Essay On Chocolate Labour In West Africa

West African chocolate producers have been at the heart of shocking allegations that they are using children as slaves to work on their plantations. Children (usually ages 12-16) are involved, because they work on the plantations under very poor conditions and with low pay. Many popular chocolate companies are also involved, considering the fact that they buy chocolate from these plantations. The chocolate industry is determined to grow cocoa that profits the government and their country, but in order to gain a larger profit, they distribute below-poverty wages for the farmers who produce it. Low wages mean farmers cannot hire the labor needed to harvest the crop, and encourages the use of child slavery and the worst forms of child labor.

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).

In the article “ Are We Running Out Of Chocolate?” by Kathy WIlmore it states that the demand for chocolate in the world is becoming higher and higher and creating problems across the globe. For one thing, the demand for chocolate is rising around the world. According to the article “cocoa prices have risen by more than 60% since 2012. When manufacturers have to pay more for raw materials [such as cocoa the main ingredient in chocolate], sooner or later they pass the costs onto consumers”(Wilmore 9).

Not only is their chocolate unhealthy, it doesn’t taste very good either, but the corruption lies deeper than their consumer products. Within the countries of South America, where Hershey’s, and essentially all chocolate companies import their cocoa from, the cocoa farmers are not what they seem. On the outside they appear to be men working hard at gathering the raw substance, but look into the darker areas of the farms, and you find children, maybe just barely the age of 10, perhaps older, but more likely younger. These children aren’t the sons and daughters of the farmers though. These children are the

The novel Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys does an excellent job illustrating the troubling issue of child labor. The extent of child labor in a country is directly linked by the nature and extent of poverty within it. Child labor deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity. It is detrimental to physical and mental development. Today, there are an estimated 246 million child laborers around the globe. This irritating social issue is not only violates a nation’s minimum age laws , it also involves intolerable abuse, such as child slavery, child trafficking, debt bondage, forced labor, and illicit activities. In Between Shades of Grey , Lina and her ten year old brother are unrightfully charged 25 years of

As mentioned earlier, 70% of cocoa beans come from plantations in western African countries. However, most workers on these plantations are child slaves who are abused, not paid, and confined to grueling labor for years and years. Many of these unfortunate children aren’t over the age of sixteen yet they are forced to work from dusk till dawn. To add to this, there are a great amount of dangerous throughout the plantation. These include exposure to toxic, agricultural chemicals on the cocoa beans, being forced to use dangerous machetes in work, and being crushed by hundred pound bags of packed cocoa beans. The conditions that they live in are no better either. From sleeping on planks of wood as a bed to being fed the bare minimum of the cheapest food, most of these children don’t even receive basic education. One of the worst parts of this tragedy is that chocolate companies know what is happening yet they continue to receive cocoa from child slaves, and then they sell the public this deplorable

If cocoa farms did not use children as workers, adults would be getting more pay, which would allow them to afford adult workers, which would not endanger the lives of young

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.

“At 6 a.m., 10-year-old Emmanuel wakes and readies himself for a day of labor in the cocoa fields. Along the way, he watches as other kids walk in the opposite direction - toward school. He reaches the fields at sunrise and uses his machete to slice ripe cocoa pods from the tree. Later, he carries the cocoa pods he’s harvested from the field, hacks them open and gathers the pods, which will later be used to make chocolate” (Huffington Post). In Africa, many children are denied the basic human right to learn like Emmanuel, as they toil endlessly on the gruesome cocoa plantations in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. The endless suffering of children in Africa is subject to consumers who crave the sweet treat that comes in many shape and sizes; Chocolate.

We all encounter chocolate in our daily life, and whether we want to admit it or not, chocolate has been a major part of history, and it is still seen today.

The chocolate plantations, or the cacao farms as they are more commonly referred to, are primarily located in the tropical areas of Western Africa, Latin America, and Asia. (foodispower.org) Cacao farms are located in these areas because this is where the environment needed for the cacao beans to grow is located. Out of these different areas, the African countries Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire (or the Ivory Coast as it is sometimes referred to) produce over 70% of the world’s cacao beans. (foodispower.org) In Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire whole communities are devoted to just

From the standpoint of the original Hershey milk chocolate bar, Milton Hershey is the original creator of developing an efficient chocolate manufacturing process during the late 1800s. Milton Hershey developed a method to produce chocolate that tasted delicious, could be created in bulk, and sold to consumers at competitively affordable price. This process begins with obtaining ingredients used to create a chocolate base. Though Hershey’s main factory is in Pennsylvania, the cacao bean is the main ingredient used that needs to be imported outside of the United States. The cacao beans from cacao trees only thrive in tropical climates. These trees grow in tropical rain forests of Brazil and Indonesia. Once the trees produce a significant amount of cacao beans, Hershey hires farmers to pick the cacao beans off of trees. When

The transportation cost of chocolate was high and small mom and pop stores commonly supplied chocolate made locally. Today you would be hard-pressed to find local chocolate in the United States, with the shelves dominated by four major brands. The

Although there are many positives to the social and economic sustainability of chocolate for consumers, those who harvest these commodities may not say so. As we saw in “Chocolate The Bitter Truth”, there are huge amounts of child labour used in the harvest of coca plants. These children are most often taken away from their parents in poor cities, and are forced to work for a man they are sold to. These kids do not attend school, and work with machetes for

Chocolate was first discovered in the 18th century and every child’s dream came true all over