I’m glad that this article from Salon used Valentine’s Day as an excuse to remind us about the fact that almost all the chocolate one finds on the market these days involved the work of children, most of them slaves.
« The existence, and the plight, of these children were publicly acknowledged by chocolate companies in 2001 after high-profile stories in the media — most significantly, a documentary by the BBC and a prize-winning series by Knight Ridder reporters — had exposed the horrific details of the children’s lives, and their connection to the chocolate consumed, often by unknowing consumers, in this country.
And yet, despite committing themselves 16 months ago to a highly publicized four-year plan to abolish child slaves and laborers from the cocoa farms with whom they do business, the chocolate industry, worth billions a year in U.S. revenue alone, has managed to continue making and selling products without demonstrating any discernible progress in solving the child labor problem. »
Some people think that a solution is to send inspectors to chocolate farms across the world to monitor the work done there by children. But it looks like they might not be as successful as UN inspectors in Iraq:
« Anti-sweatshop activists have found that opening factories to inspectors as a means of monitoring is ineffective. « It’s impossible because of the sheer number of factories around the world, » says Jason Marks, a spokesperson for Global Exchange. The money is better spent, Marks says, on worker empowerment — giving workers a living wage and allowing them the right to form trade unions. Worker empowerment is what makes Fair Trade collectives easy to monitor — they’re more invested in maintaining the criteria that a FLO inspector comes to check on once a year. »
So what are chocolate lovers to do until they can make sure that no slaves were involved in the production of their favorite drug? The best solution right now is to buy fair trade chocolate. And you won’t even have to compromise on taste. I found this fabulous 71% cocoa chocolate bar produced by a fair trade co-operative called La Siembra. The bar is part of a product line called Cocoa Camino, and you can find it in a lot of places across Canada ( about 4.25$ for 100g ).
I was able to find it in Montreal at Rachelle-B�ry’s stores, but also in the small fruit and vegetable markets on Mont-Royal. One piece of this divine dark poison, and you’re in paradise. And it smells SO good, I want to bottle its perfume and wear it all day long. It is one of the best chocolate I’ve ever tasted, bitter yet sweet enough to make me go « oooh »… guilt free.