As a chocoholic, writing this piece makes me feel a little anxious. Almost as though I’m betraying a close (and very tasty) friend. But I’d rather be a traitor, than a hypocrite.
How can I support human rights for everyone, while blissfully munching away on chocolate?
Short answer - I can’t. Not now that I’m aware of the sweat and blood that is mixed into it.
Bitter chocolate:
I’m sure most of us are horrified by the idea of slavery. But every time we buy certain brands of chocolate, this is exactly what we (indirectly) support.
Along the Ivory Coast of West Africa, children are slaving away to produce cocoa for our chocolate.
The problem is that cocoa prices in West Africa have fallen so low that farmers resort to cheap labour.
This means that children are trafficked to work on fields that produce 70% of the world’s cocoa. Around 200 000 children are sold into slavery in West and Central Africa each year, according to UNICEF.
Chocolate manufacturers and exporters still make massive profits, so not everyone involved in this industry is feeling the pinch. Big companies are taking advantage of low cocoa prices, at the cost of people’s freedom and dignity.
Channel 9 recently aired a documentary on this issue, claiming that over 600 000 children work on the Ivory fields. The conditions on many of these farms are appalling and pay is practically non-existent.
The work is back-breaking and children have to deal with dangerous conditions, like being exposed to chemicals and knives.
Children as young as six are forced to work 80 to 100 hours a week, according to World Vision. On some farms, children are expected to live off a few burnt bananas alone. Night time brings little relief to those who are squashed into a tiny room, where the most comfortable sleeping surface is a wooden plank. For many, beatings and malnutrition are a reality and school is just a dream.
So next time you’re melting chocolate in your mouth, think about how it got there. According to earthsave.org most of the brands we love, like Cadbury, Nestle and Kraft get their cocoa from the Ivory Coast. This could mean that if your favourite chocolate isn’t certified fair-trade, some of the cocoa beans could have been picked by a child-slave.
Members of the Chocolate Industry signed a voluntary protocol in 2001. They promised to stop using cocoa produced by child labour by July 2005. They failed to do this and now have until July 2008 to make changes. As customers, it’s up to us to make sure that they keep their promise.
No more chocolate?
Breathe easy, you won’t have to go without! Take it from someone who still enjoys a few squares (and by squares, I mean rows) of fair-trade chocolate every day.
Not only is fair-trade chocolate delicious, it’s ethically produced. Fair-trade companies are strictly against slave labour. Farmers are paid a fair price and all farms are regularly inspected. You can be sure that any chocolate displaying the fair-trade sticker meets ethical standards.
As much as I love chocolate, it’s a luxury, not a necessity. We shouldn’t mind fishing out a few extra bucks for the ethical kind. I’m not suggesting that next time a friend gives you ‘guilty’ chocolate; you peg it back at them in horror. Buying main-stream chocolate less and fair-trade brands more is a good place to start. But if we’re serious about this, ‘guilty’ chocolate shouldn’t sneak into our trolleys at all.
Some organisations believe that boycotting certain brands will do more harm than good, because farmers will be further denied a living. But if the industry doesn’t experience some income loss, there will be no change. Letter writing alone (while important) makes little difference to an industry which values profit over human life.
The idea is to get the big brands following the little guys. If enough people favour fair-trade chocolate, the major brands will (hopefully) cash in on the business. And together, as Chocoholics with a Conscience, we will send the message that exploitation is never ok.
How do I know this?
Chanthavong, S. 2002, Chocolate and Slavery: Child Labor in Cote d’Ivorire, TED Case Studies, http://www.american.edu/ted/chocolate-slave.htm
Global Exchange, 2007, The Chocolate Industry: Abusive Child Labor and Poverty Behind the Sweetness, Global Exchange, http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/
cocoa/background.html
Ninemsn, 2008, The Darker Side of Chocolate, Ninemsn, http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/
feature_stories/article_2395.asp
Robbins, J. 2007, Is There Slavery In Your Chocolate?, EarthSave, http://earthsave.org/newsletters/chocolate.htm
Scheihagen, K. 2005, Boycotts – good or bad?, StopChocolateSlavery, http://vision.ucsd.edu/~kbranson/
stopchocolateslavery/boycotts.html
World Vision, 2008, What is the Real Cost of Chocolate, World Vision, http://www.donttradelives.com.au/dtl/Issues/Chocolate/Default.aspx
Zetterstrom, J. 2008, Ignorance is Bliss, ihscslnews, http://ihscslnews.org/view_article.php?id=182
