Open Letters Archives

An accompanying ad is being published in the Minnesota Star Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle and other local US newspapers. View published ad here. Forbes estimates your net worth at $47 billion, with more individual billionaires than any other  family in the world. Each year this wealth continues to grow, with some of you making as…

This letter was published in Minneapolis Star Tribune. View published ad here. Unfortunately, your company’s previous promises have gone up in flames. This time, make sure your company keeps its word. Leave a legacy of leadership, not broken promises. See the report at cargillkeepyourpromise.org

This letter was published in Minneapolis Star Tribune. View published ad here. If implemented, this policy would be a dramatic step towards making Cargill a leader in conservation rather than a leader in destruction. However, we ask you to understand that, given our experience with Cargill making and breaking promises, it’s hard not to be…

I have come to the United States to ask the Cargill-MacMillan family to stop the destruction of our land. My people are called the Munduruku, which means “the red ants.” We are 13,000 strong, divided into 160 communities. Life is simple here. We plant, we harvest, we create. We learn by watching our elders. This…

Since then, investigators have found more than 150 thousand acres of forest and savanna burned or cleared in the regions where Cargill operates, an area four times the size of your hometown of Minneapolis. And child labor remains endemic in regions of Africa that provide Cargill with cheap cocoa. Cargill has committed many times to…

You grew from a modest grain warehouse in 1865 to the largest agriculture company in the world. But today, your company’s practices threaten to tarnish that proud legacy. In 2001, Cargill publicly acknowledged the problem of forced child labor in the cocoa industry and committed to eliminating it and the other “worst forms” of child…