Fair Trade Chocolate

One of the surprising things that I learned from Teresa Hendricks when she came to the sustainable living class to talk about fair trade was the problem with chocolate. That the harvesting of some chocolate is done by child and slave labor. This is especially true of chocolate from west Africa. Unfortunately, unless the chocolate is certified organic or fair trade, the chocolate companies have no way of knowing if the chocolate they are using to make that candy bar was not made with slave labor. Another fact about fair trade chocolate is even though we spend over 13 billion dollars a year on chocolate just here in America most small cocoa farmers are impoverished.

These facts got me thinking about my chocolate consumption. I have been doing some further research on this topic and have discovered that the chocolate I eat can be enslaving children or forcing them to work in horrible conditions. It also contributes to rainforest destruction and inhibits small farmers from breaking the cycle of poverty in third world countries. I have to think to myself, "Is that piece of chocolate worth it?"

Fortunately, I do not have to give up all my chocolate. It is fairly easy to find organic and fairtrade chocolate locally. I know for sure Whole Foods as well as Good Foods here in Lexington both carry a full line of products from candy bars, baking chocolate, cocoa and even chocolate chips. From what I have read organic is almost as good as fair trade because they have to uphold certain labor mandates. I will try to buy fair trade first but if it is not available I will look to organic. I know I will not be perfect but for now I am going to try to only buy chocolate which is certified in one of these ways.

Spend some time researching fair trade chocolate. You will be surprised what you find out. Here is a good link with which to start. Fair trade chocolate reasons