Eating Halloween candy isn't the guiltless childhood pleasure it once was. Did you know the chocolate industry supports the child slave trade in Africa? Although the major chocolate companies have been pushing off their pledge to change this practice, there is a way you can help spread the word about this important issue.
Grist spoke with a chocolate products coordinator at the fair trade co-op Equal Exchange, who gave some background on the connection between chocolate and the child slave trade. According to the U.S. State Department, over 100,000 children work on cocoa farms on the Ivory Coast, which supply about half the chocolate eaten in the U.S. A 2001 investigation revealed children as young as nine doing the difficult work of harvesting cocoa beans, in exchange for "beatings, inadequate meals, and little or no pay in return."
Although major chocolate companies like Hershey's and Cadbury signed a protocol to create a certification system that would end the industry's reliance on child labor by 2005, the companies keep pushing back the deadline, while at the same time trying to dilute the protocol's goals.
So what is a concerned consumer to do with this depressing news on one of the biggest chocolate-eating holidays of the year? A widespread chocolate boycott could actually worsen conditions for child laborers, so Equal Exchange and the human rights group Global Exchange suggest spreading the word through "reverse trick-or-treating." When trick-or-treaters receive a piece of candy, they give along with their thank-yous a piece of fair-trade chocolate, spreading the word through "a simple public awareness campaign with added power because the message comes from children whose peers on the other side of the world are enduring a real-life hardship."
Visit the campaign's website to download free printable flyers, which can be handed out with the chocolate or passed out on their own, if fair-trade chocolate is out of your price range. As public awareness grows, the chocolate companies could be pressured into ensuring our Halloween treats are made for children, not by them.
• Read the article: Scare trade: Halloween candy you can feel good about at Grist
• Check out the campaign: Reverse Trick-or-Treating at Global Exchange
Did you know about this issue? Does it change how you feel about chocolate?
Related: Behind the Scenes With Taza: How Chocolate is Made
(Image: Flickr member Magic Madzik licensed under Creative Commons)
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Good to see Fair Trade here. Needs to be put out there more often.
Thank you SO MUCH for pointing out that a simple boycott, though it feels good, often only makes things worse for vulnerable workers and for proposing a very interesting alternative.
Thanks for this post - it's near and dear to my heart.
I make filled chocolates using certified slave-labor-free chocolate but then put the profits into micro loans in areas where slave-labor in cacao production still exists. Why? By diversifying industry in those areas where slave-labor is in use parents have more choices about supporting their families and keeping them together.
For now, it's just me producing large scale custom orders for a few devoted clients, my hope is to one day open a full-time operation brick & mortar & online. BTW "one day" was supposed to be this year but after a layoff it pushed back the plan a bit.
when I see something - 'fair trade' - everywhere, without knowing what it means in practical terms it just becomes meaningless. thanks for cluing me in to who I'm helping when I buy chocolate with a conscience.
Conditions are similar for sugar production. I recently did relief work in the Dominican Republic and was shocked at the horrifying conditions the (mostly Haitian) workers and their families endure on sugar cane plantations (bateys) there.
We pay $0.99 for a box of Domino sugar, and these people suffer making 30 pesos (less than 1 US$) for hauling 3-5 tons of sugar cane a day, with little to no access to education, plumbing, healthcare. And their kids live in a state of constant malnutrition -- just a few miles from lavish resorts with overflowing buffets.
But I also struggle with my decision to boycott mainstream sugar production, as I know it may harm them more. No easy answer.
People I have spoken with about child slave labor within the chocolate industry simply don't want to think about it as long as they can have their Hershey's kisses and M&M's, so thank you very much for pointing this out. I buy only fair trade chocolate and am hoping that with time it will become more available and less expensive. Please continue to keep us posted. Thank you!
I knew there was a reason I pay that "super" premium for Green&Blacks...beside it being organic and super delicious!