Cocoa’s child
laborersMars, Nestlé and Hershey pledged nearly two decades ago to stop using cocoa harvested by children. Yet much of the chocolate you buy still starts with child labor.
June 5, 2019
Thank you to the journalists and the Washington Post for publishing this article, on a topic our circle has long discussed through the #chocolatefreedomproject I started! Read the article here:
Your friend in slavery-free chocolate,
Valerie
Valerie Beck
Founder, Chocolate Uplift
One of the startling things I found about slavery and chocolate, when I did research for my own post on this topic, was that these companies made promises long ago on child labor, yet has failed to live up to those promises.
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Brendan, you are right! The companies have faced no consequences — yet — for their failure to live up to promises to make chocolate free of human rights abuses. What kind of penalties would you impose on these companies, or what kind of enforcement would you like to see, to ensure that their chocolate is slavery-free? And, isn’t it wonderful that small-batch craft chocolate makers already have an alternate supply chain of traceable ethical cacao? Here’s to hope and action!
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