Buying Chocolate for Valentine's Day? Think Twice!!

It's Valentine's Day and you are looking across the table at your beloved who is opening the tasty box of chocolates you've bought as a token of your love. What should you be thinking? About the wild sex you are about to have? Of your undying devotion? Of your happy future? I'm going to ruin all that by saying you should think "brought to you by 6.3 million child laborers in Ivory Coast and Ghana."

Sorry to chill down your molten feelings, but more than half of the world's chocolate comes from these areas in Africa in which children under 14 do brutally heavy work, apply pesticides, are hurt by machetes, unfair labor practices, and many of them are actually slaves stolen from their families.

While it may be mean of me to ruin your Valentine's Day, it's much meaner to ignore the globalized route of the truffle. This holiday, the American Federation of Teachers is asking you to write to let the US government know that you are concerned. http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/ValentineToVilsack

And you can eat chocolate with a clear conscience, but to do that you have to buy Fair Trade chocolate or chocolate you know for sure has come from South America or areas other than Africa. And remember that the chocolate in your ice cream, cookies, and lovely hot chocolate all have a 50 percent chance of coming from the sweat and tears of these laboring children unless the ingredients state otherwise. Here's a list of slave-free chocolate: http://vision.ucsd.edu/~kbranson/stopchocolateslavery/goodchocolateproducts.html

 

 

 

Follow Lennard Davis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lendavis

Comments

[Obediah]

12:28 PM on 02/25/2010

I take your point about the evils of child slavery - not sure where you draw the line though when it comes to small cocoa farmers using their own children to help reap the crop - as a way of making money for them to go to school and be fed and so on. Also, it could be argued that many of the products we buy from China - i.e. virtually everything we buy, is dirt cheap because of extremely low wages that could be seen as a type of slavery as well. Should we also stop buying Chinese goods as a consequence?

[Alain Bouabr]

07:06 AM on 02/11/2010

I am actually from Ivory coast, the country that Mr Davis is talking about. This is pure invention from a "distinguished" professor. I guess he is trying to ruin 6.3 millions of people depending on that farming. You are not giving any source of information, any facts about slavering in my country, you're just pretending that you know the TRUTH. As a matter of fact this is another lie, Michaël Finkel (2005) in the same line admitted everything was fake in is book, pure invention. I am not saying that there is no slavery in the world, even in your country, but you'are way behind the actual fact. For your own information, you should know that to have a certified label, costs money to the same poor farmers, the only organisation that was able to give them that leverage in my country has been forced by the IMF to shutdown, leaving the farmers alone without resources against your same american companies with their "certified" labels.

[Stepanee77]

01:07 AM on 02/11/2010

This article has some misconceptions and reference old information, some 5-10 yrs old

Organic certification doesn't guarantee fair prices or labor. It governs farming and manufacturing processes, prohibiting synthetic agrochemicals and ingredients. Huge processors mix organic beans from all origins and don't disclosing sources.

Fair Trade Certified (TM) isn't the only certification that prohibits slavery and child labor. IMO Fair For Life, Utz and Rainforest Alliance have the same requirements.

Check certifiers' websites to see who's certified. The list here is from 2005.

The lack of Fair Trade Certified or other labels doesn't mean the product is made with slavery. Labels are part assurance and part marketing. Some farmers choose not to get certified because it's costly. Many small companies source directly for co-ops for well more than the world price or the Fair Trade price.

Fair Trade Certified does not verify labor conditions on every farm. Inspectors visit 10% or less of farms to sign up, then co-ops fill out a self-report annually. Look at the requirements at fairtrade.net.

In the end, farmers barely meet their basic needs, certified or not, if they're selling a basic commodity (beans). Buy chocolate from companies that source directly AND can verify practices or that have a certification that verifies labor and wage practices AND actually engage with the farmers rather than just buying from processors. If they buy value-add products like cocoa powder and liquor, even better for farmers.

[thecommonraven]

07:57 PM on 02/08/2010

It should be noted that Dagoba Organic chocolate which is listed (and actually originated in my town) is now owned by Hershey's chocolate which purchases a majority of it's cocoa from Ivory Coast. So in a case such as that, there are two ways to look at it: a.)does purchasing more Dagoba chocolate tell Hershey that it should move more towards it's fair trade and organic product, or b.) does it simply provide more cash flow for a corrupt company while making you feel better about yourself.

[BowlingForRevenge]

02:31 PM on 02/08/2010

Shouldn't we be holding the "BUYERS" of the chocolate accountable?
Aren't they the ones who deal directly with the growers?

Here's a page with links to every chocolate company in the world. You can see where they are located.

http://www.highwayhome.com/foodanddrink/chocolate/chocolate_bars.html

[success2471]

12:40 PM on 02/08/2010

WOW...I cannot believe that another Valentine Season is upon us. Truth of the matter is that when it comes to that special someone in your life...everyday should really be valentines day shouldn't it?

