Today’s shareholder vote at the Smucker’s annual meeting marked an important step towards getting the company to report on climate risks associated with their coffee business and supply chain. The proposal received roughly 30% support (based on preliminary numbers). While 30% might not sound notable, a recent report on the 2011 proxy season puts the vote in perspective: the report found that investor support for shareholder resolutions on environmental and social issues rose to a 20.5% average approval rate (the first time support has ever reached the 20% mark). 30% sure sounds like a lot when measuring against that baseline. Analysts at Trillium Asset Management and Calvert Investment Management also report that first year resolutions generally garner far less support as investors are initially introduced to the proposals.

This vote sends a clear signal to Smucker’s leadership that shareholders are raising legitimate concerns around disclosure of social and environmental risks in their coffee supply chain. Trillium and Calvert will engage with company representatives in the fall pressing them to respond meaningfully to investor concerns about coffee and climate change. While the two investment firms hope to make progress with the company over the course of the next year, they will reserve the right to re-file the resolution in 2012 if necessary.

Oxfam will help keep the pressure on Smucker’s to adequately respond and we’ll keep you updated on opportunities to engage.

When you think of Smucker’s, jelly and jams typically come to mind, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. The J.M. Smucker Company is actually a leading distributor of Folgers and Dunkin’ Donuts coffee brands (who knew?), with coffee accounting for 40% of the company’s net sales and nearly half of its profits. That’s a whole lot of coffee, considering that the company sells and manufactures many other widely-used household brands like Crisco, Jif, and Pillsbury.

Coffee crops are highly sensitive to weather and temperature fluctuations making it particularly vulnerable to climate change. This past year the cost of coffee skyrocketed following increased demand and poor harvests in high-producing countries like Colombia and Brazil. In 2010 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted new guidance for publicly traded companies, requiring companies to disclose climate change risks, such as physical risks to a company’s assets and supply chains.

Disclosing these risks will create much needed transparency to help investors understand how companies’ supply chains, and the communities that support them, could be impacted by increasingly extreme weather and other likely results of climate change.

This disclosure is essential because community risks are business risks. As climate change increasingly threatens coffee harvests, the impacts are being felt first and worst in the communities where coffee farming is a way of life. But those threats echo all the way up the supply chain. Understanding these risks, and ensuring that companies like Smucker’s are adequately managing the anticipated hazards, is critical to investors and farmers alike.

Reporting in response to the SEC guidance has generally been weak, and Smucker’s is no exception. Very few companies have increased their reporting on material climate risk save for a few sentences added to their annual sustainability reports. This is a bad sign for shareholders who are already feeling the impacts of climate-related risks on their investments.

For example, record high food and commodity prices this year, owing at least in part to increased temperatures and lower crop yields, have led to social unrest in some countries where companies do business and to financial instability in companies unable to pass higher costs onto consumers. Consumers too have felt the pressure, since May 2010, Smucker’s has jacked up prices 34% just to try to stay a step ahead of the commodities market. Smucker’s competitors are responding by making public commitments to sustainability that will help their bottom line.

Already jittery investors are starting to perk up. Two socially responsible investment firms, Trillium Asset Management and Calvert Investment Management, Inc., have filed a shareholder resolution requesting that the Board of Directors provide a report to stockholders describing how the company will manage the social and environmental risks and opportunities connected to the company’s coffee business and supply chain. Shareholders will have a chance to vote for this proposal at tomorrow’s annual meeting at Smucker’s headquarters in Ohio.

Smucker’s has tried to block the resolution and are nervous that disclosing the risks could rattle investors. But if the resolution passes, Smucker’s will be on-the-hook to conduct a detailed risk assessment of climate change on their coffee supply chain and publicly disclose the findings.

Public disclosure of risks is the first step towards ensuring communities in Smucker’s supply chain are adequately protected from impending climate risks such as floods, droughts and extreme weather events. It is critical that small-scale farmers gain access to adequate resources to prepare for and respond to these threats. Not only will such resources will protect communities, they will surely benefit global companies who rely on a stable supply of high-quality coffee beans.

Government policies in support of small farmers are critical to their long term productivity, but this must go hand-in-hand with sound, sustainable corporate practice. This resolution will help multi-national corporations such as Smucker’s to wake up and smell the coffee. As they say, “with a name like Smucker’s, it’s got to be good”. We agree.

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Majority of Kenyans have been forced to change what they eat due to increasing prices of food, a new survey shows. The survey by Oxfam says 76 per cent of Kenyans, the highest percentage recorded worldwide, have been forced to change their diet on account of skyrocketing prices.

Another 57 per cent of Kenyans do not always have enough to eat, the survey released yesterday says. "People across the world are changing what they eat because of the rising cost of food," Oxfam says.

The public opinion poll surveyed over 16,000 people in Kenya, Tanzania, and 15 other countries including Australia, Brazil, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Spain, UK and the USA. In Kenya it surveyed over 2,000 people in eight urban and rural regions of the country.

