In my last post, I talked about the horrors of child slave labor in the chocolate industry. Now I have come to give you hope.:-) No, you do not have to give up all chocolate forever. There are brands who produce their chocolate without using child slave labor. These brands get their chocolate from small family farms. They also get paid fair prices for their cocoa which means they can afford to pay their workers. By buying fair trade chocolate, you create more jobs for the hardworking impoverished people all around the world. "Try picturing your favorite 12 year-old working under the grueling
African sun and being beaten all day so that you can enjoy your cheap
candy bar, and that will make it easier to give them up." (http://www.facts-about-chocolate.com/fair-trade-chocolate/)
Here is a website that has a good list of fair trade chocolates.
Here is another website that has more information about this list. Also, these are some logos to look for on the chocolate bars.
Although these logos are supposed to mean the chocolate is fair trade, there have been cases where this label is present on chocolate that is not 100% fair trade. "To carry the Fair Trade USA 'Fair Trade Certified (Ingredients)' mark, now a
product need contain only 10% certified fair trade ingredients, and to
carry the 'Fair Trade Certified' mark, a product must contain only 25%
certified fair trade ingredients." (http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_24175.cfm) In talking about the above compiled list, they say,"If they are fair trade then why aren't they listed on our recommended list? It is unfortunate, but there has been child labor found at fair trade cooperatives."(http://appetiteforjustice.blogspot.com/2011/05/understanding-food-empowerment-projects.html) The opposite is also true. Some farmers don't have enough money to pay for a fair trade label. So, just because it has a fair trade label doesn't mean it is necessarily fair trade, and just because it doesn't have a fair trade label does not mean it is not necessarily fair trade.
So how do you know for sure? Well, most chocolate sourced from West Africa is going to be produced with slave labor. Some fair trade companies will get their chocolate from the Dominican Republic, Panama, Ecuador and Peru.
The majority of organic chocolate is grown in Central and South
America where slavery has not been an issue. Because of the limited
supply of organic chocolate, most farmers receive a fair price.(http://www.care2.com/greenliving/fair-trade-chocolate-a-myth.html?page=2)The Food Empowerment Project has done months of research to determine which brands are really fair trade. When looking for fair trade chocolate, reference this list. Print it out and take it with you when you go grocery shopping. Here are a few:
Thanks for the helpful brand names and links. Now I'm craving a big hunk of chocolate for a snack. Question - same brands for powdered cocoa for baking?
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading! As far as I know, those brands pretty much just sell chocolate. Instead of talking about being "Fair Trade Certified", they talk about how their chocolate is grown and where it comes from. Here is their website if you would like to look at it. http://shop.equalexchange.com/ProductInfo/18510.aspx
ReplyDeleteThey sell an 8 oz. container for $7.75 plus shipping. Unfortunately, shipping is $7.50. :-( But, you don't have to pay any tax unless you live in Massatchusetts or Wisconsin! There are also some cocoas on Amazon that may be worth checking out.