The Effects Of Child Slavery And Child Labor On Chocolate Plantation

Child labor is a problem that almost every country in the world is guilty for. Companies throughout the world use child labor whether they know about it or not. The Hershey’s chocolate company is one the companies culpable of child labor. In order to get the best cocoa beans, they reached out to West Africa where child labor is almost essential. There’s always news of how kids are mistreated and forced to work in fields because some people still believe in segregation and think that African Americans are inferior beings. I disagree with that since one of my very good friends is African American. Color should not define a person.

Child labor in the chocolate industry is an issue that effects children in impoverished countries in West Africa, but should be taken care of together by society. The article, Child Labor and Slavery, goes into further detail about the child labor and slavery involved in the industry and how children are forced into these immoral practices. The awful reality is that “hundreds of thousands of children are being purchased from their parents or outright stolen and then shipped to Ivory Coast, where they are enslaved on cocoa farms” (Gregory, 1). The children in West Africa are generally surrounded by severe poverty, which leads to children working at a young age to help support their family. Many of the children laboring on cocoa farms are between

“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.”

Produced from the seed of the tropical theobroma cacao tree, cocoa has been cultivated for at least three millennia. This food originated in Mexico, Central and Northern South America and dates back to around 1100 BC when the Aztecs made it into a beverage known as Nahuatl or "bitter water" in English. The chocolate-making process remained unchanged for hundreds of years. It wasn't until the Industrial Revolution, when mechanical mills were used to squeeze out cocoa butter which created durable chocolate, that many changes

The Transatlantic slave trade was a horrible time for the world and human race as a whole. Men in power took advantage of war to strip africa of millions of its people for their own benefits. These slave owners stripped millions of Africans of their rights and pride to make an exuberant amount of money. This act of villainy was only possible because of the cooperation of people globally. Even worse is the fact that at least a quarter of the slaves taken from africa where children. The role of children in the Atlantic slave trade during the 18th and 19th centuries was a cruel part of slavery because they were easily accessible,easy to influence,and they lasted longer as slaves than their elders.

For over one hundred years, there has been only one company that has been on top of the candy industry in North America; Hershey. With over 14,000 employees, serving 70 countries worldwide and net sales of $6.6 billon, Hershey has come out on top. The Hershey company began in 1894 by Milton Hershey. The company has over 8 factories, but their main headquarters resides in Pennsylvania. The beloved Hershey milk chocolate bar has been a favorite by many, but would it still be if more people knew how it came to be that? One of chocolates main ingredients is cocoa. Cocoa, or cocoa beans come from tropical areas around the world, but is mostly found on the Ivory Coast in West Africa. Hershey, along with Mars and Nestle are the three major companies that buy their cocoa from West Africa, but with further investigation, it has been known that over 4,400 children work on those cocoa farms that they buy from.

In “Is There Child Slavery in Your Chocolate?” John Robbins describes how Hershey’s abuse labor forces and how other major companies deter that from happening in their chocolate. Robbins explains that the Hershey “company purchases the primary ingredient in its products from sources notorious for abusive labor practices…”(1) Robbins emphasizes that Ivory Coast provides forty-three percent of the world’s supply of cocoa beans. He explains that in “…West Africa, particularly Ivory Coast, where Hershey sources its cocoa, and that forced or involuntary child labor was common in these areas”(1) Robbins states that there have been thousands of children who were either purchased or stolen to be enslaved to work on cocoa farms. He further explains

The article “Chocolate gets sweeter: How consumer outrage is reducing child labor in Ghana” discusses how the chocolate enjoyed by many people around the world are made by child laborers. These child laborers can work with their families, but the practice of selling children into child labor is common in this area as well. Jack Dawkins, an activist against child labor, had recently visited Ghana, one of the places in the world which has the largest amount of cocoa farms (cocoa is the main ingredient used to make chocolate). When he had visited Ghana, he witnessed many child laborers who did not attend school because they were busy working on the cocoa farms. These child laborers looked exhausted, tired, and wounded from all of the work they

40% of all the chocolate in the United states of America is made by child labor. The chocolate bar most people can't live without is made by child slaves in Africa. This blog post was made to inform the kids of our school about the child slaves. This post is about the different point of views on the topic of Ivory Coast Cocoa farms. In the following paragraphs, this post will go over the point of views of children, a chocolate company, and Tulane university.

According to Child Labor and Slavery in the Chocolate Industry, ( n.d,) West Africa supplies up to 70% of the global supply of cocoa which is used by the world’s preeminent chocolate manufacturers. Unfortunately, stakeholders claim that the cocoa farmers are poorly paid and have resorted to child labor in order to stay competitive. West Africa has a plethora of poor families that are willing to allow their children to work and the children themselves are lured by promises of high pay. Furthermore, it is alleged that children as young as five have been sold to the cocoa farmers, that work them mercilessly from sunup till sundown in

Have you ever thought that you just did all of the work in the world? Well, many children across the globe of Africa work almost the entire day.Unfortunately, child labor is still an Human Rights issue happening all across the globe. One of the places that child labor happens a lot is Africa. The use of children in tobacco farms and making children work forcefully is a violation of Human Rights. First, child labor can kill many children because they have to work in dangerous condition. Another reason is that the children are trafficked from their home and may never see their family ever again.

This is because of the severe economic strife that the region experiences. More than 40% of the people living in the Ivory Coast region are below the poverty line (Little Change). Years of civil war and the decrease in cocoa bean prices from 2,600 USD per ton to 900 USD per ton between 1980 to 2000 have forced cocoa bean plantation owners to resort to child labor in order to stay afloat in their drowning economy (Ending Child Trafficking). Furthermore, the chocolate titans that purchase their cocoa beans from Ivory Coast farmers further exacerbate the problem. By encouraging developing nations to grow more cocoa, big chocolate companies drive down the price of cocoa beans and force farmers to use child labor as a means of cheap labor in order to keep their plantations (Slave Free Chocolate). Social justice workers must look towards biblical passages and Catholic social teachings in order to combat the physical abuse and harsh conditions that the child laborers

All around the world, chocolate is loved and shared all throughout countries and in markets. The thing people don’t know about this delicious treat is that the way it’s processed is actually a dangerous form of slavery. Both children and adults in Africa are sold and bought to work on these plantations under strict rule, long hours, and malnutrition. This has put many Africans at risk all for our heavenly chocolate. Attention needs to be brought to cacao plantation slavery because the plantations are dangerous and lead to a lot of deaths of innocent people, slavery should’ve been done with a while ago, and conditions are unsafe and unhealthy. These things really contribute to the reason why this cruelty to people on chocolate plantations should

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.

There is a chance the clothing you are currently wearing was made by a child. Child labor has poisoned the market for hundreds of years. Corporations exploit children in a variety of industries including clothing, food production, and natural resource acquisition. According to the world count of child labor and statistics, over 200 million children are currently bound in child labor contracts. Of those, 73 million are under the age of 10. This legal enslavement is torturous, cruel, and inhumane. Child labor is a result of ill-enforced practices, poverty, lack of education, and a desire for cheap mass production. Based on statistical analysis, a primary source story of a child’s experience, and historical events, clarity can be reached as to how unjust this system is. Although some laws are in place to protect the children, there is much yet to be accomplished.