This Valentine's day make sure you are not supporting slavery. Be careful what chocolate you buy. Much of it is harvested by slaves. So instead of getting the least expensive chocolates consider that perhaps the reason it is so cheap is they don't pay their "workers." Americans spend over 10 billion dollars this Valentine's Day on chocolate. And the average American citizen eats over 11 pounds of chocolate a year. So this Valentine, use your money to let them know that child slavery will not be tolerated by American consumers.
Lawsuits have been filed against eight companies – including Hershey, Mars, and Nestle – alleging that the companies were duping consumers into “unwittingly” funding the child slave labor trade in West Africa, home to two-thirds of the world’s cacao beans.
Child Slavery and Chocolate
A Tulane University study found a “projected total of 819,921 children in Ivory Coast and 997,357 children in Ghana worked on cocoa-related activities” in 2007-2008. (I use the term “work” loosely: That implies payment, when most of these children are in fact slaves who are imprisoned on farms, beaten for trying to leave, and denied any wages.)
Worker ages range from 11-16 (sometimes younger). They are trapped in isolated farms, where they work 80 to 100 hours a week. The film Slavery: A Global Investigation spoke with freed children who reported that they were often beaten with fists and belts and whips.
“The beatings were a part of my life,” Aly Diabate, a freed slave, told reporters. “Anytime they loaded you with bags (of cocoa beans) and you fell while carrying them, nobody helped you. Instead they beat you and beat you until you picked it up again.”
Don’t Buy From These Chocolate Companies
To help you avoid supporting slavery this Valentine's Day, Here are seven chocolate companies that benefit from child slave labor:
Hershey
Mars
Nestle
ADM Cocoa
Godiva
Fowler’s Chocolate
Kraft
Legislation nearly passed in 2001 in which the FDA would implement “slave free” labeling on the packaging. Before the legislation made it to a vote, the chocolate industry – including Nestle, Hershey, and Mars – used its corporate money to stop it by “promising” to self-regulate and end child slavery in their businesses by 2005. This deadline has repeatedly been pushed back, with the current goal now at 2020.
Meanwhile, the number of children working in the cocoa industry has increased by 51 percent from 2009 to 2014.
As one freed child put it: “They enjoy something I suffered to make; I worked hard for them but saw no benefit. They are eating my flesh.”
Buy these instead:
FAST FACTS: Fair Trade Certified Cocoa
Cocoa and the Small-Scale Family Farm
• 90% of the world’s cocoa is grown on small family farms of 12 acres or less.
• Lack of access to credit and the market often forces small cocoa growers to sell to middlemen, receiving a fraction of their harvest’s value.
• Small family farms produce an average of about 350 lbs. of cocoa per acre, and average annual cocoa revenues range from US$30 to US$110 per household member.1
• In West Africa, cocoa production is labor-intensive and, despite low earnings, usually contributes the majority of a household’s income. To hold down costs, the entire family unit often participates in farming.
Fair Trade Cocoa
• Farmers who produce Fair Trade cocoa are guaranteed a fair price: a minimum of $1750 per metric ton ($1950 per metric ton organic). If the world price rises above $1600 per metric ton, the Fair Trade price meets the world price and adds a $150 Fair Trade premium per metric ton plus an additional $200 per metric ton for organic.
• Many Fair Trade co-ops use their additional income for community projects, such as building schools and healthcare centers, as well as providing training in organic farming techniques.
• Importers of Fair Trade products may provide prefinancing to farmers of up to 60% of the contract value prior to harvest. In 2002, Fair Trade importers offered $840,000 in pre-harvest financing.
• Over 50,000 cocoa growers in eleven countries are members of Fair Trade cooperatives. Fair Trade cocoa co-ops can be found in Belize, Bolivia, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ghana, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Nicaragua, and Peru.
• Fair Trade cocoa is grown under a canopy of indigenous plant life, preserving biodiversity. Almost fifty percent is also certified organic.
• Critical acclaim for Fair Trade cocoa and chocolate includes: Bon Appétit “Featured Best Chocolates” and American Culinary Institute “Best Tasting Organic Hot Chocolate.” Cocoa World Market
• The US chocolate industry generated $13.7 billion in retail sales in 2000.2
• 46% of Americans say they can’t live without chocolate.3 Americans consumed 3.3 billion pounds of it in 2000.4
• The world’s largest producer of cocoa is Ivory Coast, with a share of 43%, followed by Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil, and Cameroon.5
• Many developing world economies depend heavily on the cocoa industry; cocoa comprises 40% of Ivory Coast’s export earnings and 30% of Ghana’s.6
• 14 million people are directly involved in cocoa production, according to the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO).7
Cocoa and Child Labor
• In the Ivory Coast, 87% of the permanent labor used in cocoa farming comes from the family.8
• More than 60% of working children on West African cocoa farms are below the age of 14.9
• Children often take part in dangerous cocoa-farming tasks, such as the clearing of fields with machetes and the application of pesticides.10
• Both boys and girls are employed in cocoa farming, and on cocoa farms, girls are often less likely to attend school.11
• In the Ivory Coast, one-third of cocoa farmers’ children have never attended school. Children who do not work on farms are 30% more likely to enroll in school than children who do.12
1 Summary of Findings from the Child Labor Surveys in the Cocoa Sector of West Africa: Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria, by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture. July 2002.
2 “America’s Growing Taste for Chocolate,” Prepared Foods. June 2001.
4 www.wholefoods.com/recipes/tips_choc-history.html
5 Summary of Findings from the Child Labor Surveys in the Cocoa Sector of West Africa: Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria, by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture. July 2002.
6 www.sierraclub.ca/national/media/item.shtml?x=369
7 www.developments.org.uk/data/ issue25/chocolate-pieces.htm
8 Summary of Findings from the Child Labor Surveys in the Cocoa Sector of West Africa: Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria, by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture. July 2002.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid.