Shaun (Hopeless Romantic)
PS...I came across this cute but so funny valetines day video. http://bit.ly/FunnyValentineVideo

[Gena Kirby]

11:43 PM on 02/07/2010

Boo hoo. Tired of feeling guilty really? How American of you. I don't want want anything to disrupt my cozy life. So what if the diamonds I wear and the chocolate I stuff my over-privileged face with are covered with blood? It's not MY problem. Good grief people, seriously, where is your humanity, or do you keep a slave at your house that feeds you meat and cleans your diamonds?
Why are we the ones always responsible for the world's woes?" Wah wah wah...sniffle poor guy feels responsible for the worlds woes, really buddy, delusional much, you're the same guy that says "WE won!" when his favorite sports team wins right?
Thanks Mr. Davis for shedding some light on this topic. I believe it's important to be conscious when we pull our wallets out, and realize that every decision we make has a consequence. If I am slightly inconvenienced by being present when I buy something, well, oh well. The sentiments expressed earlier regarding refusal of guilty feelings are just another example of arrogance and laziness.

[Acleacius]

04:40 PM on 02/07/2010

Thanks for this article and information. :)

"If it says "organic" or "fair trade" it's OK."
Could you add this to your stories in the future? It's really not clear at least until I read your replies. I checked Newman's from Costa Rica which is marked on your site as Not Fair, so it's a little confusing.

Costa Rica which has some very nice 70% chocolate, fruity middle and clean finish, yummy. :)

[ourmaninafrica]

10:36 AM on 02/07/2010

I think we need to be a bit more thoughtful about these things. There are real problems, which are being dealt with, and with more pressure chocolate companies might do more. But really - 6.3 million child laborers producing our cocoa? Here in Ivory Coast there are only 700,000 cocoa farmers and this is the world's biggest producer (just under 40% of world supply). Is every child in the country working as a cocoa slave? And for all the children who work, a small minority are 'slaves'.

Experts in this field (who tend to know a bit more about African working culture) emphasize that there is a difference between 'the worst forms of child labor' and ordinary 'helping the parents on the farm'. African parents are just as caring as American parents - it's poverty that brings them to these sorts of situations. So the advice to stop eating African chocolate isn't going to do anyone any good.

[Lennard Davis]

02:43 PM on 02/12/2010

The 6.3 million number is from the American Federation of Teacher's website and refers to chocolate production in all of Africa. The Peyson Center at Tualane University has better numbers. But even if we are talking about 1 million children, that is still 1 million too many. I think if you read through the Peyson Center's material, one of the few accurate sources of information about the chocolate trade, you'll see that the abuse isn't just about "helping the parents on the farm." We are talking about children whose labor is compelled, unpaid, often involving trafficking of children as young as 5 years old. In a portion of those children we are seeing slavery. The official line of the chocolate company associations is that poverty and family practices need to changed slowly over time (no deadlines in effect, no methods for changing these practices). But a boycott on forced-labor chocolate can have an effect of compelling action. If we wait for the chocolate companies to make the change, we are never going to see it happen.

[Adolpho Gordo]

10:35 AM on 02/07/2010

Excellent article. Balanced showing the profound difference existing in the two main sources . In Brazil a whole culture depend on the cacao industry and doesn't use children workers. If mixed with the African counterpart should damage the liver of thousands of farmers and labourers.
ADOLPHO GORDO
Coral Gables, FL & São Paulo, Brazil.

[superjules]

12:35 AM on 02/07/2010

I buy Leonidas from Belgium. I hope it's not slave chocolate. I checked the list, but saw only American chocolate.

[Lennard Davis]

10:21 AM on 02/07/2010

Please write to Leonidas and ask them if they can guarantee for sure that their chocolate isn't from child labor. Most European companies use chocolate from the Ivory Coast or Ghana.

[Angie Cordeiro]

09:13 PM on 02/06/2010

Thank you so much for writing this.

[CarolinaYankee]

07:12 PM on 02/06/2010

Belgium or Swiss chocolates are the best anyway, don't buy the cheap stuff.

[Lennard Davis]

10:25 AM on 02/07/2010

Price has nothing to do with the source of the chocolate. If it says "organic" or "fair trade" it's OK. Write to your favorite chocolate company and ask them to tell you definitively that the chocolate is not from child and/or slave labor. It's very interesting to see how they answer you. Btw, the chocolate companies have formed their own organization to deal with this issue. Rather than ceasing to purchase "blood chocolate," they have some very tepid plans to "educate" the people who are stealing children and abusing them. It's a "long-term" series of projects. Right now, though, we need to boycott such chocolate and companies that don't care if the chocolate they use is tainted.

[Ariadne38]

06:45 PM on 02/06/2010

I am tired of all of these guilt trips. I really don't care. I love chocolate. And diamonds. And meat. And all the other things that people are trying to make us feel guilty about. Do those countries not have governments? Let them solve their own problems.

[Romulus]

08:55 PM on 02/06/2010

Seconded. That was my first reaction. Why are we the ones always responsible for the world's woes?

[Simondj]

03:32 PM on 02/09/2010

The article said nothing about the US being solely responsible for the woes of cocoa bean harvesters in Ghana or Ivory Coast, much less the entire world.

[Angie Cordeiro]

09:13 PM on 02/06/2010

Wake up! The American lifestyle is unsustainable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjFgar7ZoaU