Cargill’s position on U.S. Farm Bill certification proposal – Section 3104

Cargill is committed to working towards responsible and sustainable practices in all of its supply chains. Forced labor and abusive child labor in any setting, whether manufacturing or agricultural, is unacceptable.

Recently, Cargill’s position on a legislative proposal pending in the U.S. Congress was grossly misrepresented. The fact is that Cargill is indeed working to address unsafe or harmful labor practices that potentially exist in agricultural supply chains. The issue that all concerned stakeholders are trying to address is how best to identify situations in which adults or children may be at risk – and how to find the best course of action to make lasting, sustainable change.

Cargill is concerned with the proposal in Section 3104 of the Senate Farm Bill because it is unworkable and lacks the market incentives that would encourage the private sector to adopt it.

The proposal is unworkable because it would mean auditing – in a fully traceable manner – every year, every farm and in every country that produces agricultural goods that are imported, sold or marketed in the United States. Instead, monitoring labor practices at the co-op level or by random statistical sampling would make it possible to get the same quality of data in a logistically achievable way.

No models for either labor or sustainable certification have successfully been taken to scale in mainstream commodity chains. Cargill is working with NGOs, governments and private industry to take up that very challenge: figuring out how to bring current models of certification in mainstream commodity chains to scale. We want the benefits of certification programs to be afforded to more than just the few participating in current niche programs.

This is not an easy task and there are many barriers to our success. Taking a certification program to scale will require marketing reforms in certain agricultural sectors; transparent and stable governance in the countries where commodities are sourced; and the building of significant economic and social capacity to support rural development in least-developed countries. It has never been done before, but we are going to try.

To learn more about Cargill’s commitment to responsible sourcing:

http://www.cargill.com/news/index.htm

To read Cargill’s 2007 Corporate Citizenship Report:

http://www.cargill.com/files/ca26169_cargill_citizenship_15l.pdf