[Comment] Delicious idea: End child slavery by eating chocolate

from The Houston Chronicle

On Valentine's, give a gift to helpless children

By TEX DWORKIN

Achild's delight over chocolate is something truly divine. The giggles, the sticky fingers, the smiles made all the more beautiful by fudgy smudges on each cheek; for children, chocolate is proof of magic and any holiday celebrated with chocolate is a chance to be thrilled.

But this Valentine's Day, neither chocolate lovers nor our children should be licking their lips. Because the real truth behind chocolate is bittersweet at best.

West African cocoa farmers harvest nearly half the cocoa consumed in the United States, and almost 300,000 of those farmers are children under the age of 14. These are children who are often sold into slavery and forced to work 12 to 14 hours a day in dangerous conditions for little or no pay. Most of them have never even experienced the taste of chocolate.

As Valentine's Day boxed chocolate sales skyrocket to $1.1 billion, consumers have an opportunity to use their collective billion-dollar purchasing power to buy chocolate that puts an end to child slavery on cocoa farms.

The Ivory Coast is the world's largest cocoa producer, providing 43 percent of cocoa sold worldwide. In the last five years, media exposès and high profile reports from a plethora of international and governmental bodies, including the United Nations and the U.S. State Department, have reported child slavery on many of the cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast. Most recently, the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture for USAID estimated that 284,000 children work in dangerous conditions on cocoa farms in West Africa, 64 percent of whom are under 14 years old.

For years, chocolate manufactures have known that much of their cocoa is imported from the Ivory Coast and harvested in large part by children. After an award-winning series by Knight Ridder reporters in 2001 made the indelible connection between the chocolate industry and what is essentially modern-day child slavery, U.S. chocolate manufacturers publicly claimed that they are not responsible for the conditions on cocoa plantations since they don't own them. In fact, after a class of children who were trafficked from Mali into the Ivory Coast — children who were forced to work with no pay, little food and sleep, and frequent beatings — filed suit against Nestlé in 2005, Nestlé's representatives told the court, "we are only buyers of a product."

The story of child slavery is not a new one, the story of an industry seduced by its own profits and unconcerned with how those profits are made is not surprising; but the story of a holiday devoted to love and celebrated with chocolate made by child slaves who've never even tasted the stuff is truly heartbreaking.

Really, in a world that seems increasingly wartorn and cynical, can it be that we can't even give our kids chocolate on Valentine's Day without feeling like it's the wrong thing to do? Is nothing sacred?

Actually, the American love affair with chocolate does not have to end for consumers to rewrite this story. By choosing Fair Trade Certified chocolate, which is increasingly available at neighborhood supermarkets, consumers can support a burgeoning solution to this rampant exploitation of children. Fair Trade, denoted by the "Fair Trade Certified" label, is a monitoring and certification process that guarantees a minimum price per pound for cocoa to help raise farmers out of poverty, prohibits child slavery and forced labor, and requires independent monitoring of farms each year.

Americans of all ages are catching on to this socially conscious chocolate. Faith-based and community groups are using it for local events, and consumers are asking local retailers to stock it with increasing success. But the most inspiring support for Fair Trade has come from America's youngest consumers, who are increasingly demanding that only Fair Trade chocolate be used in school fund-raisers. America's children instantly recognize their intrinsic connection to children being abused on cocoa farms, and they also recognize that their chocolate consumption represents a major market share for U.S. chocolate companies. These savvy and hope-filled kids are leading the way for the rest of us to follow.

Currently, it is estimated that Fair Trade chocolate represents less than 1 percent of the world's roughly $60 billion chocolate market. However, it is consumers who drive that $60 billion market and it is consumers who can drive the market in another direction. Rising demand for Fair Trade chocolate can provide the financial incentive the chocolate industry needs to end child slavery. Unlike AIDS, global warming or the war in Iraq, this is one global crisis with an easy fix: All you have to do is eat chocolate.

Dworkin is the manager of the Global Exchange Online Fair Trade Store, www.globalexchange.org. She is currently working on a book entitled "This Little Piggy Went to Market: Bringing Products from the Village Market to the Global Marketplace."