Europe Is Dragging Its Feet on Conflict Minerals

Nov 16, 2014 | Huffington Post
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Don't ask, don't tell. This is the deal consumers have long been offered by companies in exchange for cheaper clothes, cheaper food, and cheaper gadgets. Knowing the terms of this deal, it can be difficult to ask too many questions about where or how our favourite products are made, or indeed, know whether we would be able to handle the answers.

Increasingly, however, consumers are becoming braver. We can handle the truth and won't put up with silence. Partly as a result of successful campaigns to document the rise of modern slavery, new legislation will soon require UK companies to disclose what they are doing to ensure their supply chains are "slavery free". But this isn't the first time consumers have demanded to know more about the journey their favourite products make from source to shelves.