Every woman loves chocolate, right? OK, well I have met a few loose nuts that say they don't like chocolate and I wonder if they've ever had their estrogen levels checked because that just doesn't sound normal.But, have you ever wondered where your chocolate comes from? I learned last year that most big name chocolate manufacturers actually buy their cocoa from plantations that use child labor. Here is a photo slide show that msnbc.com posted online this morning showing cocoa production in Ivory Coast, Africa. And here is an article detailing the child labor at cocoa plantations.
This Valentine's Day I urge you to pay a little bit extra to buy chocolates from a fair trade manufacturer. It will cost more than the chocolate bars that saturate the market but I have found it tastes a bit sweeter when I know the workers on the beginning end of my chocolate bar were paid fair wages for their work and more importantly- were not children.
To find retailers near you that sell Fair Trade Certified products, click here.
To view a list of chocolate brands that are presumably slave-free, click here.
Thanks for this great post! The International Labor Rights Forum has been working for years on the issue of child labor in the cocoa industry. You can check out the ILRF chocolate company scorecard here: http://www.laborrights.org/stop-child-labor/cocoa-campaign/resources/1942 and send an e-mail to Hershey, Mars and Nestle here: http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/chocolate
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