Blogs
Another Reason Not To Eat Chocolate - Child Labor
TreeHugger reports that a big chunk of the world's chocolate supply is tainted- by child labor practices in the Ivory Coast. Hershey's and Mars buy their cacao from big conglomerates ADM and Cargills who (of course, being kinda evil) buy it from Ivory Coast among other equatorial African growing countries. Nearly 300,000 children are employed in the Ivory Coast cacao fields. Dammit! No more Snickers for me!
Luckily the Green Guide has a handy-dandy chart so you'll know what chocolate you can buy... guilt-free! They include prices and links so you should have no problems figuring out how to navigate this chocolate minefield. ADM and Cargills need to put their giant, uber-rich, insanely influential foot down and end child labor in the cacao fields- and until they do I have no desire to reward them with my purchasing dollars.
Luckily the Green Guide has a handy-dandy chart so you'll know what chocolate you can buy... guilt-free! They include prices and links so you should have no problems figuring out how to navigate this chocolate minefield. ADM and Cargills need to put their giant, uber-rich, insanely influential foot down and end child labor in the cacao fields- and until they do I have no desire to reward them with my purchasing dollars.
Although they're not on the list, Scharffen Berger has been very outspoken about the labor issue and makes a big deal (whenever you visit the factory or see them at food shows) about the fact that their chocolate is free from child labor. Although now that they've been sold I don't know if things have changed.
Reply to this
Oh... definitely worth looking into, since Scharffen Berger is so delicious. When I tried to research this issue, it was pretty confusing. This (very outdated) article seems to suggest that the problem is actually that some chocolate producers, including SB (pre-purchase), are trying to be good but can't always tell where their stuff is coming from. But now that Hershey bought it- sounds like it might be even more murky.
Reply to this
Child labout is a monster which is engulfing the life of innocent children. Here specially in India child labour is a very common crime. One side we have big corportate houses of telecom,currency">http://www.forexfloor.com">currency trading finance, IT, and almost in every field we have progressed, still we are not be able to stop child labour completely. These small children working in factories and industries, becuase they must be needy, hungry or forced by their parents or some cruel peoples, who targets them
But this should not be happen, we must stand together to stop this hazard which is going to destroy the future of the kids.
Reply to this