Two women take on heritage organisation over its contract with the chocolate maker

In one corner were two women, a teacher and a graphic designer, from Cambridgeshire. In the other was the guardian of the country’s heritage and green spaces. Both were engaged in a high-intensity battle – over chocolate.

The usually staid proceedings of the National Trust annual general meeting in Swindon yesterday erupted into a heated row about the conservation charity’s longstanding deal with one of the largest confectionery giants in the world.

Two members – Rosanna Bienzobas and Suzanne Morris – had put forward a motion that could have brought to an end Cadbury’s high-profile sponsorship of the trust’s popular Easter egg hunts, which generate more than £7m each year for the charity. Bienzobas and Morris argued that the palm oil used in Cadbury chocolate was fuelling a “climate and extinction crisis”, making it incompatible with the trust’s aims to protect valuable environments.

In the end the trust’s board defeated the women’s efforts by more than 7,643 votes in a ballot of the trust’s more than five million members after nearly 13,000 voted to end the partnership with Cadbury and just over 20,000 voted to see out the contract.

But this was not before a tempestuous debate which at one point featured Bruce Cadbury, whose great-grandfather founded the firm, who turned up to support the women.

He said the company had lost its Quaker values: “The whole brand name has been diluted. I’m very much in favour of terminating this [the contract with Cadbury] early.”

Bienzobas and Morris, who are friends and have children of a similar age, decided to take on the combined might of National Trust and Mondelēz, Cadbury’s parent company, while visiting one of the charity’s properties last Easter.

“We were incensed that a highly respected conservation charity would be using a product that is responsible for the destruction of the rainforest,” said Bienzobas.

The pair say they were invited to a face-to-face meeting in which the trust’s most senior managers, including the director general, Hilary McGrady, begged them to withdraw the motion. But the pair pressed ahead and obtained the 50 signatures necessary to submit a motion within a week. “I asked everybody I could think of at my church and at the school,” said Bienzobas.

We were incensed that a conservation charity would be using a product responsible for the destruction of the rainforest Rosanna Bieonzobas

The 46-year-old, who has been a lifelong member of the National Trust, broke down in tears after the result was announced.

“I’m so disappointed that money has won yet again – because they [The National Trust] could stop this now. The rainforests are being cut down now,” she said.

Morris, who has volunteered in trust properties near her home, said she was heartbroken. “They had a chance with this to be a real leader on climate change and a real leader against dirty palm oil,” she said.

During the hour-long debate in the town’s rail museum, the organisation’s trustees pleaded with members not to pull out of the contract early. “If we did want to get out it would be quite a legal wrangle and it would cost several million pounds,” said Sharon Pickford, the trust’s director of revenue.

The trust argued Mondelēz had provided assurances it was addressing environmental issues. “We believe that the actions that we have in hand will address the concerns raised while being fair to a supplier who has been a valuable partner to us for many years,” it said in statement.

However, Bienzobas, who is a language teacher, told the 500-strong meeting that the organisation could not wait because rainforest were being cut down by Mondelēz palm oil suppliers: “Cadbury is profiting from dirty and destructive environmental practices. Is it right that the National Trust should indirectly profit from these practices by continuing in partnership with such a company?”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Egg hunts generate over £7m a year for the charity. Photograph: Sam Frost/The Guardian

She added that Mondelēz palm oil suppliers have been accused of serious human rights abuses by Amnesty International.

“Palm oil suppliers to Cadbury’s parent company Mondelēz have also been accused of exploitation, including subjecting migrant workers to forced labour, exploiting victims of trafficking and child labour,” she said.

Greenpeace described the trust’s position as confused and urged it break its ties to Mondelēz, which it said continued to buy palm oil from producers destroying rainforest.

“If the trust really wants to help tackle the climate emergency and stand by its family-friendly slogan, partnering with Cadbury is definitely not the way to do it,” said Richard George, Greenpeace UK’s head of forests.

Mondelēz said it was delighted that National Trust members had shown their support for the Cadbury partnership. The firm said it was fully committed to using sustainable palm oil.

“We are also actively working with our suppliers to ensure the eradication of deforestation in the production of palm oil,” said a spokesperson. It added that it was committed to eradicating human rights violations in the palm oil supply chain.

The National Trust said it was pleased thousands of people could continue to enjoy Easter trails. “Cadbury has been an important partner for 12 years, and has financially supported us as well as helped develop our Easter trails into the huge success we see today,” said a spokesperson. But the charity added that it would be considering other suppliers when the contract with Cadbury ended in 2021.

Last year it emerged the National Trust invested over £30m in oil, gas and mining firms, including BP and Shell, via a portfolio fund. After an outcry from environmentalists and MPs, the charity announced in July it would cease any investment in fossil fuel firms within the next three years.

Members clashed with the trust’s ruling body in 2017 when a motion to ban trail hunting on the organisation’s land was only narrowly defeated by the use of proxy votes, which can be used by the discretion of other members and the trust’s board.

Earlier that same year, the trust was criticised when it dropped the word “Easter” from its Cadbury-branded egg hunts, with Jeremy Corbyn saying “commercialism had gone too far”, and the then PM, Theresa May, saying it was “absolutely ridiculous”.