Chocolate and Human Trafficking
The average American consumes over eleven pounds of chocolate every single year, the equivalent of around 120 chocolate bars, amounting to around thirteen billion dollars of chocolate. (Huffington Post, 2013) This leads to the question of where does all of this chocolate come from? Seventy percent comes from forced child labor, otherwise known as human trafficking. The Polaris Project, a nonprofit working to combat the trafficking of humans, defines labor trafficking as: the use violence, threats, lies, debt bondage, and other forms of coercion to force people to work against their will in many different industries. (The Polaris Project) The majority of cocoa used for the production of chocolate is made on …show more content…
Portuguese planters had replaced chattel slavery with contract labor, but there terms were very harsh. Rumors about slave labor for cocoa were first heard about my William A. Cadbury, buying manager for Cadbury Chocolate, in 1901 on his visit to Trinidad. Cadbury was convicted of buying cocoa that came from slave labor. (Robins 2001, 599) This became a major ethical issue for the makers of Cadbury Chocolate. The Cadbury family were dedicated Quakers, pursuing a brand image that connected with their religious belief while also supporting that cocoa was a healthy, nutritious food. The brothers paid what was considered a
“living wage” to the workers back in the factory. In 1906, an “ethical purchasing policy” was put through to make sure that everything in the company was carried out with proper trade rates. (600) Even the company 's advertisements claimed that its cocoa was “Absolutely pure, therefore the …show more content…
As of now, the industry has not taken major steps to help end the problem of human trafficking within cocoa production. Chocolate companies in the 60 billion dollar industry could end the use of child labor. The solution, paying cocoa farmers a living wage for the work their production. Besides just paying a living wage, the industry is being asked to develop and financially support programs that will have rescue and offer therapy to these children who were sold on the cocoa farms. Even major companies like Hershey, have done little to look at the accusations of child labor in their supply chain. Hershey has also refused to let anyone know where their source of cocoa is coming from. (Food Empowerment Project,
The average American consumes over eleven pounds of chocolate every single year, the equivalent of around 120 chocolate bars, amounting to around thirteen billion dollars of chocolate. (Huffington Post, 2013) This leads to the question of where does all of this chocolate come from? Seventy percent comes from forced child labor, otherwise known as human trafficking. The Polaris Project, a nonprofit working to combat the trafficking of humans, defines labor trafficking as: the use violence, threats, lies, debt bondage, and other forms of coercion to force people to work against their will in many different industries. (The Polaris Project) The majority of cocoa used for the production of chocolate is made on …show more content…
Portuguese planters had replaced chattel slavery with contract labor, but there terms were very harsh. Rumors about slave labor for cocoa were first heard about my William A. Cadbury, buying manager for Cadbury Chocolate, in 1901 on his visit to Trinidad. Cadbury was convicted of buying cocoa that came from slave labor. (Robins 2001, 599) This became a major ethical issue for the makers of Cadbury Chocolate. The Cadbury family were dedicated Quakers, pursuing a brand image that connected with their religious belief while also supporting that cocoa was a healthy, nutritious food. The brothers paid what was considered a
“living wage” to the workers back in the factory. In 1906, an “ethical purchasing policy” was put through to make sure that everything in the company was carried out with proper trade rates. (600) Even the company 's advertisements claimed that its cocoa was “Absolutely pure, therefore the …show more content…
As of now, the industry has not taken major steps to help end the problem of human trafficking within cocoa production. Chocolate companies in the 60 billion dollar industry could end the use of child labor. The solution, paying cocoa farmers a living wage for the work their production. Besides just paying a living wage, the industry is being asked to develop and financially support programs that will have rescue and offer therapy to these children who were sold on the cocoa farms. Even major companies like Hershey, have done little to look at the accusations of child labor in their supply chain. Hershey has also refused to let anyone know where their source of cocoa is coming from. (Food Empowerment Project,