Tempted by all of that chocolate this year? Don't forget that a lot of those "fun size" goodies laying around are made with cocoa harvested using child labor, in terrible conditions. Companies like Nestle, Hershey and Mars have agreed to work to eliminate child labor and slavery from their sourcing, but they continue to source from the Ivory Coast, where these problems are rampant, and continue to refuse to offer fair trade prices to their cocoa growers. You don't really want to eat something harvested by impoverished (and by some claims, enslaved) children, do you?If you're giving out treats, check out Endangered Species chocolate squares, packaged up in a jaunty orange wrapper for Halloween. This is the second year in a row that we'll be giving them out. They're on sale at WFM this week for $2.99 a bag! (That's an incredible deal.) If you get kids who make a face and say: "What's this?" (Not that that's ever happened here!) you can either launch into an expose on fair trade and all-natural chocolate, or simply say, "Beggars can't be choosers."
Resources
In-Depth Info from LaborRights.org
Care 2 Petition to Nestle/Mars
Fair Trade Chocolate Sources
Wire Tap Magazine Article 2005
3 comments:
Thanks for the info. You've always got the research well documented...
I try, E! I don't like to preach unless I've got my ducks in a row.
Wow - thanks for this. I'll have to check out Gooseberries to see if they have Fair Trade chocolate. - sigh - so many things to be concerned about! How does it not get overwhelming at times?
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