Contemporary meat production – which relies on Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs, has industrialized animal agriculture. US pork production alone is expected to reach 22.8 billion pounds in 2009. But do the supposed gains in efficiency make up for the risks to worker, consumer, and environmental health?  As investors who analyze the environmental and social risk management practices of the companies in which we invest -- whether compelled by faith or in the interests of sustainability -- ICCR and its members are working to reform meat industry practices.

The cotton trade is a vast, global industry with a total international trade estimated at $12 billion. In developing countries like Uzbekistan -- the leading cotton exporter after the US, cotton is still picked by hand. Hundreds of thousands of children – many between ten and fifteen years old – are forced out into its fields each year  to manually harvest the bolls, which go on to make their way into name-brand clothing . As investors who apply an extra degree of diligence to our capital markets holdings – whether compelled by faith or in the interests of protecting human rights  – ICCR and its members are taking steps to end this form of modern-day slavery.

Part of the promise of the American Dream is the belief that hard work in the workplace will be justly compensated. Yet even when CEOs perform poorly, they still are compensated handsomely- $10.4 million in salary and bonuses on average among large company CEOs, while minimum wage workers earn just $6.55 an hour, often not enough to sustain their families between pay periods. As investors who apply an extra degree  of diligence to our capital markets holdings– whether compelled by faith or in the interests of good corporate governance – ICCR is working to redress excessive CEO compensation.