Open Letters

In June, we published a letter in the New York Times and Minneapolis Star Tribune asking you, the owners of Cargill, to stand with us. To change the course of your legacy and be remembered as the family that made the world better.

Not worse.

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 ending deforestation and human rights violations in their supply chain, but as the report “A Grain of Truth” clearly shows, and Cargill itself openly admits, these commitments have not been met.

It’s time to work together for a better solution.

Leave a legacy of leadership for the Cargill-MacMillan family, not a legacy of broken promises.

You can reach us at Cargill@stand.earth

We look forward to hearing from you.

Before it’s too late.

As a family-owned business, you must be proud of Cargill’s 150-year heritage.

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 labor in the production of chocolate.

In 2014, Cargill acknowledged the agriculture sector’s significant role in the destruction of the world’s forests and promised to end it.

In 2022, Cargill expanded that commitment to include the protection of critical natural ecosystems other than forests as well.

None of those commitments have been fulfilled.

And the problems have gotten worse.

For years you have delegated the management of the company. You have trusted Cargill’s executives to do the right thing and to tell you the truth.

They have done neither.

The time has come for you to engage and lead.

We are not asking the company to make any more commitments. We are asking you to ensure that the company fulfills the commitments it has already made:

Honor the Harkin Engel Protocol
Honor the New York Declaration on Forests
Honor the COP 26 Statement of Purpose

Honor Cargill’s commitments to end human rights abuses and the destruction of nature across your entire supply chain.

It’s time to work together for a better solution.

Be remembered as the family that made the world a better place, not a worse one.

Leave a legacy of leadership, not a legacy of broken promises.

You can reach us at cargill@stand.earth

We look forward to hearing from you.