DEVELOPMENT | Chocolate: Sweet Treat, Bitter Reality
16.1.13 |
| Child Labourers Working on Cacao Farm Taken from Forbes |
Chocolate is produced and sold throughout the world, even
in North Korea where Coca Cola hasn’t yet penetrated the market. But there are
some who have never before seen a chocolate bar and who can never afford to
purchase one. The sad truth about most chocolate is that it is all a sweet façade –
a front for a history of exploitation and abuse beginning in the eighteenth
century when European aristocracy became addicted to our favourite sweet treat
compliments of the Aztecs, and persisting to this day as smallholder farmers in
some of the least developed countries produce cocoa for next to nothing to meet rising international demand.
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| Credit: International Labour Rights Fund |
The dark side of the chocolate industry was first
brought to the world’s attention in the early 1900s by Henry Nevinson who
discovered while on assignment in Angola that the contract
labour employed in cocoa production post-abolition was in reality another form
of slavery, with young boys and girls the unwilling, beaten and shackled
participants. The key players in the chocolate industry at the time – including
the abolitionist Quaker owned company, Cadbury – did nothing.
Throughout the
decades that followed, a number of journalists and researchers dared to tell
the world the truth about the cocoa industry, sometimes facing persecution, verifying the existence
of human trafficking, child slavery and rampant corruption in the industry. But the big chocolate companies
do
a good job of ensuring that we don’t hear or listen. They consistently refuse to ensure themselves or via third parties (such as a
Fairtrade certifier) that their chocolates are not the indirect product
of modern
day slaves – adults and children who are regularly beaten, lack access
to basic human rights and are not provided with protective gear against toxic pesticides
and
other chemicals used in the fields.
To put it into perspective: Two West African countries, Ghana and the Ivory Coast, supply 75% of the world’s cocoa market and these, along with other countries, are some of the biggest offenders of International Child Labour Laws. Some children end up on the cocoa farms because they have to provide for their families, whilst others are sold by traffickers and relatives. Many are abducted from villages in neighbouring countries like Burkino Faso & Mali and have no way of getting back.
Growing up we would have never thought that the sweet
treats we devoured within minutes came from children our age or younger, toiling
in tropical heat, with little or nothing to eat, likely to never taste a bar of
the chocolate made by their sweat, blood and tears. The price we pay for a
small bar of chocolate is many times more than they will earn in a year. But
we’re adults now and we can do something about it. While big chocolate
companies continue to turn a blind eye, we can support small chocolate companies who engage in ethical practices to ensure that their products are free from child and slave labour and that farmers receive a fair price for their cocoa beans. We can do our research, buy from Fairtrade certified
chocolate companies and encourage our friends and families to do the same.
And for the ethical consumer living in a country where
such chocolates can’t be found? I was on my last hoorah
up until my birthday, which was yesterday, when I gave up on my slave-made
faves, Twix and Snickers, and any products from the companies that have
historically refused to engage in ethical practices. That means Cadbury’s, Hershey’s
and Mars Inc. Wish me luck!
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This article has been written by our very first Guest blogger, Cristel C.
Cristel is from Guyana, but currently lives in Malawi where she is a Renewable Energy Consultant for Hestian, working on the development of carbon financed projects in East Africa. Cristel has decided to give up Chocolate unless it is fairtrade (unfortunately, she has access to none in Malawi).
Stay tuned for our future post on Fairtrade Chocolate.
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