What comes to mind when you think of child slavery? Sweatshops, right? That’s certainly how it was for me. But would it surprise you to know that almost half of the world’s chocolate is produced by child slaves?
About 40 per cent of the world’s cocoa is produced in the farms of West Africa, particularly in Cote d’Ivoirie (the Ivory Coast). Most of this is produced by as many as 200,000 children. Some are victims of human trafficking and most work in an extremely abusive environment.
Awful, right? So how do you know whether or not you’re eating chocolate that was made by child slaves? You simply can’t. All the cocoa produced is mixed together when it’s sold, so the consumer has no idea where it came from. HOWEVER, don’t fret, there is some hope out there.
If you can find this little symbol on your chocolate, you’re good to go! It’s the free trade symbol, which means that it was produced fairly with proper conditions for all the workers! Now I’ve been looking around, and it’s pretty hard to find, BUT I have found a popular chocolate bar that possesses this glorious symbol.
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Cadburyi-Dairy-Milki-Goes-Fair-Trade-in-Canada-1035139.htm
If you’re looking for some more chocolate that’ll help you sleep at night, try some organic food stores. Here’s a link to a list of fair trade chocolate:
http://vision.ucsd.edu/~kbranson/stopchocolateslavery/main.html
Also, if you want to learn some more, check out these links:
http://www.oxfam.org.vt.edu/2011/02/14/make-this-your-last-slave-chocolate-valentines-day/
If anyone’s interested, I believe every Friday at the University of Calgary a group advocating for fair trade is in front of the Rogers in Science B handing out coffee/tea. I haven’t seen them for a while though, but it’s really delicious!
Timmies is cheap, but for a reason! Starbucks is great, as they’re popular for a reason. Great share, though!