Is There Slavery in Your Chocolate?

Most likely.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. 

I was already vaguely aware that slavery was used in the production of chocolate, but recently I wrote a paper on the topic and I now feel much more qualified to speak on the subject. Here is my research paper, Reader's Digest version:

Most cocoa used in the largest chocolate brands comes from Africa, particularly Cote d'Ivorie. Investigations have revealed that the cocoa industry in the following countries uses child labor or forced labor:

 Cameroon

Cote d'Ivorie

Ghana

Guinea

Nigeria
Sierra Leone 

Want proof? Good for you, here are some links:

The U.S. Department of Labor's List of  Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor

BBC News, 2007- Child Cocoa Workers Still Exploited

The Payson Center for International Development's report on efforts made by the chocolate industry to eliminate child labor in their supply chain (hint: they haven't done it)

Now, are you skeptical that "child labor" is inherently a bad thing? Are we perhaps wrongly projecting my western view of children and work onto other cultures?

Maybe.  But the kinds of child labor we're talking about eliminating are known as the "Worst Forms of Child Labor"as defined by the International Labor Organization, a department of the U.N. Here is what is considered Worst Forms of Child Labor:

(a) all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;
(b) the use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic performances;
(c) the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties;
(d) work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.

I mean, that's pretty bad. It is also the type of thing that the chocolate industry has been promising to do its part to eradicate for the past 10 years.

The Chocolate Manufacturers Association, which represents some of the top companies in the industry (Hershey, M&M Mars, Nestle, See's, etc etc etc) stepped in in 2001 when the United States congress was about to pass a bill requiring them to label chocolate "Slave Free" if it used no child labor. They came up with a compromise, known as the Harkin-Engel Protocol, in which the industry promised to work to end child slavery in their supply line.

Want to see the CEO's signatures on this promise? They're right here.

The companies who signed this protocol have repeatedly missed the deadlines to fulfill their promises. The Payson Center, which oversees compliance with the agreement, said in 2011 that the chocolate industry had not completely fulfilled any of the the promises made.

Perhaps the companies can't regulate their suppliers. Maybe we're making the wrong people responsible for the problem. That could be true. Global trade is certainly not simple. 

 But then again, plenty of other companies have managed to keep slavery out of their chocolate, largely by using Fair Trade certified chocolate, which has certain standards that producers must meet. Whether or not Fair Trade certified is the way to go is open for debate- but it is one way of ensuring that a suppliers are not committing  labor abuses.

                         

And Chocolate companies do not have to use the Fair Trade system. One of the agreements of the Protocol was that the industry could come up with it's own third-party verified labeling system. Maybe something like this:

That's going to be all for Part one of this. Next week, or sometime soon when I feel like it, I'll talk about current consumer campaigns and companies committed to fair trade chocolate, and how to buy slavery free chocolate.

 

Freeganism

Look at all of that delicious food. All those bright colorful vegetables...all those bell peppers that cost a dollar or more in the grocery store. We got them for free. From a dumpster.

Ah yes, Freeganism, perhaps the most controversial of all the alternative food lifestyles. I'll tell you about my experience with it, and you can judge it as you like.

For about 2 months, I was a part of a regular dumpster diving group. There were about 10 of us, and we went every Thursday night at midnight. We quickly learned which stores to go to (some have indoor dumpsters, trash compactors, or locked dumpsters, so they're no good), and what our local laws about dumpster diving were. We developed regular routes, split into two groups,  and returned at about 2:00am to divide up our spoils (get it?!).

I usually wore crappy clothes and dishwasher gloves and we brought headlamps. One or two people would climb into the actual dumpster and hand things out to the others to examine and pack into the car.

Dumpsters are not as gross as you would think they are. Don't get me wrong- some were horrible. But mostly, the trash is contained in separate bags, so the dumpster itself is clean. Produce is usually in a bag with other produce, not other kinds of trash, so it's pretty clean.

There were often gallons and half gallons of milk that weren't even expired, still cold from the store coolers. They would have dents in the handles or cartons. There were bell peppers that were oddly shaped or colored, but otherwise fine. We'd take cartons of berries and pick out the moldy ones, cut bruises out of apples, soft spots out of cucumbers. We washed everything in vinegar and hot water before we ate it. No one in the group ever got sick.

Basically, that's how dumpster diving is. It can be messy, it requires some work, but as long as you use your judgement, it's a pretty good way to cut down your grocery bill.

Food Waste

I'm tired of writing about GMO's. Although, if you're interested, California did not vote to label them.

Let's turn to what is possibly the most infuriating topic in the whole world: Food Waste.

Our source today is a TED talk:

Tristram Stuart: The global food waste scandal

This is a video well-worth watching yourself, but I'll just give you the basics.In America, we throw away a tremendous amount of food. And not just rotten food, no, most of the food we throw away is fit for consumption. We throw away food because it is too small for supermarket regulation, or because of "cosmetic blemishes." All told, there is twice as much food in our grocery stores as is necessary to feed our population. Though some food waste is inevitable, the amount we throw away is staggering, particularly in a world where millions are starving.

Perhaps next time I'll discuss my own adventures in "Freeganism."

And while we're on the subject of GMO's...

I really appreciated this article from NPR which debunks commonly held beliefs about GMOs. There were a few things that I discovered that I had wrong. For people who are in my Food class, this will be helpful to read as we watch Food, Inc this week. It is always important to make sure you have your facts straight whenever you are taking a side on any issue.

Five Myths about GMOs debunked