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1/3^rdof the world supply of chocolate comes from the Ivory Coast where forced child labor is prevalent. 

I get nothing for this, but with current legislation in the news, I’d like to share this letter I received a while ago, when I inquired about where my favorite chocolate comes from, and to bring the matter to your attention generally.

Dear Ms. Cox,

Thank you very much for taking the time to contact us and for your interest in our products. The sourcing of raw materials – their origin, production and quality – is a topic of central importance for the whole Lindt & Sprüngli Group. Your inquiry has been forwarded to me at the Lindt & Sprüngli Headquarter in Switzerland by our daughter company, Ghirardelli. I take this opportunity to give you some Information on the efforts we take in this field:

Lindt & Sprüngli strongly condemns all forms of child labor. We are therefore actively involved in ensuring that child labor no longer has any place in cocoa production. Since 2005 we have sourced our West African cocoa beans – and subsequently our entire supply of consumer cocoa beans – exclusively from Ghana.

Cocoa beans from Ghana meet our high quality standards. One key aspect of our activities is the traceability of cocoa beans. This gives us an opportunity to directly address some of the difficulties associated with the cultivation of cocoa beans. The cocoa farmers, their families and village communities are the focus of our efforts, and one of our top priorities is therefore to ensure that they are able to benefit directly from our financial support.

In 2008, after intensive preparatory work, we launched the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program in Ghana. By paying a price premium on every ton of cocoa beans purchased from Ghana, this program allows us to promote traceability and verification. Additional funds from the Lindt Cocoa Foundation (http://lindtcocoafoundation.org/) make it possible to improve the living conditions of the farmers and the infrastructure of their local communities. The goal of our program is to boost the crop yields and subsequently the income of cocoa farmers and their families.

Our commitment focuses on the farmers who are not organized in cooperatives: this is the case for around 80-90% of cocoa farmers worldwide. We therefore help these farmers to organize themselves into groups and encourage greater cohesion so that in the future they themselves will be in a position to offer the services, products and the know-how that we currently offer through our program.

Up to the end of 2015, we had already invested over USD 10 million in traceability and verification, as well as in the development of farming communities. This has involved the digging of more than 100 wells for clean drinking water, the distribution of over 38,000 mosquito nets, the reconstruction of a local school and the creation of 20 or more Village Resource Centers equipped with IT facilities for teaching and training use.
More than 45,000 cocoa farmers are registered in the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program in Ghana. Our local partner for the logistical roll-out of the program is the non-profit organization Source Trust (www.sourcetrust.org).

The following elements are included in the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program in Ghana and help to reduce child labor:
1. Traceability and organization of farmers
a. Registration of farmers.
b. Every bag of cocoa beans is labelled so that we know exactly which village the beans come from.
c. Building a database with information on the farmers and their communities (for example: number and age of cocoa trees, number of children in the farmer’s family, distance to the next school, etc.) These data help us to support the farmers in increasing their productivity and improving their living conditions. It also allows us to assess the risk of child labor more accurately.
2. Promoting specialist knowledge and skills
a. Farmers are trained in good agricultural practices (such as the best way of cultivating cocoa trees), good environmental practices (e.g. handling waste, dealing with wildlife on the farm) and good social practices (for example raising awareness of child labor, health & safety, etc.).
b. Training locals so they can spread specialist knowledge (trainers, monitors, etc.).
3. Community development 
a. Farmers receive more extensive support (e.g. access to micro credit, improved planting material, and access to farm shops for better farming equipment).
b. Communities receive support in improving their living conditions (e.g. construction of a school, mosquito nets to combat malaria, wells with clean drinking water, and Village Resource Centers with IT equipment that function as schools during the day and provide agricultural training for farmers in the evenings and at weekends).
4. Internal monitoring and external verification 
a. An internal monitoring system is in place with regular visits to the farmers in order to evaluate the progress made regarding good agricultural, social and environmental practices. Remedial measures are introduced if necessary.
b. External audits verify and control the internal monitoring system and check samples of farmers.

