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Avoid “blood chocolate” for a sustainable Easter celebration
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Harvesting cocoa pods; © 2003 Fair Trade Foundation
You’ve probably heard of “blood diamonds.” But unfortunately diamonds aren’t the only commodity that is produced with slave labor. Many African cocoa farms produce “blood chocolate,” at the cost of cruel labor practices and child abuse.
Africa, especially its Ivory Coast, is the world’s largest cocoa producer, according to a guest post on Treehugger.com by Ted Dworkin of the Global Exchange Fair Trade Online Store. (“The Bitter Truth About Chocolate.”)
According to Dworkin, the US State Department has reported slavery on many of these cocoa farms, and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture reported in 2002 that nearly 284,000 children were working under unsafe conditions. Back in the United States chocolate manufacturers often don’t take responsibility for these unsafe working conditions, because they do not own the farms.
But there is growing awareness of this problem, and now many chocolate brands, manufacturers and importers, in addition to consumers, are insisting on slave-free chocolate products. Even the chocolate giant Cadbury announced in March 2009 that they plan to achieve fair trade certification for their top selling chocolate bar, Cadbury Dairy Milk, by the end of this summer.
According to TransFair USA (an independent, third-party certifier of fair trade products in the U.S) fair trade certified is a market-based system for sustainable development. To earn that certification importers and retailers pay a premium price to farmers and farm workers, who then commit to grow and produce goods in accordance with rigorous standards that guarantee worker rights, community empowerment and environmental sustainability.
It’s not hard to find fair trade certified cocoa and chocolate products in your local supermarket, many of which are made here in the Northwest. Dagoba Organic Chocolates and Chocolate Alchemy are two Oregon chocolate manufacturers that offer fair trade chocolate.
Another popular Oregon chocolate merchant, Moonstruck Chocolatier, is not fair trade certified, but the company says on its website that it supports fair trade initiatives and will not use cocoa harvested with slave labor or abusive child labor practices.
TransFair USA provides a list of fair trade certified chocolate products, broken down by brand, manufacturer and distributor/importer, on their webpage.
Another website, “Stop Chocolate Slavery,” created by UC San Diego students, has a table of common consumer products containing chocolate, such as Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Clif Bars, and lists the origin of the products’ cocoa ingredients, and whether they are organic or fair trade.
So buy fair trade chocolate, and enjoy an ethical and sustainable Easter celebration this year.
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- Shop for locally grown and manufactured food at farmers' markets and your local grocery store.
- Replace some of your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs).
- Skip the clothes dryer and hang dry your laundry, either on an outdoor clothesline or an indoor drying rack.
- Bring reusable bags to the market. And shop the bulk food aisle to cut down on unnecessary packaging.
- Take your own mug to your favorite coffee shop for coffee to go (Some shops even give you a discount for this).
