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Chocolate: What’s Not To Love?
What Companies Do Not Disclose But Consumers Must Know
The raw ingredient of chocolate is cocoa. Cocoa, however, is a tropical fruit that’s usually cultivated and harvested by farmworkers under slave-like conditions, and sometimes by children.
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates there are 2 million children currently engaged in hazardous work on cocoa farms in two countries alone, Ivory Coast and Ghana , where about 60% of the world’s cocoa is grown.
Back in 2001, when evidence of child and forced labor started tainting the industry’s image, many big chocolate companies agreed to trace these labor violations and promised to eliminate them from their supply chain. But sadly, most are still failing to overcome this problem.
Nestlé, for example, continues having child labor and human rights issues in their cocoa chain despite years of investment in monitoring and remediation efforts. In fact, the Independent External Monitoring of Nestlé’s cocoa farms in Ivory Coast, conducted in 2017/2018 by the Fair Labor Association, show an increase in the number of child workers on verified farms that now represent 8% of the total workforce. Persistent occupational health and safety risks were also reported, besides payment issues.
