Monsanto Joins Arms to Battle Child Labor
In April 2006, Monsanto took an important step to formalize a commitment to protect and advance human rights within our company and among our business partners.
After an 18-month dialogue with key business leaders and external stakeholders, Monsanto’s Human Rights Policy was approved by the board of directors.
“The policy is in line with the values in The Pledge,” Maureen Mazurek, Monsanto human rights lead, said. “It considers the nature of our business and agriculture and it references the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.”
“The team did an amazing job creating such a robust policy,” she said. “Within our operations many of the policy elements existed as human resource policies, health and safety policies, or environmental policies. Our human rights policy encompasses these policies and moves beyond our employees. We are committed to continuously improve the conditions within our seed supply chain as we work closely with our seed contract growers and business partners. A key element of the policy that we felt needed immediate attention was in our contract growers’ fields where the use of child labor interferes with a child’s right to an education.”
The first time this situation was encountered was when Monsanto purchased Emergent Genetics in 2005. With this purchase, Monsanto inherited an issue in which more than 20 percent of laborers in these cotton fields were children less than 14 years old—the age the International Labor Organization (ILO) defines as a child in developing countries.
“With the adoption of our human rights policy we were able to really start making significant strides to improve the practices in the supply chain in India with regards to child labor,” Mazurek said. “The cotton business is our model story of how, in agriculture, with good practices and good commitment, you can make improvement.”
Throughout the course of the past three years, the Monsanto India team has made significant improvements.
“Today, Monsanto has about 5,000 contract growers supporting the cottonseed business in India,” Mohan Rao, Monsanto human rights lead for India, said. “Each grower has about three-quarters of an acre. That three-quarters of an acre can mean about six to eight workers on that piece of land are engaged for the pollination activity. And the child labor statistic that once stood at twenty percent is now less than one percent.”
Monsanto is not the only player in this industry, but was the one taking the most initiative with regards to child labor issues. This was recognized by government officials and non-government officials (NGOs) who began encouraging Monsanto to do something to affect the entire industry. What happened next culminated in the position paper that was released by CropLife International on June 12, 2009.
“Monsanto was the lightening rod,” Mazurek said. “Our footprint is the largest of the multinationals in the cottonseed business in India. However, we were not the largest player in the country--about five percent of the market.”
Monsanto needed help in this effort to affect the entire industry.
“We recognized that joining arms with the other multinationals in India and setting the example was key,” Mazurek said. “So we joined as multinationals to come up with this position paper on child labor.”
With encouragement of an investor, and through Monsanto’s partnership, other multinationals were brought to the table to begin discussions on a position paper. With CropLife acting as a facilitator, the organizations were able to align in a non-competitive area on a significant industry issue.
The group recognized the need for additional external engagement and sought guidance from some NGOs as well as members of the International Labor Organization, Unicef and the Fair Labor Association (FLA).
“This was a powerful day,” Mazurek said. “In the end, their feedback helped us write a richer paper and get more buy-in and support from those organizations.”
Through the leadership of Monsanto, on June 12, 2009 which was also World Day Against Child Labor, CropLife released the position paper that stated all CropLife member companies are encouraged to adopt a consistent child labor policy in their organizations as child labor is defined by the ILO.
“I see the work that we’re doing with CropLife, focused on child labor, setting a high standard in agriculture-- one that hasn’t been there before,” Mazurek said. “With Monsanto acting as a leader, these practices in agriculture will be changed for the better. This is another example of Monsanto’s core values and societal commitment in this globalized world -- respecting and providing for the increasing global population.”
©2009 Monsanto Company.
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