Blood Chocolate?
[This post is part of the SUMMER JUSTICE SERIES. You can start with Part 1 here.]
Part 3: Slave-Free Chocolate
How many of us really think about child slavery when we grab a candy bar? Most of us just don’t; that doesn’t make us bad people. What is slave chocolate? I set out to learn if any of my snack money could possibly be going to companies that are operating a business on the backs of children falling victims to human trafficking.
To be honest, I didn’t know very much about the exploitation of people to produce one of our favorite treats, but I’ve been eager to learn more for some time. This issue is one of the main reasons I chose to focus on what is often called social justice for these few short weeks.
In case you’re not sure how this works, chocolate comes from cocoa beans. Most of the world’s chocolate originates from the Cote d’Ivoire or Ivory Coast in Africa. Chocolate became all the rage in Europe by the 1600s after the Spaniards discovered it as a favored treat of Aztec royalty. Moctezuma was a huge fan, a total chocoholic by modern standards.
Although centuries have passed, reports indicate that our basest cruelty instincts persist. Let’s establish two straight-forward aspects here. First, what kind of abuse is reportedly taking place in pursuit of “brown gold” as it’s called around the globe? Secondly, are we supporting companies that offer products tainted by these terrible practices?
“The Bitter Truth”
The involvement of slave labor in chocolate production became a major issue about a decade ago. Since then, international community leaders including the U.S. Congress have been setting threatening deadlines warning the global chocolate industry to avoid all involvement with child slavery.
Nothing pierces the heart like some of the first-hand accounts of young people who have escaped or been rescued from these farms. A recent entry on Tropic Post details a small bit of the experiences of these children, usually boys but sometimes girls between ages 11-16.
“The children work under inhumane conditions and extreme abuse, working with sharp machetes and poisonous sprays, from 6 in the morning, till 6 at night…One ex-child slave said 18 children were locked into a 24 X 20 foot room, sleeping on a wooden plank. A small hole was just big enough to let in some air, but they were forced to urinate in a can.”
The article goes onto say the kids were too afraid to attempt escape after others were caught and brutally beaten for attempting to do so.
At this point, slave chocolate gets a lot more attention in other parts of the world than here in the states. BBC News produced this short video on child cocoa workers in 2007. More recently, Paul Kenyon went undercover for a BBC Panorama investigation called Chocolate: The Bitter Truth. He discovered plenty of injustices still occuring in West Africa. Read more »
Life. Culture. Education.
Life as Pop Culture Professor Clay Morgan
In The Matrix, Morpheus tells Neo he can take the blue pill and go on believing whatever he wants to believe. Or he can take the red pill to stay in Wonderland and find out how deep the rabbit hole goes.
This is a red pill type site that provides information in an entertaining way. It’s about clear thinking and good writing. It’s about finding meaning amidst the absurd. It’s about humor and truth.
I’m a writer / speaker who teaches history and political courses at a couple of local colleges. Where is local, you say? Well, that would be Wonderland of course.
On topics ranging from pop culture to the meaning of life, my brain’s always poppin’. Take the red pill and unplug.
