Chocolate Trade Problems

“The new slavery flourishes where old rules, old ways of life break down” (Brazil 121). The old way of life is deteriorating; money is scarce. Now, people will do any type of work. The Brazilian slaves work in dangerous charcoal production plants called batterias. They work with little to no protection; the hot ovens leave the workers’ bodies covered in blistering burns. In the minds of the workers, there is nothing else to do but suffer through. The slavery in Brazil prospers because of the recruitment proccess and the isolated location of the batterias. However, efforts from human rights organizations have had positive effects on the modern day slavery.

During the time frame of 1450-1750, the Columbian Exchange was at its height of power and influence. Many products were introduced from foreign lands, like animals such as cattle, chickens, and horse, and agriculture such as potatoes, bananas, and avocados. Diseases also became widespread and persisted to distant lands where it wreaked devastation upon the non-immunized people. One such influential product during this time period was the cacao, or more commonly known as chocolate. First discovered and used in the Americas, cacao beans quickly traveled to and became a popular treat in European lands. It was valuable in the New World and even used as a currency by the Aztecs. Only the rich and privileged

Human trafficking and child abuse are major problems along the west coast of Africa. Cocoa plantations are so notorious for the use of forced child labor (and forced adult labor) that U.S. Representative Eliot Engel and Senator Tom Harkin created a protocol to end child slavery and initiate labeling for products that are produced “slave free.” A joint committee was formed and called the International Cocoa Initiative, with the aim to have a

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).

Around the year 1897 Edward Morel noticed something that would change the way the modern world viewed the colonization of Africa and the supposed “humanitarian” work there forever (Hochschild 1). Morel worked for an English shipping company that was responsible for cargo going between the Congo Free State and Belgium. What Morel noticed was that ships from Africa were filled with rich, exotic goods like rubber and ivory, but the ships headed to Africa from Belgium were filled with military members and various firearms and ammunition (Hochschild 2). Morel made the conclusion that the cause of this odd “trade” between Europe and Africa was slave labor. European colonization of Africa was a slow, arduous process resulting in the deaths of

The changes in African life during the slave trade era form an important element in the economic and technological development of Africa. Although the Atlantic slave trade had a negative effect on both the economy and technology, it is important to understand that slavery was not a new concept to Africa. In fact, internal slavery existed in Africa for many years. Slaves included war captives, the kidnapped, adulterers, and other criminals and outcasts. However, the number of persons held in slavery in Africa, was very small, since no economic or social system had developed for exploiting them (Manning 97). The new system-Atlantic slave trade-became quite different from the early African slavery. The

Perhaps if Jerry had a more forthcoming and open relationship with his father, the ending of the story could have changed.

The ability to extract and work with iron allowed west African peoples to make better tools and weapons that would give them an economic and military advantage over their neighbors. This advance represents a development landmark that would to growth of large civilizations (things fall apart 2012 pg.17)(national geographic N.D. para.6) underdeveloped areas like in Africa can develop by their own without the invasion of developed countries like america or from Europeans, Why would america pass up all of the benefits of not only for us for for South America as well we would be exciting there development with our help.” in 2000, a fungus spread throughout many of south america cocoa plantations, devastating the economies of the region and driving up the price of chocolate(national geographic N.D. para.6) due to natural disasters south america has been set From their development and we will be their to aid them in return we just need some resources that can benefit the United

1. Thesis “Is it wrong to eat products from factory farms?” (435, Norcross) 2. Support for Thesis Norcross makes an example out of Fred who has puppies locked in his basement to people who eat animals. Fred is taken to trial and explains his reasoning for the torture of puppies one being his love for chocolate.

As tea and sugar are complimentary goods, Europe’s increase demand for tea resulted in an increase demand for sugar. To answer this demand, Portugal, by the means of imperialism, became the main supplier of sugar to Europe. Portugal colonized Haiti and Brazil, turning both into sugar “factories.” Though the majority of Portuguese were Roman Catholics, they ignored their religious culture that emphasized morality for the sake of capitalism. The Portuguese enslaved Africans in return for free labor or maximum profits. The slaves were subject to inhumane conditions, as there was no concern for their health, abandoned families, and moreover the morality of their situation. While Portugal became a leading imperialist power in Europe, it consequently, permanently robbed Haiti’s viability. Presently, Haiti is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world; moreover, its future prospects look bleak to none. As Portugal’s beliefs in

Moreover, consumers and employees are also demanding chocolate companies to follow good corporate social responsibility practices in addressing the environmental concerns in terms of how to design its packaging, procurement and operational decisions. Human rights concerns are also high in terms of consumer expectations of chocolate companies with respect of forced child labour in West Africa. All of these driving forces - societal concerns, attitudes and change in lifestyles, are strong enough to shape up the competition and impose the constraint on chocolate industry profitability and competitive survival.

Table of Contents 1. History, Development and Growth 2 2. Vision, Mission, Objective, Philosophy and Strategy 13 3. Functional-level strategies 14 4. Business-level strategy.

“The Dark Side of Chocolate” is a documentary that explores the underlying issues prevalent in the cocoa trade. For most first world countries chocolate is seen as an accessible treat, however in third world countries, the production of cocoa creates social issues that must be eliminated. Cocoa trade is one of the largest industries in West African countries, but the issues that arise from such trade do more harm than good. The cocoa plantations are trafficking humans to work on their plantations. Furthermore, most instances suggest that these workers do not receive any compensation for their work and most importantly some of these slave laborers are children. Thus, the three issues that the cocoa companies routinely commit in exchange for lower costs are human trafficking, slave labor, and child labor. These companies are aware of such issues but refuse to actively combat them because they are better off financially. It can be argued that these issues can be mitigated through various social, governmental and political policies aimed at combating these problems. The three main issues will be addressed and the various stakeholders affected by these issues will be analyzed. Then this paper will look at the possible solutions to these issues, whereby through government, social or political means.

Knowing the situation, every human being is morally responsible for their position. Ethic of care is an ethic that emphasizes caringfor the concrete well being of those near to us. I think, chocolate manufacture companiesshould have a close relationship with their workers who are “child slaves” and must end childslavery and provide better working conditions for other labors.I do not think that virtue theory have any relevance to the case. Because using child as a labor,government officials accept bribery so from my point of view, there is no moral virtues in thecase.In my opinion, there is no justice, rights and caring in the case. Unfortunately, obviously, themain issue is Utilitarianism. It a very critical point that in developed countries, every human being has a lot of rights, and in undeveloped countries people tradeoff their rights for theeconomical stability of the country. It is not fair. Of course, nations’ benefits should be takeninto consideration but we should not ignore that we are “human” in the same country which

As stated in the description of the Conche activity: 1.400kg of semisweet chocolate contains 850kg of nibs, in other words, 1kg of semi sweet chocolate  850/1400=0,6071kg of nibs