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CONSUMER PLEDGE

I want to live my life free of the taint of slavery. I want to buy my products from companies committed to eradicating slavery from their supply chains. I will support corporations who take on this responsibility.

By signing the consumer pledge you agree to receive updates from ASSET on actions you can take to combat slavery and human trafficking.

There are 27 million slaves in the world today. The vast majority of slaves are found in agriculture and mining, growing and extracting the raw materials that sustain our modern lives. They can be found in the far reaches of the globe and just down the street-in every developing nation, and every developed one. Indeed, 200 years after the United States abolished the mid Atlantic slave trade, the taint of slavery touches not only our national history but also our clothing, our food, and our technology.

Slavery exists in cotton, steel, sugar, computer and cell phone components-just to name a few. Right now, even well-intentioned companies are faced with an opaque commodities market and public ignorance of slavery's scale. When slavery is found, it is seen as a demerit on an individual company and many existing NGO's and consumers are quick to employ history's most effective tactic-the boycott-failing to understand that much of slavery's taint is just that, a small percentage of a large input, and boycotting threatens an honest, struggling community. Nevertheless, environments that have cheap labor are especially disposed to be tainted with slavery and all beneficiaries-governments, corporations, and consumers--have a responsibility to more seriously investigate illegal activity within supply chains rather than passing the buck to host countries, while profiting from the cheap wages.