One aspect of verification that we consider extremely important is not just internal monitoring, but also external audits. In 2012, for example, Lindt & Sprüngli introduced the audit of its cocoa bean suppliers by independent organizations. The main focus of these external auditors is to check for problems relating to human trafficking, forced labor and the worst forms of child labor. In the 27 external audits carried out during the cocoa harvest season 2014/2015 in Ghana, no child labor violations were discovered at any of our suppliers. We are however aware that these external audits only provide a snapshot of activity at a given moment. We are therefore striving to design our verification system so that it is even more effective in identifying exploitative child labor. Even so, these external controls provide us with a wealth of other basic information as to how we can continue to improve our Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program.

Over the coming years we plan to extend the model we have successfully introduced in Ghana to include our entire global supply chain. The visible progress and successes in Ghana have encouraged us to extend the program. In 2014 we launched a pilot project of the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program in Ecuador, from where we obtain most of our “flavor” cocoa beans.
We would also like to point out that Lindt & Sprüngli has been a member of the UN Global Compact since 2009. This important sustainability initiative submits an annual report to the United Nations on the progress made in 10 global sustainability principles: https://www.unglobalcompact.org/what-is-gc/participants/2087-Chocoladefabriken-Lindt-Sprungli-AG.

For example, in setting up the Lindt Cocoa Foundation in 2013, we have established an institution that engages for social and environmental sustainability in the cultivation, production and processing of cocoa beans. Above all, this includes sustainable use of raw materials and fair working and living conditions for cocoa farmers. Information on the current projects can be found by clicking on this link: http://lindtcocoafoundation.org/.
Lindt & Sprüngli has defined clear guidelines on combatting child labor, which are published on our website, at http://www.lindt-spruengli.com/sustainability/. Here you will also find our “Supplier Code of Conduct”. This sets down the criteria that our suppliers are expected to meet in areas such as compliance with laws and regulations, corruption and bribery, social and working conditions, child labor and environmental protection. They must agree in writing to be bound by this Code. At the same time we require the suppliers themselves to ensure that these criteria are also respected by their employees, contractors, subcontractors and other suppliers with whom they cooperate in delivering goods and services to Lindt & Sprüngli.

The cocoa industry is a very complex area and – in spite of all our efforts – we are of course aware that there is still a lot to do. For this reason, we maintain our commitment and continue working hard to constantly improve our cocoa supply chain and the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program.
We are confident that our activities make a major contribution to improving the living conditions of the cocoa farmers that grow our cocoa beans and preventing child labor.

We hope this information is of help to you and we are pleased to count you among our valued consumers.

Many regards from Switzerland,

Tullia Mussetola
Corporate Consumer AffairsLindt & Sprüngli (International) AG
Seestrasse 204 
Kilchberg  8802
+41 44 716 22 33 

If you made it this far, thanks for your interest.

A cougar was photographed near Southwest Portland last weekend, while I slumbered in the woods.  It was seen in a residential area.  I was camping among thousands in the woods so I was more in danger from the sun and maybe brown recluse spiders than one lone mountain lion, but I prefer my first sentence for the drama!

Speaking of this large member of a favorite fellow creature family, there are an estimated 6000 cougers in Oregon

From the San Diego Zoo website:

“Mountain lion, puma, cougar, panther—this cat is known by more names than just about any other mammal! But no matter what you call it, it’s still the same cat, Puma concolor, the largest of the small cat species.”

“The mystery of the small cat: Like the unicorn, small cats have been the stuff of legends. Many of these cats have never been studied in their natural habitats, which are often in rugged, remote areas. Some small cats are active only at night, making it hard for researchers to study them. Until recently, the bay cat of Borneo was known to exist only in stories and identified by a few skins in museums; it was not studied in the wild until the late 1990s! There are reports of a cat known only as the onza, from Mexico, which may be related to the mountain lion. It is as big as a mountain lion but more slender. Scientists have only seen one, which had been killed by hunters.

There is also the Iriomote cat (named for the small Japanese island near Taiwan where it lives), which was only discovered by scientists in 1965. It has been declared a national treasure by the government of Japan, but there may be fewer than 100 of these cats left. And have you ever heard of the kodkod? Only people who really know small cats can say they have, and almost nothing is known about this cat, native to a small area of Chile and Argentina.

