt mines. We talk about the economic structures that reinforce a system of slavery, and how ultimately consolidating wealth for corporations is the driving force behind these atrocious working conditions throughout the developing world. We discuss how the true costs of our technologies and commodities, such as coffee and chocolate, are never paid by us, the consumers. Terry recently spoke at the UN Food Systems Pre-Summit about the crimes against humanity being committed by Nestle, Cargill, Mars, Hershey, and others, and we discuss the elite corporatism that has infiltrated what is meant to be a democratic conversation that includes all voices.

This episode is devastating and illuminating. We are honored to have been given the opportunity to have this conversation with Terry. Please read this article which describes the cases of Nestlé USA, Inc. v. Doe I and Cargill Inc. v. Doe I, a case representing plaintiffs who were kidnapped and trafficked from Mali and enslaved in Côte d'Ivoire.

IRAdvocates posted an update on this case on August 2, 2021.

On July 30, 2021, Nestle, Cargill, Mars, Hershey, Mondelez, Olam and Barry Callebaut responded to the TVPRA Complaint with a Motion to Dismiss (PDF below). The companies’ response is a remarkable collection of objectively verifiable lies. Twenty years after they acted collectively and signed the Harkin-Engel Protocol in 2001 and promised to end their admitted use of the “worst forms of child labor,” they argue to a U.S. federal judge that they are mere purchasers of cocoa, they don’t have sufficient knowledge of forced child labor to be liable, they have no control over the cocoa farmers in Cote D’Ivoire, because they are so far removed from cocoa harvesting operations, holding them liable for using cocoa harvested by enslaved children would be akin to holding consumers of chocolate liable, and, by the way, they “strongly condemn the use of forced labor.”

The lack of accountability from these companies is horrifying. Please share this podcast widely and support the work done by Terry Collingsworth and IRAdvocates.

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Editing: Jake Marquez

Music: Daniel Osterstock

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