You may be familiar with the black and white Fair Trade Certified™ badge on products. This symbol indicates that the product (or ingredient in the product) has been certified by TransFair USA. I would like to take a few moments of your time to talk about why fair trade chocolate may matter to you and your family.
Cocoa holds global value for the billions of people who farm, trade, process, and of course eat, chocolate. In Côte d’Ivoire alone there are more than 600,000 cocoa farms. Farmers tend to harvest cocoa by using family members, which include adults and children. International labor laws prohibit “the worst forms of child labor” and define such terms in the International Labor Organization Convention 182¹ adopted in June of 1999. If chocolate coming into the U.S. is a proven product of child labor there are immediate violations of international laws. Violations were revealed in a 2001 news report² that exposed the trafficking and enslavement of children in the cocoa sectors of West Africa. It may be difficult for Americans to comprehend a level of poverty and desperation so great that one would sell a child.
As the issue intensified, two U.S. Congressman made the immediate call for change and the Harkin-Engel Protocol³ was created. The Protocol was signed in 2001 with deadlines set for July 2005. The U.S. Department of State has collected survey data4 and the Chocolate Manufacturers Association has signed an agreement, all to insure the continuous flow of the precious cocoa supply chain. The deadlines (and their extensions) have come and gone. The largest U.S. chocolate manufacturers are choosing to tolerate child labor and slavery in cocoa farming even when a fair and regulated system has proven effective.
There is some progress, albeit slow. In exciting news…Cadbury recently (Spring 2009) announced plans to make the top-selling Dairy Milk bar certified fair trade5. Other Cadbury products, such as the U.S. Hershey made Cadbury crème eggs and other Easter products will continue to contain mainstream cocoa. Equal Exchange and Divine chocolates are Fair Trade Certified by TransFair USA (this includes the sugar). You may have seen Divine gold coins at Harvest Market during the holiday season. Consider their foil-wrapped mini eggs for your Easter and Spring celebrations.
Agreements and laws do not stop occurrences of slavery. With civil war and an overtaxed government in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, incidents of child labor go unreported. Small chocolate cooperatives such as Divine and Equal Exchange have laid the foundation for a model fair trade operation. Beginning with the small communities and empowering farmers with information, communication, and fair wages, creates an environment for a healthy village where slavery is not necessary and poverty cannot thrive. Building consumer awareness through fair trade products is one way to disrupt supply chains that involve child labor. For example, read the inside wrapper of your next purchase to discover information about the people who bring us such wonderful chocolate.
Karen
Harvest Market Employee
¹ http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc87/com-chic.htm
² Chatterjee, S. & Raghavan, S. (2001). Slaves feed world’s taste for chocolate: Captives common in cocoa farms of Africa. Knight Ridder News.
³ http://www.nca-cma.org
4 (July 2002). Summary of findings from the child labor surveys in the cocoa sector of West Africa. International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).
5 http://www.cadbury.com/media/press/Documents/cdmfairtrade.pdf
