Child Labor: Forced Labor In The United States

“This is the main reason why targeted boycotts of the products of child labor turn out to be counterproductive (at least in the short term): they focus, in a limited geographical area, only on the effects of child labor—its products—but typically fail to investigate the structural reasons for the occurrence of child labor—namely, poverty.”

While Europe and the United States account for most chocolate consumption, the confection is growing in popularity in Asia and market forecasts are optimistic about the prospects in China and India (Nieburg, 2013, para 9). According to the CNN Freedom Project, the chocolate industry rakes in $83 billion a year, surpassing the Gross Domestic Product of over a hundred nations (“Who consumes the most chocolate,” 2012, para 3).

At first consideration, chocolate and the Maya peoples do not appear to be related in any manner, but this could not be farther from the truth. Cacao, the tree from which chocolate is processed, is heavily intertwined in the religious and secular lives of the Maya, in the past as well as the present. Chocolate, as we know it today, too was born from the Maya and their contact with the Europeans, perhaps the only good thing to come from the interactions. Thanks to the Europeans, cacao has impacted the rest of the world in as great a manner as it impacted the Maya.

In Côte d'Ivoire, a french speaking country on Africa’s western coast. Cocoa farmer Georges Kouamé Koffi has been farming cocoa for 50 years. He has eaten chocolate once in his life because it’s too expensive for his family to buy. Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) is the largest exporter of cocoa in the world, It accounts for more than half of their foreign earnings, over three quarters of the world's cocoa beans are from the ivory coast and a large portion of the population depends on its prosperity.

including underground markets that help conceal the true abuses to these children, [and it doesn’t do much to end the discrimination]. We need to tackle the issue of world property and the social conditions in developing countries that lead to child labor. [We can make a change] by decreasing our demand for these products, but it’s [evidently] not enough to end this [riot] of human affairs.” Seghers, Benjamin and Tom Harkin (12 Feb 2010)

Chocolate is a typically sweet, usually a brown food prepared from the Theobroma cacao seeds, roasted and ground. Chocolate is the healthiest natural ingredient. According to The innovation Center for U.S dairy, they state “7% of chocolate is healthy because most of the chocolate milk comes from cows” (www.npr.org,”, where does chocolate milk come from?”).

For more than 4000 years history, Chocolate has been called as “food of the gods”,,Back days, unlike chocolate in nowadays, people has consumed chocolate as a bitter beverage rather than as a sweet treat. Anthropologists has proof that chocolate was produced by pre-Olmec cultures living in present day Mexico as early as 1900 B.C.( http://www.history.com/news/hungry-history/the-sweet-history-of-chocolate)

One miracle from nature with the well-known common name Cocoa, and its botanical name - Theobroma cacao, which means "food of the Gods", is a great food that many people seek. Often consumed as a drink from the powder, chocolate bars, and cocoa butter, it is derived from the fermented pods' seeds of the Cacao tree. Its countries are Central and South America, where the ancient Aztecs and Mayan discovered Theobroma.

Chocolate is also known to generate increased levels of serotonin, a chemical naturally produced by the brain, which is known to reduce anxiety. According to researchers at the Mayo Clinic, “as a neurotransmitter, serotonin helps to relay messages from one area of the brain to another. Because of the widespread distribution of its cells, it is believed to influence a variety of psychological and other body functions. Of the approximately 40 million brain cells, most are influenced either directly or indirectly by serotonin. This includes brain cells related to mood, sexual desire and function, appetite, sleep, memory and learning, temperature regulation, and some social behavior” (www.mayoclinic.com).

Chocolate is made from cocoa powder, which comes from the cocoa tree’s football shaped, melon-like fruit. Cocoa trees grow best in the tropical environments of Africa and South America under the shade of the rainforest canopy.

In the United States, child labor and sweatshops are illegal, and society frowns upon any business that exploits children in the production of goods. Though most would say that they would not support a company that uses child labor to produce its goods, almost everyone has, in fact, knowingly or unknowingly, supported these businesses in one way or another. Children are involved in the production of many of the everyday goods we import from overseas, including the manufacturing of clothes, shoes, toys, and sporting equipment, the farming of cocoa, cotton, sugarcane, and bananas, and the mining of coal, diamonds, and gold (The U.S. Dept. of Labor). Often, we are blinded to this fact.

Many ought to believe that chocolate is healthy than unhealthy to one. Chocolate is a confection made from cacao beans, the seeds of the cacao plant. There are a large number of products made from it on the market, from powdered cocoa for making drinks to white chocolate, and most markets carry a cross-section of confections for their customers. In reality chocolate is healthy for one.

There are many aspects that make chocolate such a complex and interesting food. Its amazing history, how its processed, the different kinds of chocolate, remarkable health benefits, and even its influence as an aphrodisiac are some of its attractive features.

Some organizations, such as CBS and Green America, have petitioned to end child slavery in the cocoa farms. While marginal progress has been made, there remains much to be done. By purchasing chocolate from

Every time you enter a grocery store to pick up whatever items you need for that week there is always that one treats at the end of your shopping experience waiting for you, chocolate. There’s dozens of different types of chocolate bars that are there for your choosing. From Hershey’s, to M&M’s and even mixed peanut butter chocolate treats. All of these chocolates are even conveniently low priced for your affordability, after all its only chocolate. The thing most people don’t know is that this chocolate isn’t just produced in some factory in America and shipped to your local grocery store. America alone consumes 2.8 billion pounds of chocolate a year. Farming the cocoa is a struggle for workers, these workers aren’t properly noursihed, they’re going to wars within their country, being underpaid and worst off all some of these workers are slaves. The process that goes into the production of a chocolate bar is very laboring and most of the western world doesn’t know how hard people are working to deliver them they’re favorite treat.