I won't be buying any Cadbury eggs or anything this year....

[Lynn49]

http://nochildforsale.ca/ethical_chocolate/

WORLD VISION'S NO CHILD FOR SALE CAMPAIGN AIMS TO DECREASE THE NUMBER OF CHILDREN WHOSE FUTURES ARE COMPROMISED OR LOST BECAUSE THEY ARE FORCED TO WORK IN DANGEROUS JOBS. THE GOOD CHOCOLATE GUIDE CELEBRATES MANY OF THE COMPANIES OFFERING ETHICAL CHOCOLATE - CHOCOLATE WHICH AIMS TO KEEP CHILDREN OUT OF DANGEROUS WORK. THESE PRODUCTS ARE EASILY FOUND THROUGH MANY CANADIAN RETAILERS. MAKE A DELICIOUS AND ETHICAL CHOICE, BECAUSE CHOCOLATE SHOULDN'T HURT CHILDREN.

http://www.terry.ubc.ca/2013/11/26/child-slavery-the-bitter-truth-behind-the-chocolate-industry/

It's interesting how ALL the videos have "blocked content"...
http://www.rageagainsttheminivan.com...bout-your.html

Honestly, I didn't know any of this. Now, ignoring it would be like endorsing the historical slave-trade in the US....

The Ivory Coast is the top supplier of the world’s cocoa, and the center of chocolate slavery. These children are forced to work long hours without any pay. They must carry backbreaking sacks of cocoa; they are often starved, beaten and locked up at night without toilet facilities. They are held against their will, bound and tortured and, in many cases, killed.
Hershey’s, Cadbury, you are the worst.

FAIR TRADE CHOCOLATE

These suppliers do not use cocoa harvested by child slaves:

• Sjaaks makes some awesome chocolates, with some vegan options. All are Organic and Fair Trade...and tasty! They are well-priced, too. A 1.5lb tub of their individually wrapped peanut butter bites will set you back a mere $30 or so, and that should take care of about 100 rings of the doorbell.
• Divine Chocolates is another personal favorite. A half pound tub with about 50 pieces of 70% dark chocolate costs $14.99. More importantly, though, the chocolate is really good. "The cocoa is grown in the shade of the tropical rainforest, and slowly fermented and dried in the sun by the farmers, who take great pride in the chocolate company they co-own."
  
  I won't be purchasing any Easter chocolate for our Grandson this year, on the backs of other children, nor will I hand out chocolates at Halloween, or any treats made by the offending companies. The quacking bunny now, just makes me sick..........!
  
  Such an eye-opener...why didn't I know about this before??!!
  
  
  

[Lynn49]

Robin Romano, a photographer, extensively investigated slavery and child labor in the Ivory Coast. He took this photograph on one of the cocoa plantations. In a lecture at the Univirsity of Connecticut, he quoted one of these enslaved worker as saying, "Tell them when they are eating chocolate, they are eating my flesh."

http://www.viewzone2.com/chocolarte.html

[walkonby]

Lynn I have known about this for some time as my son did a school project about it at one point. He made all of us so aware and then we really felt guilty about purchasing chocolate. I have since bought some of the Fair Trade products to ease my guilt.

[Lynn49]

Oh, absolutely, Walks!! I've been looking for Fair Trade cocoa powder, and found the Canadian "Camino" brand, but for an $8 container, Camino is charging $14 Purolator shipping charges!! From Ten Thousand Villages, the shipping is around $8 for CP...I guess I'll be picking up my cocoa etc, when I get to somewhere like Toronto again and can avoid those shipping charges. For now, I'll use up what I have and feel guilty about the whole thing!!!
I'll phone the health food stores and naturopath type stores here to find out if they carry fair trade products and hope to find at least my cocoa...I can live without chocolate...

[toban]

Just terrible! These poor kids! I'm looking for fair trade chocolate too.

[ticul]

Wow, yes, what a eye-opener for sure. So, so sad and sickening I can not help it, tears coming down and my heart feels the pain.

[Lynn49]

So horribly sad, for sure...just knowing that our sweet Grandson, enjoying his freedom here and all his comforts, has been eating choco;late out of those poor children's hands sickens me....If you have local stores that carry fair trade chocolate you're fortunate; I'm still looking.

I also emailed RCSS asking if they carried them...if not, why?! I'll have to check the health foods section next time I can get out...

[Lynn49]

Tell Lindt and Ferrero to stamp out child slave labour and introduce ethical chocolate

https://www.change.org/p/lindt-and-f...e=action_alert

I posted this in "comments" on Lindt's facebook page!
I posted a similar one on Lindt's page.

[SharonMe]

So sad. I didn't know. Even more reason to feel quilt when eating chocolates.
The world's wealth is too unbalanced. The richest 2% owns more than half of the global household wealth. The rest of us struggle and have to feel guilty to have a kit kat. It's just wrong.

[Natalka]

Gee, I thought by the thread title it was about Cadbury not using Dairy Milk chocolate any more for the creme egg...

About your topic, it's also Hershey, M&M/Mars, Nestle....

Now, how about coffee?

wine - child labour picking the grapes

And a myriad of other agricultural products...

Good luck sourcing out absolutely everything you consume - as well as so many other things we use daily, it's going to be a lot of effort.

It's awesome to know you are so principled and are going on this journey.

Info on fairtrade wines and other products - hope your faves make the list!

http://fairtrade.ca/en/products/wine

[Lynn49]

Well, Nat..all good suggestions, but even if I can't do everything, doesn't mean I can't do something....and I guess because chocolate is such a kids' treat, it's so horrendous that other kids have to die for them to enjoy it....

[Andit]

According to the World Vision link, Cadbury is fair-trade certified.

There seems to be quite a bit of confusion as to which companies are considered fair-trade, which aren't. The cynic in me wonders if there really are any fair-trade chocolates on the market, or whether it's like the shell game the Russian Communists used to play - shelves overflowing with goods when there was a photo op with Westerners, people standing in line for days to enter empty stores for the chance to buy a loaf of bread the rest of the time.

And just to play devil's advocate, what will happen to the children involved in the chocolate industry if it is shut down? These kids are there cause they are desperate to earn money for food. They'll have to turn to other, less savoury, industries to survive. Or starve to death.

I can't remember which company tried to do something about child slavery a few yrs back when reports of these horrors were first making the rounds. Long story short, they paid more for the product, kids were still being exploited, and an awful lot of middle men got very rich.


As far as finding the chocolates on the list, I've seen Cote D'Or at Metro and Green & Black at Loblaws in the past (haven't really looked for them specifically recently, so not sure if they still carry them). Hope this helps.

[Lynn49]

Thanks, Andi.....I read that those children do not get paid a cent. They're kidnapped, or promised a job, or parents sell them thinking they'll be going to "better homes" through adoption.
Cadbury did promise to make an effort to change, but very little has been done...I'll look more into it, though. I don't know what those children would be doing if they weren't slaves, but I'm guessing they'd stand more of a fighting chance for their survival.........sad any way we look at it, isn't it?

[Natalka]

Just got this email - fair trade bunnies!

http://www.tenthousandvillages.ca/sh...erm=Shop%20Now