The typical American eats more than 11 pounds of chocolate per year, and as a result, we spend tons of money on chocolate annually – those sales account for a large percentage of many candy company’s annual revenue. But do you know what the money you spend on your chocolate supports?
Last year, a lawsuit was filed against eight major chocolate companies because information was released that showed these companies were using their sales revenue to support the child slave labor trade in West Africa…
The country harbors almost two-thirds of the world’s supply of cacao beans, which are used to produce chocolate. Workers who harvest the beans are supposedly ages 11-16, and sometimes even younger.
These young children work on the farms for anywhere from 80 to 100 hours per week. A film, called “Slavery: A Global Investigation,” interviewed children who had escaped the cacao farms to see things from their point of view. The children reported that, while working on the farms, they were often beaten with belts and whips.
A girl named Aly Diabate, who once worked on the farms, said that if the children fell while carrying the heavy bags full of cacao beans, they would be beaten until they got back up and picked up the bag.
The companies that benefit from this abusive child labor include, Hershey, Mars, Nestle, ADM Chocolate, Godiva, Fowler’s Chocolate, and Kraft.
Back in 2001, legislation that would put a slave free label on the packaging of the chocolates manufactured by these companies was almost passed. Before this legislation was put into place, these big name chocolate companies used large sums of money to stop it. In exchange, they promised to stop child slavery within their companies by 2005; however, that deadline has continually been pushed back and it is currently supposed to happen by 2020.
In the meantime, the number of children working on these farms that support the cocoa industry has increased by 51 percent in just a few years.
One boy who used to work on the farms said that he worked so hard to harvest the beans that support these chocolate companies, but he never got anything in return.
Thankfully, not all chocolate companies are supporting this child labor injustice. Several companies are making it their mission to avoid profiting off of the children who work on these farms. These companies include, Gardners Candies, Newman’s Own Organics, Clif Bar, Cloud Nine, and several others.
So the next time you purchase chocolate, you might want to consider the name on the package because your money may be directly supporting unfair child labor conditions.
