Fair Trade Chocolate

Look what I found!

Fair trade dark chocolate raspberry medallions.  Yum!  I will be ordering some of these when they come back in stock.

From Everyday Justice:
"The majority of the world's cocoa beans grow in West Africa...nations struggling to overcome poverty and unrest.  Farmers sell these beans to the world's major chocolate producers like Hershey's, Nestle and Mars.  So the beans from these countries are the source of most of the chocolate those of us in Western countries consume.

...there are high numbers of children working to harvest cocoa beans.  These children typically aren't family, or even local, but instead have been trafficked in from neighboring countries.

A report by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture revealed that an estimated 284,000 children are working on cocoa farms in hazardous tasks such as using machetes and applying pesticides and insecticides without the necessary protective equipment.  The report also indicated strong evidence of human trafficking.  Yet these practices are often overlooked or ignored by the companies that the farms supply.  The result?  Much of the chocolate we consume has its roots in child labor, often forced or slave labor."

This shocks and appalls me!  But you know me, I love my chocolate.  A life without chocolate is sad!  So what's a girl to do?  It turns out you can buy fair trade chocolate online!  It's less convenient and more expensive than what you can get at the grocery store, but to me it is worth it.  Fair trade guarantees that my money is not going toward companies that exploit their laborers and it also (I hope) sends a message to those companies that there are people out there willing to pay more for slave-free chocolate.  Maybe they will get the message.

Here are some links for places to buy fair trade chocolate in case you are interested.

http://www.serrv.org/ has chocolate bars and treats (the raspberry chocolates are from here).
http://www.greenheartshop.org/organic-baking-cocoa.html has organic fair trade baking cocoa.
http://www.amazon.com has Guittard fair trade chocolate chips.