Surprisingly, some of the “small cats” are rather large, like the mountain lion (sometimes called a puma or cougar), which most people think of as one of the big cats. Zoologists group cats by certain physical features, not really by size. Here’s what they look for:
Roar or purr? The group of small cats cannot roar like the big cats do, because the bones in their throat are hardened and close together and can only produce smaller vibrations. Instead, they mew, scream, and growl. Anyone with a house cat knows that small cats can purr nonstop whether they are breathing in or out, but big cats can’t purr continuously; they can only purr when they breathe out, and the purr is interrupted when the cat breathes in. As a result, some big cats make a noise keepers refer to as a “chuffle.”
Eyes: The pupils of small cats close to a vertical slit, while the pupils of big cats close to a circle, like a human’s pupil. 
Nose: Small cats have a strip of leathery skin across the top of their nose, directly above the wet tip. On big cats, this area is covered with fur.
Resting: Big cats prefer to stretch out when they rest, but small cats like to curl up with their paws tucked underneath and their tail wrapped around their body.

I’d include a picture, but I am wary of copywriter and I don’t have any pictures of a mountain lion of my own. Well, not exactly.

My first week and all is ascramble. Thousands of new impressions, and feelings. Just walking in my back yard, no mosquitos, sitting on the grass of my lawn, to ticks. The temp is in the 70s, cooler i the evenings. I feel like a volunteer in the Oregon Department of Tourism, but as Penni said, it is paradise.

Had a wonderful visit with Penni, Alan, Lily and Katie. Nice to know, I’m not alone in the leitmotif of chaos , their kitchen was shrouded and getting painted. However it will be reconstituted much sooner. I’ve been getting daily updates from the man driving my worldly goods and as of now, Wed evening, he’s still on track for Friday!!
I’m not ready!

OMG, Portland (OR) is the 181st safest driving city in the nation’s 200 largest cities. Mass transit for me. The avg. Portlander, according to The Oregonian, is involved inn a crash every 7 years. The second overall was every 13.7 years.

Warning: Icky unpleasant scene here.
The Oregonian also talked about yet another Garp death, in case you’ve read “The World According to . . .” They were mowing along the highway and killed a guy who was apparently sleeping in the grass. Talk about bad timing. I bet they mow the grass once a year.

I’ve taken before pictures, that is, before my furniture is delivered tomorrow. I’m hoping to be able to walk through my house once it all lands.

My house is empty, mostly, unused boxes, dust bunnies. You remember the rabbit that attacked Jimmy Carter any of you? That’s my kinda’ dust bunny.
The movers finished a couple of hours ago and after I found M’Weec, who had shadowed into the darkest corner of the bathroom closet and refused to answer me until I found him. He’s been freaked out for a month with all the disruption and just now, strange people and radical changes in the landscape. I haven’t told him much about what’s to come, I don’t intend to give him a say in the matter so why make him fret any earlier than necessary?

It’s pouring here, but we got my things under cover before it started. Better luck than one past move that took place during a hurricane. I have boxes to break down, trash to sweep up and my Shaker Johnnies to dig up and package. I’ll be finishing up here for the next two days.
The house is infested with mosquitoes since the doors were open most of the past 2 days and I’m delighted to say M’Weec finds them tempting prey.
I seem to have dodged the ticks when I dove into the weeds to gleen my skulls. And suffered several more small lacerations in doing so. My arms look like I’ve been beaten.

We will take off late morning on Sun and turn in the rental and catch a train to Boston, taxi to Logan and book into a hotel, let M’Weec out to refresh himself and use the litter box that will get left behind in the trash. Then we go to the airport early afternoon and hop a ride out to OR.
I like that. I’m sure I’m not the first to use the abbreviation for the word it makes, not after living in ME for the past 20 years.
We land at 8 PM, missing the family barbecue by the pond by scant hours, drat. And home to OR city, OR I feel the need for an ellipsis here.

My car should arrive soon, probably Wed. My furniture, not so much, they said it will arrive on “the 5th or 6th” when I asked they not wait until July 8th, my first day on the job at fair. But of course, will they?

Well, if you’ve read all this way, I’ve saved the best, fingers crossed, news for last. The couple who want to buy my house have obtained a preapproved mortgage contingent on selling their house. They even lowered the price after a couple of weeks. Yesterday they accepted an offer for a closing on July 16th. Now the only hurdle is to get past the inspection of my buyer’s house. They want to close on my house the same day. What joy to own only 2 residences again! Even Ah-er, to own one, but that will come.