Thanks.
Chocolate...by Slave Labour |
"It is very likely the chocolate you are about to eat has been produced by slave labour, primarily, child slave labour. Slavery exists in Africa. It exists where people can be exploited. The growing of cocoa beans offers one of the best opportunities to use child slaves. The Ivory Coast, (Cote d'Ivoire) produces about forty three (43%) percent of the world's cocoa beans, which being cultivated by slave labour are far cheaper than that produced in nations which have strict labour laws and careful monitoring.
The beans produced in the Ivory Coast are purchased by the major chocolate producers such as Hershey, M&M Mars, Cadbury, Nestle and other famous names. That chocolate you are about to eat is probably made from beans grown in the Ivory Coast. That chocolate was probably produced by boys who have been taken from countries, such as Mali, and sold to farmers in the Ivory Coast. There are about six hundred thousand chocolate farmers in Cote d'Ivoire and most use child slave labour. Most sell to Hershey and M&M Mars which control two thirds (2/3rds) of the world's chocolate market. Those chocolate bars on the supermarket shelves have been produced by slave labour. There are companies, however, which only use cocoa that has not been produced with slave labour; among them are, Cloud Nine, Dagoba, Green and Blacks, Newman's own.
The cocoa beans used by these companies comes from other nations where the farms are monitored and there are labour laws. Some companies buy only Fair Trade Chocolate, and some, like Rapunzel, initiated fair trade and ecology strict guidelines. Rapunzel's chocolate comes from Bolivia and the Dominican Republic. During the past few years, many organisations have effectively informed the public of the true cost of chocolate. Most people, once aware, refuse to buy chocolate produced by slave labour. Chocolate is not the only commodity produced by slave labour, and a visit to www.antislavery.org will reveal others. However, you can make a difference by simply not buying chocolate produced by slave labour."
10 comments:
Ah, the question of boycotts.
I am in no way pleased about slavery and I wish my halted purchase would instantly make a difference, but...
By not purchasing alone, how is this company to know that I am not dieting or dead, as opposed to protesting?
Without a verbal connection to a highly concerted effort, boycotts are simply not effective (they do make me feel better about my personal choices, which is OK for sure, but they don't do the big work I am hoping for).
What some Christians (including Tony Campolo) have found to be at least as effective is to buy stock in the offending companies. That's right, support them, even if it's only a handful of shares. What this does is give you access to the organization as a shareholder. If you live in the right place, you can even attend shareholder meetings and actually state your concerns. But at least you can write letters that say, "I have recently become aware of your practice of using beans cultivated by slaves. As a shareholder in your company, this is of grave concern to me." Your single voice as an insider is more powerful than your single voice as a silent boycotting outsider.
The choice belongs to each of us individually, of course, but it is good to know the choices. If you have a good chance of drumming up the masses, maybe a boycott is best. If you're part of a small minority, insider status may win.
I agree, Jeff.
When I said, "If we take a stand against companies that exploit children, we can help produce change," I didn't just mean boycotting. How can we take a stand? We can do like you said and buy stock so as to have a voice they might listen to, we can protest loudly in front of their factories, we can share the truth about the matter with friends so that united we may make a difference. Becoming aware, as a nation, that it actually exists is the first step. So I stand by my suggestion to tell your friends and tell them to tell their friends. I'm sure most people don't even realize that children are being whipped and abused so they can eat a cheap hershey bar. Let's take the chocolate companies out of the closet and air them out.
All that said, I still have to make the choice I see as moral, which means passing on the candy that is not fair trade, or at least by buying slave-free chocolate whenever possible.
Coffee too, by the way!
I hear what you're saying, Jeff. Even when I know about some of the atrocities that are currently happening in the world, I don't always think that my efforts will make a difference. It is tempting to do nothing because I can't do enough.
At the same time, demand drives supply. So, while one person's choices, to buy or not to buy, won't make much difference, each person does contribute to creating the demand. And the fact that most consumers aren't ever going to care about what happens to the people behind the products, doesn't mean that I get to say "oh well" and continue to put my drop into the demand bucket. I am, in effect, contributing to the abusive exploitation of human beings because I support the status quo.
You know as well as I do that making ethical and moral choices is not fundamentally about whether or not such choices are noticed by anyone.
As to purchasing stock, or making other efforts, I'm not positioned to do that right now, but I may take that kind of action in the future. I agree that this can work, while boycotting is ineffective.
