The Dirty Little Secrets of Chocolate
It is estimated that the average person in North America eats 12 pounds of chocolate each year.
In Canada alone (the least populated country of North America), that is over 400 million pounds of chocolate consumed in 1 year.
As I've incorporated "greener" practices into my everyday life, I've learned some unpleasant information about one of society's favourite legal vices.
The Ivory Coast produces 40-70% (depending upon the source) of the world's chocolate supply, and has a well documented history of child labour.
There are almost 600,000 children in the Ivory Coast working on cocoa farms, with a horrific estimate of 15,000 children who have been sold into or kidnapped or sold into slavery (Save the Children).
Life expectancy is low among the child workers, and many are treated brutally.
And while some of the farms are family farms, the children and adults work with toxic industrial chemicals (many of which have been banned for agricultural use in Canada.
) The workers exist under horrific conditions, receive little or no pay, no health care and no schooling.
Cocoa production also has a huge environmental impact.
Forty years ago, cocoa bean plants grew naturally in the rain forests' shady areas, but the increasing demand for chocolate led to a change in farming practices.
Rainforests were burned or cut to make way for field planting in the direct heat of the sun.
Yields increased, but so did the diseases affecting the cocoa bean trees.
Pesticide and fertilizer use became common to kill the bugs, resulting in soil damage and erosion, as well as polluted ground water.
Some chemicals "such as lindane, a persistent organic pollutant banned in many countries, turned up in EVERY sample of chocolate tested in the late nineties by the UK's Pesticide Action Network" (Ecoholic).
What should we do?
In Canada alone (the least populated country of North America), that is over 400 million pounds of chocolate consumed in 1 year.
As I've incorporated "greener" practices into my everyday life, I've learned some unpleasant information about one of society's favourite legal vices.
The Ivory Coast produces 40-70% (depending upon the source) of the world's chocolate supply, and has a well documented history of child labour.
There are almost 600,000 children in the Ivory Coast working on cocoa farms, with a horrific estimate of 15,000 children who have been sold into or kidnapped or sold into slavery (Save the Children).
Life expectancy is low among the child workers, and many are treated brutally.
And while some of the farms are family farms, the children and adults work with toxic industrial chemicals (many of which have been banned for agricultural use in Canada.
) The workers exist under horrific conditions, receive little or no pay, no health care and no schooling.
Cocoa production also has a huge environmental impact.
Forty years ago, cocoa bean plants grew naturally in the rain forests' shady areas, but the increasing demand for chocolate led to a change in farming practices.
Rainforests were burned or cut to make way for field planting in the direct heat of the sun.
Yields increased, but so did the diseases affecting the cocoa bean trees.
Pesticide and fertilizer use became common to kill the bugs, resulting in soil damage and erosion, as well as polluted ground water.
Some chemicals "such as lindane, a persistent organic pollutant banned in many countries, turned up in EVERY sample of chocolate tested in the late nineties by the UK's Pesticide Action Network" (Ecoholic).
What should we do?
- Only buy Fair Trade Certified labelled chocolate, which is guaranteed to be free from exploited child labour.
To avoid chemicals in your chocolate, ensure you buy organic chocolate.
Some great brands of fair trade and organic chocolate include Camino Cocoa, Cloud Nine, Endangered Species, and Vital Choice.
Fair trade and organic chocolate is more expensive than regular chocolate, but it's worth it. - Support companies that have a transparent production process and can tell you how their farmers and workers are treated.
- Ask the world's largest chocolate manufacturers to answer the question on how consumers can be assured no exploited or trafficked child labour was used in the production of chocolate.
- If you want some further reading on this subject, check out the following books and organizations: The Cocoa Protocol: Success or Failure - Brian Campbell, Bama Athreya, Global Exchange, Save the Children, Bitter Chocolate - Carol Off, Ecoholic - Adria Vasil, Green For Life - Gil Deacon