The figures for Kenya follow the same trends as other countries - but the numbers are staggeringly high and well above the global average. Globally 54 per cent of people said they are not eating the same food as they did two years ago - the period before the current food price crisis began - and 39 per cent of those blamed rising food prices.

In Western Kenya, 95 per cent of people surveyed said that rising costs are their biggest food concern. Oxfam says many people in developing countries are either eating less food, eating cheaper items or enjoying less diversity in their diets as a result of rising food prices.

"Women tend to be disproportionately affected by rising food prices because they are responsible for feeding their families," Oxfam says.

The survey asked people what they think influences the availability and cost of food. In Kenya the majority identified fuel prices and government policies, while 23 per cent said changes in climate and weather patterns.

Yesterday, the Central Bank of Kenya expressed hope that food inflation would be easing soon "We have a duty to fight inflation and to stabilize domestic prices. With fuel prices responding, we are sure food prices will follow and the volatility in the foreign exchange market will cease and we will be back to pre-crises price levels," CBK governor Njuguna Ndung'u was quoted by Reuters.

March 22, 2011

by Robert Kropp

On the occasion of the President's visit to the country, Oxfam calls on him to support the government in a trade dispute with a gold mining company.

SocialFunds.com -- President Obama arrives in El Salvador today as part of his Latin America tour, and Oxfam America has taken the occasion to highlight the environmental and human rights impacts of mining practices in that country.

In a press conference held yesterday, Keith Slack, Senior Policy Advisor for Oxfam America, referred to those impacts, saying, "Serious human rights problems have been going on for quite some time. In 2009, three people involved in the opposition to mining in El Salvador were killed."

One of those murdered, Gustavo Marcelo, was a community leader and environmental activist who led the resistance against the mining activities of Pacific Rim Mining, a Canadian corporation. In June, 2009, his body was found, showing signs of having been tortured.

Basing its right to mine in El Salvador on the United States-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), enacted under former President W. Bush, Pacific Rim has sued the government of El Salvador in international courts, demanding either $77 million in losses or the right to mine in the country.

Having received exploration permits from the government in power then, Pacific Rim began gold mining exploration in El Salvador in 2002, investing $80 million in the discovery of numerous gold mining sites in the northern region of the country. However, as environmental concerns mounted, a popular movement arose in El Salvador; according to Oxfam, 96% of El Salvador's surface water is contaminated, and only three percent of original forest cover still stands.

Responding to the popular movement, the government of El Salvador refused to issue permits for gold extraction, and in fact issued a moratorium on mining projects in the country. Pacific Rim then sued the Salvadoran government under a chapter of CAFTA which allows corporations to sue governments when their potential for profit is thwarted.

Because it is headquartered in Canada, which is not a signatory to CAFTA, Pacific Rim transferred a subsidiary to Nevada to take advantage of the agreement. However, the US is a signatory, and thus has the right to intervene in such disputes as the one in El Salvador.

Oxfam's Right to Know, Right to Decide campaign emphasizes the importance of free, prior, and informed consent by communities that would be affected by such mining activities as those pursued by Pacific Rim. According to Oxfam, the principle "means that communities have a meaningful voice in decision-making about whether oil, gas, and mining projects are built on their land." The principle "has been recognized by intergovernmental organizations and international bodies and increasingly in the laws of states," Oxfam continued.

In its 2009 report, Metals Mining and Sustainable Development in Central America: An Assessment of Benefits and Costs, Oxfam found that despite its long history, mining in El Salvador and other Central American has never played a significant role in their economies. As Raymond Offenheiser, President of Oxfam America, stated upon the publication of the report, "Metals mining is often associated with vast wealth. Unfortunately, this is not the reality in many developing countries where natural resources continuously fail to contribute to the long-term reduction of poverty and communities have little say in how the industry affects their lands and livelihoods."

Stack of Oxfam American added at the time, "Communities closest to the mines almost invariably suffer."

Urging President Obama to use such proposed strategies as his Partnerships for Growth to develop "a more coordinated US approach with countries that have shown a strong commitment to good governance and sustainable development," Offenheiser stated, "The Salvadoran government has recognized that not all foreign investment is good for the country. The Obama administration should help ensure that El Salvador's development strategy is in the best interest of the people and protects human rights and the environment."

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed by Congress last summer directed the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to address disclosures by extractive industries, a development which has been applauded by many sustainable investors. Speaking with SocialFunds.com about the proposed regulations, Paul Bugala, Sustainability Analyst for Extractive Industries at Calvert, said, "Companies get the investors that they ask for. The disclosures included in Dodd-Frank recognize an environment in which ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) risks are material for high-risk industries."

Last fall, demonstrators in Cambridge, Massachusetts demanded that TIFF Advisory Services, an investment manager for nonprofit organizations, divest its holdings in Pacific Rim. The demonstration was organized by Miguel Rivera, the brother of the slain Salvadoran activist.

