Something I never thought I would do
I'm not how well this is going to work, but I am announcing my intention to boycott all chocolate except Fair Trade chocolate.
A year or more ago I read a story in the Washington Post Magazine about how child slavery is a big problem in cocoa plantations in parts of Africa, particularly the Ivory Coast. The article disturbed me, so I proceeded to do everything I could to block it out of my mind.
But the day before yesterday, I heard a locally produced talk show about the issue on NPR. Turns out that to date, there's no way to know if your chocolate has been produced by child slaves unless the chocolate is certified as Fair Trade. People have a tough time estimating what percentage of chocolate comes from plantations that use children as slaves, but the number is potentially very high (I think I heard 40%). The main chocolate producers know about the problem and were supposed to have come up with a plan for ensuring they would not buy cocoa produced by slave labor, but the July 1, 2005 deadline has passed and NOTHING has been done.
I really need my chocolate. But I can't say that I need it so much that CHILDREN must be forced to work 12 hour days doing gruelling work for no pay, all the while having rifles pointed at them. And I can't say that I need it so much that they need be crowded into rooms at night and chained up so they won't run away. Or so much that children should be beaten for not working hard enough. Yikes.
What really gets me is why I've not heard more about this issue in the press. The two sources I heard it from have fantastic journalistic reputations, so I have to believe they're not making it up. But shouldn't there be more coverage of a problem of this scale? Shouldn't people be more outraged? Or is everyone so disturbed (as I was the first time that I heard about it) that they're just pretending there isn't a problem and moving on with their lives?
In any case, I do hope something is done about this problem soon so I can go back to a life of abundant chocolate! I think I'll have to go stock up on Fair Trade chocolate soon if I'm going to get through this...
A year or more ago I read a story in the Washington Post Magazine about how child slavery is a big problem in cocoa plantations in parts of Africa, particularly the Ivory Coast. The article disturbed me, so I proceeded to do everything I could to block it out of my mind.
But the day before yesterday, I heard a locally produced talk show about the issue on NPR. Turns out that to date, there's no way to know if your chocolate has been produced by child slaves unless the chocolate is certified as Fair Trade. People have a tough time estimating what percentage of chocolate comes from plantations that use children as slaves, but the number is potentially very high (I think I heard 40%). The main chocolate producers know about the problem and were supposed to have come up with a plan for ensuring they would not buy cocoa produced by slave labor, but the July 1, 2005 deadline has passed and NOTHING has been done.
I really need my chocolate. But I can't say that I need it so much that CHILDREN must be forced to work 12 hour days doing gruelling work for no pay, all the while having rifles pointed at them. And I can't say that I need it so much that they need be crowded into rooms at night and chained up so they won't run away. Or so much that children should be beaten for not working hard enough. Yikes.
What really gets me is why I've not heard more about this issue in the press. The two sources I heard it from have fantastic journalistic reputations, so I have to believe they're not making it up. But shouldn't there be more coverage of a problem of this scale? Shouldn't people be more outraged? Or is everyone so disturbed (as I was the first time that I heard about it) that they're just pretending there isn't a problem and moving on with their lives?
In any case, I do hope something is done about this problem soon so I can go back to a life of abundant chocolate! I think I'll have to go stock up on Fair Trade chocolate soon if I'm going to get through this...