The Bitter Truth About Chocolate
by Team Treehugger, Worldwide on 02. 1.07
[This is a guest post by Tex Dworkin of the Global Exchange Fair Trade Online Store -Ed.] This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Hershey's kiss, and yet a celebration is hardly in order. Why? Because with each bite, we are reminded that most chocolate sold in the U.S. comes from cocoa farms where farmers work in unsafe conditions, receive below poverty wages, many of them children under 14 years old who are forced to work and denied education.
With another Valentine's Day approaching, happy couples will wine and dine, showering each other with flowers, jewelry, and chocolate. Unfortunately, knowing where most chocolate comes from makes it hard to swallow!
It's 2007, and people are finally starting to question where the products they buy are made and whether the workers who made them were treated fairly. Sweatshop-free apparel is becoming hip, and Fair Trade coffee is at least a blip on the map. Yet chocolate is still being made with cocoa beans harvested by children in Africa working in unsafe conditions, while the average consumer has no idea this is going on.
The truth behind chocolate is not-so-sweet. The Ivory Coast is the world's largest cocoa producer, providing 43% of the world's cocoa. And yet, in 2001 the U.S. State Department reported child slavery on many cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast. A 2002 report from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture about cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast and other African countries estimated there were 284,000 children working on cocoa farms in hazardous conditions. U.S. chocolate manufacturers have claimed they are not responsible for the conditions on cocoa plantations since they don't own them.
Chocolate comes from cocoa, and the cocoa supply is controlled by a small number of companies worldwide that are allowed to function with limited accountability. Hershey's and M&M/Mars alone control two-thirds of the $13 billion U.S. chocolate candy market. The result? An industry marred with child slavery, unsafe working conditions and a cycle of poverty with no end in sight for cocoa farmers. Chocolate companies are not held accountable for sourcing practices, and despite their knowledge about the travesties that occur on cocoa farms, they lack the will to change.
The U.S. chocolate industry has faced multiple deadlines requiring new protocol, and yet little has changed. Under pressure from Congress, in the Harken-Engel Protocol, the U.S. chocolate industry agreed to voluntarily take steps to end child slavery on cocoa farms by July of 2005. This deadline has since passed, and the chocolate industry has failed to comply with the terms of this agreement.
So in July 2005, International Labor Rights Fund filed suit against Nestlé in Federal District Court on behalf of a class of children who were trafficked from Mali into the Ivory Coast and forced to work twelve to fourteen hours a day with no pay, little food and sleep, and frequent beatings. What was Nestlé's response to court questioning? "We are only buyers of a product.”
There are a plethora of examples of company leaders who were publicly criticized for selling clothing lines manufactured by sweatshop workers, Kathy Lee Gifford and designer Jessica McClintock to name a few. Chocolate companies should be held accountable for the conditions of cocoa producers they buy from.
Consumers can hold chocolate companies accountable by choosing only Fair Trade Certified chocolate. It's easy to do. Simply look for TransFair USA's Fair Trade logo on the package. TransFair is the only third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the U.S. Fair Trade Certified chocolate ensures that no forced or abusive child labor was used. If consumer demand for Fair Trade chocolate increases, perhaps chocolate companies will alter their practices. Thus, buying Fair Trade chocolate can put an end to the disastrous cycle of poverty and child endangerment.
It is estimated that Fair Trade chocolate represents less than 1% of the world's roughly $60 billion chocolate market. According to the Chocolate Manufacturers Association and National Confectioners Association, in 2005 more than 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate were sold for Valentine's Day. How many hours of exploited child labor went into those boxes of chocolate?
So what's a chocolate lover to do? Choose Fair Trade chocolate this Valentine's Day, a sweet deal for loved ones and cocoa farmers.
See also: ::Book Review: Bitter Chocolate
[This is a guest post by Tex Dworkin of the Global Exchange Fair Trade Online Store -Ed.]
and fair trade/organic chocolate just TASTES BETTER. hersheys makes me want to gag!
Thanks for this great post! You can also find out more about child labor and the cocoa industry by visiting the International Labor Rights Fund's website at http://www.laborrights.org. The cocoa part of the site is: http://www.laborrights.org/projects/childlab/cocoa.htm. The ILRF also has a blog here: http://laborrightsblog.typepad.com/.
I love chocolate! I can eat a ton of it ... but really good chocolate is hard to find. Luckily here in the UK, there are several places that make it ... for some of my favs, see http://www.rtp3.com/wp/archives/454
Cheers!
In the US and Canada you can buy fair trade chocolate
and other goods at Ten Thousand Villages.
http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/
I highly recommend them.
