Blood and chocolate

Fortune mag: widespread poverty and child labor in the cocoa-producing world

Posted by Tom Philpott at 8:31 AM on 19 Feb 2008

Read more about: agriculture | consumerism | food | green living

While I was waxing euphoric last week about Fair Trade and ultra-fancy chocolate ahead of Valentine's Day, interesting things were happening in the chocolate world.

Regulators in Germany raided the offices of seven corporate chocolate makers -- including Nestle, Kraft, and Mars -- investigating allegations of price fixing. Six food conglomerates process half of the world's cocoa, giving them tremendous leverage on price. Usually, they use their market power to squeeze farmers in the global south; evidently, they may now be using it to squeeze consumers in the global north. Canadian and even U.S. antitrust regulators have launched similar investigations, Bloomberg reports in the above-linked piece.

U.S. consumers spent $323 million on chocolate products during the week of Valentine's Day alone, Nielsen estimates.

Very little U.S.-sold chocolate -- estimates I've heard hover around 1 percent -- carries Fair Trade certification. Another small fraction is "direct traded" -- i.e., when an artisanal chocolate maker deals directly with cocoa-producing farms, paying a price well above the commodity cocoa price. Upwards of 97 percent of that $323 million went to the conventional chocolate market, where trade terms are anything but fair. And last week, Fortune Magazine ran an expos� of conditions in the Ivory Coast, source of 40 percent of the world's cocoa. The farmers who grow the cocoa beans for Hershey's Kisses, it turns out, work under conditions of persistent poverty, and are often forced by low prices to use school-age children in the fields. And the industry's well-publicized efforts to address these problems turn out to be as frivolous as a supermarket bonbon. Christian Parenti, author of the Fortune report, appeared on the Democracy Now radio show on Valentine's Day, along with a chocolate-industry flack. Parenti demolished the flack's doubletalk about "successful education projects," riposting that "if the industry cared about child labor and poverty, it would simply pay farmers more for cocoa beans."

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5 Comments | Post a Comment

Bravo!!

Thanks Tom!! And good for Christian Parenti!!

Alas, it is not clear that many people care (i am a veteran of the shoe wars!) in general, or even many environmentalists.

We (me too!) have failed to make a convincing argument (in most people's eyes) of the connection between social justice and the environment. Generally people working internationally get it, but not those working domestically (in the US).

What would it take to convince people? Or why don't they buy the arguments? I don't know, frankly.

patrick in Beijing

by bookerly at 6:20 PM on 19 Feb 2008

background & actions re: child labor

Tom,
Thanks for getting the word out on this. At Equal Exchange we've been trying to raise these issues, but it's a pretty uphill struggle. It might help readers to see our summary of the forced-child-labor issue and how it's unfolded over the last SEVEN years. Yes, the industry has seven years to deal with this matter. They missed the first deadline (July 2005) by a mile, and we don't think they'll met their extended deadline (July 2008) either even tho' in the meantime the goalposts have been dramatically lowered.

For this reason we're working with a small group of like-minded organizations (Global Exchange, International Labor Rights Forum, Cocoa Camino, etc., Sweet Earth Organics, Co-op America) to publicize a more demanding, "high bar"
Commitment to Ethical Cocoa Sourcing. We, and about 60 other organizations and businesses have already signed on, and it is written such that any organization can participate - not just those directly involved in the cocoa trade such as ourselves. (At this time it is not intended for individual endorsements.)

This is because we all have a role to play. Cocoa/chocolate manufacturers need to do the right thing. Retailers need to stock the products of those manufacturers. The public needs to re-direct its purchases towards more responsible products/brands. And organizations, be they schools, ngo's, faith-based groups, or other businesses need to express their dissatisfaction with the large corporations and that they expect more to be done.

Organizations interested in signing on may contact tim.newman@ilrf.org at the International Labor Rights Forum.

by RNorth at 4:38 AM on 20 Feb 2008

Cadbury gets in on the action

Also relevant and interesting...?

http://blogs.takepart.com/2008/01/30/cadbury-strikes-swee ...

by stellastar at 10:40 AM on 22 Feb 2008

I need a flowchart

The other day I bought a Dagoba chocolate bar to send my sister as a treat to sadly discover later that they are owned by Hershey. I need a flowchart to navigate all the buy outs etc. Anyone know where to get one? (I had the same sad experience with Silk which I find is owned by Dean..)

by funniesaru at 12:53 PM on 26 Feb 2008

A place to start

This 2004 article http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=56& ... addresses the issue. I haven't searched recently for more current info, but it should be findable. I have the same problem with trying to keep up with all the mergers and buys. No more Tom's or Burt's. It becomes more imperative to buy as much as possible from local vendors one can meet and know.

by califpoppy at 5:52 PM on 27 Feb 2008
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