I found out there's slavery in my chocolate and now my life is ruined. What do I do?

Alright, I'll tell you what I know. Welcome to

Victoria's Guide to Buying Chocolate NOT Produced with Child Slave Labor

First, you can buy organic chocolate. This is not a perfect guarantee, but organic chocolate most likley  was not produced with slave labor, because there are no certified organic farms in Cote d'Ivorie, where most of the issues occur. The majority of organic cocoa farms are in South America where slavery has not been found to occur. (Source)

Humans in Provo: You can buy Organic Chocolate Chips at Smith's or in SLC at Whole Foods.

Brands of Organic Chocolate include Newman's Own Organics, Trader Joe's Brand chocolates, Green & Black, and Dagoba.

For baking, Whole Foods and Harmon's sell Organic cocoa powder.

Next, you can buy Fair Trade Certified chocolate, which means that fair labor practices have been verified by an independent third party group. 

   

Other certifications include Rainforest Alliance certification and Fair for Life. All of these logos are ones you should look for!

There are lots of lists available of every company that is Fair Trade certified, but they're overwhelming and sometimes outdated. Rather than memorize a list of everyone you can buy from, just look at the packaging on the chocolate you're considering buying. Is it organic? Does it have any of the above fair trade labels? Is the country of origin listed?

I'll make a plug here for my personal favorite chocolate company, Theo, which recently came out with a Fair Trade bar from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Also, if you ever go to Seattle you can tour their chocolate factory, which is super fun.

In most stores in Provo, all of these kinds of chocolate will be displayed together in grocery stores. You can get Fair trade chocolate bars at Sprouts, Good Earth, Allen's, Whole Foods,Trader Joe's, Harmon's, and some Smith's stores in Salt Lake City.

Like most things involving international trade, Fair Trade is complicated and has its critics. Here is a great blog post that discusses some of the potential issues with Fair Trade, as well as providing lists of slavery-free chocolate and companies that are working towards eradicating slavery in their supply lines.

You can read about the specific requirements that different fair trade labels require by visiting the label's website. So if you want to buy something, but are unsure what the label means, just get on their website!

And finally, activism. Choosing to buy slavery-free chocolate is great, but it's also important to let companies know how you feel. Currently, one of the most successful campaigns is Raise the Bar, Hershey! Thanks to the efforts of this campaign, Hershey's Bliss Bars will be Rainforest Alliance Certified in 2013, and the company has agreed to certify all of its cocoa by 2020. However, there is still work to be done.

 (It is worth noting that Dagoba, though Fair Trade, is owned by Hershey, and so the Raise the Bar, Hershey Campaign also boycotts that brand. But that's up to you).

My friend and I have a rule about our cocoa purchasing. Mostly, we buy organic and fair trade. But if we decide to buy something that isn't certified, then we have to write the company a letter expressing our concern. Letter writing is very important. Few people take the time to do it, and so when you send a company a letter (particularly a hand-written letter) they assume that you represent numerous concerned consumers.

Best of luck in your cocoa purchasing and activism journey! Hopefully this wasn't too overwhelming- I promise, it isn't hard to find ethically produced chocolate if you just start looking around. And if your local grocery store doesn't carry any fair trade or organic chocolate, tell them that you want it! The wonderful thing about being a consumer is that you get to create demand.