For now, I have made a conscious effort to purchase coffee (another crop that exploits workers to an alarming degree) and chocolate (when they have it) at Chili's Warehouse (a grocery surplus store) because doing so does not drive demand. The store sells products that would otherwise be discarded. This is a more affordable option than fair trade coffee (which more people are purchasing and thereby increasing demand), my second choice.
As for chocolate, I just purchased a fair trade chocolate bar at Borders (for a Christmas stocking gift). It was stinking expensive. But I don't have a right to cheap chocolate, especially if slave labor is required in order to keep it so cheap. In truth, I don't have a right to chocolate at all, and my conscience tells me to abstain from contributing to suffering as far as I am able, even if I don't make a measurable difference by doing so.
Of course, the best answer is all of the above. And the best kind of friends are those who wrestle with this big stuff with you. Thanks!
Thanks, Kim, for making your statement. As you said the first step is making people aware of the atrocities. Just by knowing, we take our decisions more seriously. I get what Jeff is saying but most people will not take the steps involved in buying stock, writing letters, voting with your stocks. But we can say no to ourselves at Longs when the candy calls us. The more we do that the more we realize this is a serious issue, not something flippant. Plus each time we deny ourselves we have an opportunity to tell someone else; maybe the person behind you in line. Who knows who that person might be, what kind of influence they may have. We do live in somewhat of a dream land in America. We know most of our children are safe and can't even imagine there are people who would treat others so unkindly. You know what would be great? If people could begin lists of fair trade products and stores. There's lots more to say on the whole issue of immoral treatment of our brothers and sisters but I'll go now.
Perhaps contributing to World Vision and other honorable relief organizations, that work directly with people that are enslaved, is the most immediately effective way to ease suffering. Their methods tend to combine immediate relief with ongoing support of long term solutions that fit the economic and cultural factors in those places. Meanwhile, we work on the consumer end to make compassionate choices.
Thanks for bringing this up, Kim. I really appreciate the discussion.
As per Cathy's suggestion, I am looking into lists of brands that are slave-free or not. So far I found this from IHS Child Slave Labor News at http://ihscslnews.org/view_article.php?id=182:
"M&M Mars and Hershey Foods Corp. are not alone. Other companies whose chocolate is almost certainly tainted with child slavery include: ADM Cocoa, Ben & Jerry's, Cadbury Ltd., Chocolates by Bernard Callebaut, Fowler's Chocolate, Godiva, Guittard Chocolate Company, Kraft, Nestle, See's Candies, The Chocolate Vault, and Toblerone. While most of these companies have issued condemnations of slavery, and expressed a great deal of moral outrage that it exists in the industry, they each have acknowledged that they use Ivory Coast cocoa and so have no grounds to ensure consumers that their products are slavery-free (Robbins) .
Mars, Hershey, and Nestle claim there is no way to ensure that their cocoa suppliers don’t use slave labor. Many smaller companies use suppliers that are certified to be 100% slave free. Many critics say if the large companies truly wanted to do something about the slavery epidemic that they would be able to secure non-slave cocoa suppliers.
The companies that use slave-free chocolate are Clif Bar, Cloud Nine, Dagoba Organic Chocolate, Denman Island Chocolate, Gardners Candies, Green and Black's, Kailua Candy Company, Koppers Chocolate, L.A. Burdick Chocolates, Montezuma's Chocolates, Newman's Own Organics, Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company, Rapunzel Pure Organics, and The Endangered Species Chocolate Company. There is no records of the Ivory Coast exporting any organic cocoa bean, so companies who use organic beans (Newman's Own Organics) are most-likely slave free. “The company's chocolate is purchased through the Organic Commodity Project in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It comes from Costa Rica where the farms are closely monitored.”
SO, buy organic when you can and it is probably slave-free. Good to know.
Ooh. I just found a site with a ton of info on companies. Check it out.
http://vision.ucsd.edu/~kbranson/stopchocolateslavery/main.html
I did some research also. What is interesting to me is a particular line of chocolate will have maybe one bar that is fair-trade. That seems wierd. Also, about the organic, I know most of the time it depends on who is doing the reporting and researching, but what I found is that most choco marked organic is not marked fair trade. You have to actually pick up each piece and look for the symbols. While at the market yesterday I went through all the "designer" choco and found maybe 2 that are slave free. I bought one. I am imagining that it will taste sweeter to me because of this.
Coffee is much more easily attained. Is there a Peet's in the burg?
I forgot to mentioned the discussion Brad and I had the other day after reading your comments. People boycotted buses in the south with an effective outcome and Ghandi often used boycotting. I don't think we ignore it, we use all things to show our stand.
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