Was your hershey's bar made with slave labor?

[markomalley]

Taste for chocolate is gone

Some African cocoa farms use child slaves

By DAVID SMITH

Published on: 10/24/05

I love chocolate as much as anyone. In moderation, chocolate is good for your body and soul.

But I have a nightmare that this Halloween one of my daughters is going to pull a piece of chocolate out of her candy bag and ask, "Daddy, is it true that child slaves made this chocolate?"

Gulp.

If the chocolate is from one of the major U.S. brands, I'll have to say, "Yes, it's possible, sweetheart. Whether this particular piece of chocolate was made by slaves, it's impossible to tell."

The West African country of Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) is the world's leading producer of cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate.

In 1998, a U.S. State Department background report on the country acknowledged the existence of child slavery there. In 2001, Save the Children Canada reported that 15,000 children between 9 and 12 years old, many from impoverished Mali, had been tricked or sold into slavery on West African cocoa farms, many for just $30 each.

(snip)

Just something to think about before going out and buying your halloween candies this year...

[Tom Strange]

I didn't know Kathy Lee Gifford had a chocolate factory...

[Stayed Too Long]

Is Willy Wonka aware of this?

[Zshot]

I have never met a kid who cared about the process of making a candy bar. :blink:

It is very hipocritical for Americans to condemn slavery when we have advocates promoting the practice. Of course, the practice I am speaking of illegle immigrants.

In reference to the article...

How is this for a quesation... Is the food on the table grown, harvested and/or processed by under paid, mis-treated illegle immigrants? Is the answer, "yes, because it's good for our economy"?

[Galen]

More and more of our produce comes from South America and Africa these days.

It amazes me each time that I walk through a produce aisle and look at where this stuff comes from now days.

[Lifted Up]

More and more of our produce comes from South America and Africa these days.

It amazes me each time that I walk through a produce aisle and look at where this stuff comes from now days.

Well, South America and Africa aren't the only places. For some reason we have been flooded with "Austrailian Naval Oranges" for some time. One of my sons likes fresh oranges, but he didn't like these. He like the California ones much better...and he did not know where either came from before he ate them. Maybe he inherited some of my California blood (I was borh there)...but I don't really think it was that.

[WhiteDove]

Rare photo of a Hershey slave.

[Linda Z]

What about the fruits and veggies that are picked/harvested right in the old U S of A by migrant farm workers? I have to wonder if they are much better off than slaves in other countries. I understand the objection you started this thread with, Mark, but it almost seems that to avoid eating the fruits of someone's slave or almost-slave labor, we'd all have to grow all our own produce.

Am I wrong? Has the lot of migrant farm workers finally improved enough that they can make a decent living and be housed in safe, decent surroundings?

[coolchef1248 @adelphia.net]

i think those migrant workers make a much better wage and have better living quarters than where they came from

[dmiller]

So -- it never hurts to support your local farmer's market.

:)

[Linda Z]

Good point, David.

Here's a link to a report by the Palm Beach Post, with many eye-opening stories:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/hp/content/mo...ousing1207.html

Several reports I read put the average wages for these workers at between $7,500 and $8,000 a year. One report says they have to pay rent for shacks or trailers as high as $800 a month. Reminds me of the old Tennessee Ernie Ford song, "16 Tons." "I owe my soul to the company store."

Many of these people flee to the U.S. because they think they can make a better life here for themselves and their families. That's often not the case.

People are being bought and used as slave labor right in our own back yard, so as much as I feel bad for the people Mark speaks of, I'm horrified that this stuff is going on here, too.

So Mark, do you know if it's possible to buy chocolate or cocoa that isn't made from cocoa beans picked by slaves?

[markomalley]

So Mark, do you know if it's possible to buy chocolate or cocoa that isn't made from cocoa beans picked by slaves?

I have no idea. I don't touch the stuff, so have never investigated it. I would hope that some large cocoa users, such as Starbucks or Ben and Jerry, who claim to be so socially responsible, would seek out cocoa harvested with non-slave labor. But I just thought this was an interesting article.

[LG]

I don't worry about such things. Would the people be better off if nobody bought the cocoa (fruit, whatever)?

I don't approve of slavery but it has existed since before recorded history and will continue, in one form or another, until intelligent life ceases to exist.

[mstar1]

or until people cease to profit from it...