Forced Labor in Sugar Manufacturing not so Sweet

Zero is not the grade you want on a report. But that’s exactly what Monster Beverage scored on its efforts to tackle modern slavery and forced labor in its supply chain.

Sugar is a key ingredient in its product and the sugar industry has one of the highest levels of documented forced labor abuse. We asked Monster why they weren’t reporting on modern slavery, as UK and CA regulations require. Monster told us that senior management simply did not think slavery was an important enough issue to spend time and money on!

Well. We disagree. We presented a shareholder resolution at the company’s Annual Meeting and brought along a petition with nearly 22,000 signatures. After the meeting, our CEO talked with a Monster Board member who said the Board discussed the resolution at length.

We’re following up with Monster – you haven’t heard the last about Monster and its sugar suppliers. Your contributions are funding vital action in supply chain transparency and uncovering bad actors and bad practices.