In March of this year, a lawsuit filed against the government of El Salvador by Commerce Group and San Sebastian Gold Mines, alleging breaches of CAFTA similar to those involved in the Pacific Rim suit, was dismissed by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

Determining "that the dispute is not within its jurisdiction and competence pursuant to CAFTA," the ICSID Tribunal found entirely in favor of the government of El Salvador.

Read the original article here.

100th Anniversary of International Women's Day Celebrated with 100 Events Across the Country

BOSTON, March 8, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- International humanitarian organization Oxfam America joined a number of groups, churches and corporations around the country to mark the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day with more than 100 events this month to raise awareness about the struggles millions of poor women still face today.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080221/DC14723LOGO)

"Hunger and poverty affect women and men alike, but because women make up the majority of those living below the poverty line, they carry the heaviest burdens," said Vicky Rateau, Economic Justice Campaign Manager with Oxfam America. "While most of us think of hunger as lack of food, it is actually lack of power. We grow enough food to feed everyone, yet hundreds of millions of women continue to go hungry. On this anniversary of International Women's Day, we organized ourselves to not forget about these women around the world who will go to bed hungry so their family can eat instead."

Thousands of Americans from Ames, to Austin to Atlanta are participating in Oxfam America Hunger Banquets, house parties, film screenings or panel discussions to celebrate and learn about the plight of women around the world. The events also aim to draw attention to ongoing budget debates in Congress that could lead to cuts in life-saving programs, such as disaster preparedness and food security, which benefit vulnerable communities around the world.

"In Italy, women are given flowers on International Women's Day. In Cameroon, women dance on the streets, and in China women get the day off," said Rateau. "From Salem to Spokane, we're starting a dialogue about food injustices and their global dimensions to honor the rights that women have gained over the last 100 years, but also remember the struggles of women who will still go to bed hungry tonight."

Women grow a majority of the food in many developing countries, but they often grow hungry. Around the world 925 million people do not have enough food to eat, and women and young children are especially vulnerable. Climate change is only set to make things worse. Nangatio Ivette Cisse, a Malian farmer and treasurer of Mouvement Biologique Mali (MoBioM), an umbrella organization for 76 village co-operatives that grow organic and Fairtrade certified cotton and mangoes in Mali, was a special guest at a number of events.

"Women are always the first ones to rise and the last ones to go to bed," said Cisse through a translator.  "It's hard work to be a woman farmer, and you have to do it with a child on your back."

In many poor countries, women are the ones who collect food, water and fuel, maintain the home and look after the children. When food is scarce, women often eat less so other family members can have enough. Most of these rural women rely on farming to earn a living. But although women produce most of the world's food, they often lack access to vital resources, like a steady source of water or a market where they can sell their crops for a fair price. Climate change poses an added threat, with erratic rainfall and droughts that disrupt the growing season and risk further hunger. Meanwhile, women have fewer opportunities to learn new skills, access credit or find well paying jobs. Seventy five percent of the worlds 876 illiterate adults are women.

Oxfam Ambassador and Sex and the City actor, Kristin Davis, participated in a private Oxfam event in Los Angeles and said, "In my travels with Oxfam, I have been amazed by the women farmers I have met in African countries. Women farmers grow most of the food in the poor countries around the world, often without having equal rights to the land. And they are greatly affected by climate change. These women hold the keys to solving global hunger if they are given a voice and equality in their communities."

"Human rights are not contingent on gender, ethnicity or money in the bank," continued Rateau. "Human rights are fundamental and non-negotiable. In a world where there is still plenty of food, no one should go hungry no matter who she is and where she lives."

NOTES:

Oxfam national partners for International Women's Day events include: Buddhist Global Relief, Africare, National Catholic Rural Life Conference, League of Women Voters, Maryknoll Office of Global Concerns, ActionAid, Heart Circle Sangha, Church World Service, Small Planet Institute, National Peace Corps Association, Phap Nguyen Buddhist Congregation, Foundation for Violence-Free Homes Sacred Family, F.I.S.H. Foundation, Inc., Women Thrive, Life for Relief and Development, Foundation for Violence-Free Homes Sacred Family, IMA World Health, Phap Nguyen Buddhist Congregation, Center for Interfaith Action on Global Poverty, United Methodist Women, Women's Environment and Development Organization, American Jewish World Service, National Council of Jewish Woman, William Velasquez Institute, and Levi Strauss & Co.

Background in International Women's Day: In March 1911, more than a million women and men around the world took to the streets in rallies calling for discrimination against women to stop, demanding women's rights to work, vote, be trained and hold public office. This March, 100 years later, many women and men are coming together to mark this significant anniversary. We at Oxfam have chosen to mark the anniversary by calling attention to the oppression, poverty and hunger that continues to harm hundreds of millions of women around the world.

Oxfam America is an international relief and development organization that creates lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and injustice. Together with individuals and local groups in 99 countries, Oxfam saves lives, helps people overcome poverty, and fights for social justice. Oxfam America is an affiliate of Oxfam. To join our efforts or learn more, go to www.oxfamamerica.org.