Why you should think twice about indulging in this delectable sin

     Over the last weekend Rick and I ran across some good things on-demand. We watched Walmart – The High Cost of Low Prices and a couple of episodes of Bill Nye about breakfast and dinner foods and their poor effects on our world.
     One of the most shocking, that I had never heard about was chocolate and child/slave labor. Because of what I learned, I will no longer buy chocolate that is not labels “fair trade”.
     Let’s cover a couple of basics: What is “fair trade”? Fair Trade USA defines it as having the following principals: fair price for the farmers, fair labor conditions (no child labor!), direct trade (gets rid of middlemen), democratic and transparent organizations (farmers and workers decide democratically how to use/invest revenues), community development, and environmentally sustainability. Sounds great! It is the way it should always be. Unfortunately, this is the exception not the norm.
     Where does chocolate or cocoa come from? The biggest exporter is Cote d’Ivoire, a western African country riddled with poverty. Other countries export including Ghana and Papua New Guinea. Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) produces 43% of the world’s cocoa. Because of the poverty in this country and other surrounding countries, children often go looking for work so they may send home earnings to their families for survival. Sadly, in Mali, where many of these children are from, the children are tricked (or kidnapped) into traveling out of the area for promised “jobs” in Cote d’Ivoire and are sold into slavery. There they are sent to farms to grow cacao (sometimes cotton, coffee and other exports). They are give very little to eat and beaten if they do not work well enough. These boys vary in age between 9-16. These working children also can include the farmer’s own children. The farmer’s rarely receive fair compensation for the exports so they cannot pay tuition for their kids to go to school.
     Why child labor, why poverty, why unsafe conditions? One reason is the price for cocoa is not stable but can fluctuate, and has been below the cost of production for many years (though it does seem to be on the rise). Poverty is a cycle often goes unbroken because the parents of the children cannot afford to send their children to school either for general education or for a vocation. Sometimes by sending their kids away, they are hoping that the children will learn a trade and be able to help by sending money home.
Many of the parents are forced to sell their kids hoping that the new situation would be better than the old.
     Since most of these people are born into poverty it certainly cannot be their fault. They should not have children working from very young ages in but what is the solution?
     Let’s remember that often with exporting there are the “middlemen”. How much money do they get? How can these people deal with farms that have slaves? How do we stabilize the cocoa price to keep it above the cost of production? What about the chocolate industry on our side? Did you know that Hersey’s and M&M/Mars control two thirds of the US chocolate candy market? Shouldn’t they take responsibility and buy only from fair trade farms? That would hurt their profits of $13 billion. Billion. I think they can spare a few more dollars. For many years they argued that is was not their problem. Then in 2001 after some unflattering media, they decided to change a little. They released their plans to eliminate the worst forms of child labor and slave labor in their industry. I’ll leave my sarcastic comments about large companies and media for another post.
     Great! It is wonderful that they are trying to do some things, even if they were forced by bad media to do it. Should you buy that Hersey bar you love so much? Probably not. If you want to ensure that, you are buying slavery-free chocolate look for something labeled fair trade. While you are at it, go to your local food co-op. They probably carry it already and then you are supporting a local company whose end desire isn’t better stock options.

     Now let’s think about where chocolate can be found. M&M’s of course. The winter treat hot cocoa. Cake, cookies, fudge, even cereal sometimes. All that chocolate (though to be fair much of it is highly diluted) comes from somewhere. Think of all those little arms swinging machetes to cut down the cacao pods for your Valentine or Easter present. What happens if a clumsy child has an accident with the machete? Do you think they are given drugs and their fingers sewn back on? How long do you think they can last if they are crippled? Do you think they have access to wheel chairs and soft blankets? All for that chocolate bunny or chocolate covered almond. How is the taste of child blood spilt for your pleasure? Creamy?

     I feel tainted. I have chocolates in the pantry that I may not be able to eat. I know the damage is done with those – they have been made already, packaged and are far away from Africa. Can I eat them and enjoy it? Nope. It sickens me that we spoiled westernized fat asses know nothing about what is in our food or where it comes from, who handles it and even how old they are.
     I cannot do anything about the chocolate in my cupboard, but I can do something about the chocolate I bring home. No more Dove seasoned with slaves sweat and tears.

Link and sources:

Chocolate and Slavery
The Chocolate Industry: Poverty Behind the Sweetness
U.S. Legislative Initiatives to Stop Abusive Child Labor

     I listed the third link because I thought it was interesting. It was written by Senator Tom Harkin on Iowa. While I think it is wonderful that a senator is taking it upon himself to look beyond our boarders and the middle east, I question all politicians. It is highly suspicious that any man or woman would want to be in charge of making rules. However, they are sometimes the means to our own ends. They write the laws we ask them to (and sometimes ones that we don’t). More research is needed on my part about his plans and laws and others related. While it would be great to say that we should stop importing things tainted with slave labor – we must also consider the repercussions for those whom break the laws. It is pointless to have a law and it not provide a means to enforce it. Hersey’s and M&Ms/Mars will have no reason to stop importing tainted cocoa if they face no serious repercussions.