Newsletters: September-October 2009
Fair Trade Chocolate
Natural Times September/October 2009
By Gretchen Hein
Americans spend some $13 billion dollars on chocolate and cocoa products. We love our chocolate! And yet, if we knew the story behind how it’s grown we might think twice before we eat just any chocolate.
Forty-three percent of the world’s cocoa beans—the raw material from which we make chocolate—come from small, scattered farms in the poor West African country of Ivory Coast and its nearby neighbors. Much of the work on these farms is done by young boys who were sold or tricked into slavery. Most of them are between the ages of 12 and 16, some as young as nine. The conditions are squalid; the boys are often abused, malnourished and not paid. Most have no idea what the bean they harvest tastes like as a completed product, just as many of those who eat chocolate have no idea of its present-time slave trade origins.
Cocoa beans come from the pods of the cacao tree. It takes about 400 beans to make one pound of chocolate. The process of clearing the fields, harvesting the pods and initial preparations of the beans is hard, arduous work. It’s yet another story of exploitation and forced labor: of the free world enjoying the finer tastes of life at the expense of the third world and its children.
Within the past 20 years or so the term “fair trade” was coined, in contrast to free trade. Within the Fair Trade system, purchasers of products such as coffee, sugar, cocoa beans, cotton and bananas (from third world countries) are interested in making meaningful improvements in the communities in which these products are grown. Rather than focusing on the profit margin, fair trade purchasers work to help support small farmers, cooperatives and good farming practices; to create schools, hospitals and other improvements to the community infrastructure; and to eradicate slavery and abuse.
The good news is that the Fair Trade certified chocolate market has expanded, is fairly easy to find and tastes great. New Leaf Market has a good selection of fair trade and organically-grown chocolate. Yes, chocolate labeled as organically grown falls under the fair trade umbrella. There are online resources for more information about fair trade chocolate. Visit globalexchange.org for Trick-or-Treat kits that offer fair trade chocolate and handouts, and Fair Trade in the Classroom educational materials which include lesson plans, on-line video clips and information galore. This year, as Halloween rolls around, you have the opportunity to support fair trade, to inform others, and to use your resources in a socially-responsible manner and it doesn’t have to end with Halloween, it can become a year-round way of enjoying chocolate!
