So it’s February, you know, the month of love. The time of year when couples shower each other in sweets, and singles go hunting for the tastiest post-Valentine’s Day sale chocolate. But, what some people don’t know, is that chocolate has a dark side.
Before cocoa beans are shipped to places like Europe and America to become decadent bars and truffles, cocoa farmers have to harvest, ferment, dry, and transport their crop.
Although a majority of these cocoa beans are coming from small, family-run farms, studies have shown that a large portion of today’s cocoa production workforce consists of child labour.
Child labourers are subject to a variety of hazardous activities when working in cocoa production including the cutting of trees, burning of fields, and application of harmful chemicals like herbicides and insecticides, according to a 2013-14 report by Tulane University.
Over two million children were working in cocoa production in 2014, according to the study, which also showed that a vast majority of these children were working in hazardous conditions in Ghana and the Ivory Coast.
Brennah Lynch, a first-year child studies student at Carleton, said that she has not really thought about the source of cocoa beans before, but that she would reconsider buying chocolate if she knew it was made through the exploitation of children.
Canadians spend countless dollars on chocolate every year, averaging at $225 per household in 2015, according to a report by Statistics Canada. To put the chocolate industry into perspective, 2015 saw $942 million spent on the manufacture of chocolate in Ontario alone.
“I think it’s a terrible thing that children have to work in factories. I know that there’s so many organizations and companies who use child exploitation,” Lynch said.
According to Stop the Traffik, a global organization that seeks to eradicate human trafficking, the issue of child labour is most prevalent in West Africa, where 70 per cent of the world’s cocoa supply grows. Over half of this is produced in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, where child labour and child slavery is common practice.
Cocoa is a multi-billion dollar commodity in today’s world, where the demand for chocolate is ever-increasing, according to a 2017 report by the World Cocoa Foundation.
As big chocolate companies like Nestle and Mars continue to buy their cocoa from uncertified farmers, these investments fuel the child labour and trafficking system.
The chocolate industry is monopolized by six major companies: Hershey, Ferrero, Lindt & Sprungli, Mars, Mondelez (Cadbury), and Nestle, according to a Stop The Traffik report.
When issues with child labour in the cocoa production industry were brought to light in the 2000s, many of those companies promised to tackle the problem in different ways.
Certifications and corporate investments at the community level are two ways that major chocolate corporations are attempting to address the issue of child labour.
Certifications such as Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, and Universal Trade Zone (UTZ) ensure that children are not being exploited in company supply chains.
Corporate investment, on the other hand, involves companies being actively engaged in the development of child monitoring and remediation systems for cocoa producing communities.
Fairtrade is a certification in the cocoa industry that ensures farmers are paid fair prices, have humane working conditions, and can improve their communities without the use of child labour.
For Camino Fairtrade, a Canadian company based out of Ottawa, eradicating child labour is part of their mandate.
“We work with small-scale farmers, who are organized in democratic cooperatives. For us, that is the essence of fairtrade,” Tom Hanlon-Wilde, an officer on Camino’s board of directors, said. “[Fairtrade] should be people who are growing on their own land, farming on their own land . . . we want to let the consumers give more back to those farmers to keep their organic farming systems going, and get a better price, especially a guaranteed minimum price.”
The guaranteed minimum price is an important feature of the Fairtrade system because it ensures that farmers are not impacted by price fluctuations in the global market, he added.
According to a 2015 Fairtrade Canada report, an estimated 45 per cent of the money Fairtrade farmers received was used in improving infrastructure such as warehousing, cocoa drying facilities, and tree structures.
Forty-seven per cent was used in improving services for farmers such as training, capacity building and providing agricultural tools.
Seven per cent was used in improving community services such as healthcare, infrastructure, and welfare.
“Fairtrade was a way to support them in improving their lives. As they gained power and efficacy, and more economic resources, they’ve been able to do better for their children,” Hanlon-Wilde said.
He added that Fairtrade is a way to keep farmers from becoming victims of the international economic system. He also said buying Fairtrade is important for Canadians to help these farmers sustain their farms and improve their communities.
According to Hanlon-Wilde, other than Fairtrade, the bean-to-bar phenomenon has been making a positive change in the lives of farmers.
The bean-to-bar system is a process that makes it easier to trace the cocoa beans back to the original farmer.
Instead of buying pre-processed cocoa from a large company, many local businesses are buying directly from sustainable farms in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
The cocoa is bought from small cocoa farmers, then sorted, roasted, cracked, resorted, winnowed, grinded (with sugar and other ingredients), then refined for about three to 30 days before it is finally tempered, wrapped, and ready to eat.
“The phenomenon of bean-to-bar has really grown. For a long time, [for] almost all the world’s chocolate, the beans were actually bought and ground by just five different companies,” Hanlon-Wilde said. “That system had a lot of control over farmers’ lives because it was the only place they could sell.”
He added that the bean-to-bar system is opening people’s eyes to who’s growing the cocoa beans, and more people want to make sure the farmers are getting fair wages.
Erica Gilmour’s company, Hummingbird Chocolate, out of Almonte, Ont., is part of the growing bean-to-bar movement in Canada.
Ranking among the world’s best chocolate makers, Gilmour said she gets her beans from a sustainable source in the Dominican Republic.
“We’re one of the few bean-to-bar chocolate makers in Canada, so we make the chocolate from scratch and there’s only a few of us—but when we started five years ago, there were only three others, and now I think there’s probably about 30 bean-to-bar chocolate makers in Canada,” she said. “Many of them are very small, so I think that’s a big change, and people are more concerned about where their chocolate is made, and how the beans are sourced.”
So if you’re thinking of picking up that pot o’ gold chocolate box this Valentine’s Day, consider checking the packaging for Fairtrade, UTZ, or Rainforest Alliance certifications.
As for Lynch, she suggests trying something a little more personal than chocolate before resorting to the classic gift of love.
“I think it is one of those typical things that significant others and people give to each other,” she said.
Although she said chocolate is one of those go-to things to give your loved one around this time of year, it’s important to remember what Valentine’s Day is all about—celebrating with the people in life that you love the most.
Graphic by Manoj Thayalan
