Halloween shopping is almost upon you, parents — chocolate, chocolate, chocolate! — so I need your undivided attention for a minute.
I have two kids so I freely admit I’m vulnerable to media-hyped stories like balloon boy and kidnappings and images of lost children on milk cartons. But this story will even hit people who hate kids. I mean, this one takes the freaking Fair Trade cake:
Scores of Children Rescued from Organized Slave Labor in INTERPOL-led Operation in Ivory Coast.
Turns out cocoa plantations were buying children for use in cocoa harvesting. The kids in the picture above “were discovered working under extreme conditions, forced to carry massive loads seriously jeopardizing their health.” From the INTERPOL press release:
The children had been bought by plantation owners needing cheap labour to harvest the cocoa and palm plantations. They were discovered working under extreme conditions, forced to carry massive loads seriously jeopardizing their health. Aged between 11 and 16, children told investigators they would regularly work 12 hours a day and receive no salary or education. Girls were usually purchased as house maids and would work a seven-day week all year round, often in addition to their duties in the plantations.
Fifty-four kids in all were hauled out of this hell-hole, kids that should have been in school, playing soccer, or stealing minutes on a Wii.
What’s being done about this? Well, it’s not like governments aren’t aware of the problem. After all,
U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis pledged that her agency will work with companies that want to root out child and forced labor from their supply chains and adopt monitoring systems.
Government grants. $58 million for sixteen countries. To end a slavery trade of children. I am blind with contempt for every aspect of this story.
Okay, okay, I admit that grants are cool and all, but let’s cut the crap. How in the world do human beings justify a slave trade with kids? Well, I’m going to be blunt about how and why this happens. Cocoa is the crucial ingredient in chocolate, and chocolate is Very Big Business. When you drive down labor costs (i.e., buy slaves), you do so to drive down your cost of production, and low cost of production means cheap chocolate. Cheap chocolate is what folks want for Halloween. We expect and demand it because we have to hand it out for free when the kids come trick or treating. You’ll do it. You’ll buy cheap chocolate to hand out. Why wouldn’t you? Why on earth would anyone spend a lot of money on chocolate that you’re just going to give away for free to trick or treaters?
The answer to that last question is tied up horribly in the answer to the first.
Let me ask you a question. Does this look like a rip-off? It’s 150 mini chocolate bars from Equal Exchange priced at $36. Ok, they’re on sale for $29, but let’s go with the regular price. At $36 per 24 oz. box, that shakes out to $1.50 an ounce. WOuld you spend $36 on Halloween candy?
Meanwhile, a major American chocolate company is selling 5 lb bags of minis for $27.99, which comes out to 35 cents an ounce. Fives times cheaper than the Fair Trade chocoalte but over twice as much product.
What. A. Deal.
Scale has a great deal to do with the price difference, but because Equal Exchange is sourcing exclusively from cooperatives of farmers who all have a democratic say in the running of their business (i.e., no slaves), E.E. by definition narrows the range of producers from whom they purchase. They ask questions and specifically avoid plantation-style cocoa operations.
Does this mean all cheap chocolate comes from slave-kids. No, but it does mean that, thanks to the massive scale of corporate chocolate, you have no idea who harvested that cocoa, and, probably, neither do the captains of the chocolate industry. Dary Goodrich, Chocolate Products Manager for Equal Exchange, has more on what you’re getting when you buy cheap chocolate:
After years of foot dragging, many of the large chocolate companies have finally started working on “sustainable” sourcing practices that are meant to address the issue of the worst forms of child labor. However, this is planned to take years: the practices may not cover 100% of a companies’ products, nor in most cases will they address the root cause of the issue. The fact is that most of the proposed solutions do not discuss the need to increase prices to farmers and if farmers in this traditional system cannot make enough money to survive they are forced to find the cheapest labor possible, which in this case are innocent children.
Equal Exchange (which sponsors this site, I’m proud to say because they are massively cool) has been running a terrific campaign the last two Halloweens called “Reverse Trick or Treating.” And they’re doing it again in 2009. The idea is you buy up some of these Fair Trade minis and hand them door-to-door when Trick or Treating along with this post card, to spread the word about what in the name of God is happening in the cocoa industry. There’s also a downloadable curriculum for teachers, and downloadable label for trick-or-treat bags.
(Unfortunately, we’re past the deadline for ordering these Reverse Trick or Treating kits, but your local co-ops may have literature about it, and some may have the boxes of 150 Fair Trade chocolate minis on sale for $29. Here in the Twin Cities, Linden Hills Co-op, Lakewind Natural Food Stores, Valley Co-op, and I believe Seward Co-op are all handing out info on Reverse Trick or Treating, and Minnesota churches are having fun with Reverse Trick or Treating through E.E.’s interfaith program, too. If you’re in the Twin Cities, you can also call Dana at the Equal Exchange Minneapolis Office at 651-379-5020 for more information about how to buy a box Fair Trade minis before Halloween.)
Meanwhile, the situation in the Ivory Coast and Ghana will remain grim for some time:
With Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire [Ivory Coast] producing around three quarters of the world’s cocoa, it is believed that hundreds of thousands of children are working illegally in the plantations across these two countries alone. The trafficking of children is often camouflaged by the cultural practice of placing young children with families of wealthier relatives to receive an education or learn a trade. In reality, they are often sold and their rights to education, health and protection denied. To continue tackling this trend, a second … operation is scheduled for later this year in Ghana.
Got a few extra bucks for a happier Halloween this year?
