Certifying ‘Blood Chocolate’: Is there child labor or slavery in your candy bar?

[Karmadillo]

http://inthesetimes.com/article/6108/certifying_blood_chocolate

Certifying ‘Blood Chocolate’
Activists question the candy industry’s commitment to ending cocoa industry child labor.
By Sara Peck

Conscientious consumers’ search for ethically sourced and manufactured products has expanded beyond diamonds, coffee and clothing to sweeter terrain: chocolate. After years of pressure, multinational candy companies are finally beginning to embrace the “ethical cocoa sourcing” movement—but to what degree and effect remains a matter of debate. Labor activists say manufacturers’ commitment to the seals of approval adorning chocolate bars is dubious, and the standards themselves are flawed.

Since the late 1990s, labor-rights organizations have been pressuring food companies to verify that their chocolate is not the product of child labor or slavery. Eighty percent of the world’s cocoa, the main ingredient of chocolate, is produced by millions of growers in the Ivory Coast and Ghana, according to the nonprofit CorpWatch.

In 2001, eight members of the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, including industry leaders Mars and Nestle, signed the non-binding Harkin-Engel “Cocoa Protocol” that committed the companies to eliminating the “worst of child labor” in West Africa. Participating manufacturers were supposed to have met the international agreement’s standards by 2005, but hundreds of thousands of children continue to work on cocoa plantations in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, according to a 2009 Tulane University study of the cocoa industry.

But last year, Mars and Cadbury announced their commitment to “ethical sourcing.” Mars, which makes Snickers and M&Ms and had $30 billion in global sales in 2008, has partnered with the Rainforest Alliance (RA) to ensure its entire cocoa supply—100,000 tons—is “sustainably produced” by 2020. Mars’ Galaxy candy bar, popular in the United Kingdom, began bearing the Rainforest Alliance Certified™ green seal this year. The New York-based RA’s sustainable agriculture standards forbid child labor, except when children are part of the farm owner’s family.

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“Fairtrade” and RA-certified products offer the same appeal to some consumers, but their production and content standards are very different. RA products are only required to contain 30 percent “certified content”—meaning that the majority of the product does not reach the organization’s standards. “Fairtrade” products must contain 100-percent certified content, and guarantee a minimum price to producers.

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[SPedigrees]

1. Fortunately I dislike chocolate so I escape this dilemma.

We buy fair trade coffee though.

I also do not trust anything made with powdered milk products (from China) as they are liable to contain melamine - another reason to avoid (milk) chocolate.