That's really awesome... though now I feel guilty for purchasing that bag of Hersheys nuggets just because it was half off at my local duane-reades.
It's kind of crazy how much exploitation goes into every bite we eat, isn't it? From coffee to corn, sugar to steak, every meal we have is like a vote for what kind of ethics we're willing to live with.
Maybe it would be a good idea to look up how a company is before bashing them like this. Hershey is actually working to improve farming practices and is promoting sustainable cocoa farming.
Tis all on their website, http://www.thehersheycompany.com/making/cocoa.asp
They even recycle, conserve energy, and support protection of the environment.
Mars is also serious about this now, according to their website.
http://www.mars.com/global/Policies/The+Mars+approach+to+responsible+Cocoa+farming.htm
I don't know what to believe from those two sites, but they seem trustworthy.
Nestle just avoids the issue altogether on their website, as does Ghiradelli..
Sure, Hershey is trying really hard. Right. Huge corporations are honest. Right. Maybe one should do more homework than reading a company's propaganda and then accusing someone of "bashing" them.
Fair Trade/Organic chocolate just TASTES SO BETTER. Galaxy makes me want to have more
I think elaine hit the problem on the nose. No one really knows how much the residents of 1st world countries "prey" on the less developed countries, and its all driven by capitalism and profit. Now I feel capitalism isn't inherently a bad thing, but it needs to be practiced responsibly and ethically.
To heap one depressing thought upon another: what percentage of the developed world actually thinks about the ramifications of what they buy? I'd say an abysmally small percentage -- at least in the US -- consider fair trade or any ethical issues when they go to the grocery store, or to the local fast food joint. The population of US in general is oblivious; we go to the grocery store, buy our corn fattened steaks, processed bread, genetically enhanced green peppers, and February mangoes from Costa Rica and don't even give it a thought.
I think consumer awareness is one of the things that's needs to be tackled along with promoting fair trade. Because right now, the average consumer is going to walk down the isle, see the lower cost of the non-fair trade chocolate, and buy that.
Hershey's is gross anyway. I stopped eating it once I went vegan because it has dairy in it, but it's bad for you anyway. I personally eat Endangered Species chocolate. It's vegan, organic, and fair trade. site : http://chocolatebar.com
I can't believe that Hershey's is making kids work so hard and not paying them. I never want to eat Hershey's chocolate again.
I think that it is just cruel to have poor little people working so hard every day and not even getting paid. I don't see how anybody could be so cruel as to make people work so hard every day with poor living conditions. I am totally against slavery, and I hope everybody who reads this feels the same way as me. Hershey chocolate, now knowing about this, is something that I never want to be eating again.
It's sad that so many people are manipulated all over the world. Adidas, Nike...... everywhere you turn, it's abuse. How can human biengs be so cruel to their own kind as well as mother earth?
bad chocolate
oh man I didn't know how bad this is, I'm going to add this to my ever growing list of things to boycott,share and educate!
who came up with chocolate and what brand and what year?
I dont really care where chocolate comes from. I still love it and that text aint gonna make me stop eating it ahahahahaha
I dunno, I think in some sense, every big conglomerate in the world has some drudgery and untoward practices under the table; t includes the shoe industry, clothing and food.
They all seem to have a main workshop in third world countries, cause let's face its cheaper for them.
I'm not saying lets keep on supporting these companies, and it really is a shame that they do these workers disservice for being jerks but what can we do in a more rational and pro active way?
in our opinion we think that child labor is very wrong! it takes away there childhood and the plantations they work on are very dangerous
well, it is all about who says what to whom. Africa is the "mothr continent" yet the baby continents comes and exploit it to their selfish interest thanks to our inhuman political leaders.
The various comuntries become their backyards. the like of Cameroon!!!!!, Cote D'ivoire, DRC, Central Afrique, Tchad, the notorious Sudan the list goes on.
Even Jesus Christ Came and left, one day we will rise to fall no more. God help Africa.
Bottom line, boycott *all* african products. There is not one african product that doesn't have this sort of thing happening. For some reason our US politicians and companies keep trying to slip african things on us and it always goes this way. Send a message to the lot of them... No more african products.
There is no conceivable reason not to make the choice for Fair Trade chocolate
thanks for the article
The facts in here are outdated and taken out of context. Visit the websites for the International Cocoa Initiative and and World Cocoa Foundation for updated stats about the situation, clarification about what child labor really is, and what progress is being made on this issue.
Ilove it
Chocolate good. YUM YUM
Yum CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!