I NEVER thought the chocolate we love to eat, is produced by ENSLAVED CHILDREN.

According to this article of CNN, over 70% of cocoa beans used in the chocolate industry is produced by enslaved African children. It's a sordid reality I couldn't have ever thought about. The LAST thing a person can think, while eating chocolate, is in pain and suffering.

The human cost of chocolate

It may be unthinkable that the chocolate we enjoy could come from the hands of children working as slaves. In Ivory Coast and other cocoa-producing countries, there are an estimated 100,000 children working the fields, many against their will, to create the chocolate delicacies enjoyed by Western countries. Ten years ago, two U.S. lawmakers took action to put a stop to child labor in the cocoa industry. Despite pushback from the industry, the Harkin-Engel Protocol, also known as the Cocoa Protocol, was signed into law on September 19, 2001. On the 10th anniversary of the legislation, CNN takes a look at what effect this protocol has had on the cocoa industry. Here's a primer on some of the major issues surrounding the issue of slave labor in the cocoa industry:

Where does cocoa come from?

Some 70 to 75 percent of the world's cocoa beans are grown on small farms in West Africa, including the Ivory Coast, according to the World Cocoa Foundation and the International Cocoa Initiative(...)

thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com...

I was doing some research to know the origin of the chocolate brand I use to eat and I found these curious details: The cocoa bean was largely produced by the Aztecs and Mayans and considered a "sacred meal" 'cos it was a gift given by Quetzalcoatl, who according to Meso American legends, "stole the cocoa plant from the Land of the Sons of the Sun." The name chocolate comes from “Tchocolath”, a drink prepared for religious rituals and the name "cocoa" comes from “cacauhualt”. For the record, according to Zecharia Sitchin, Quetzalcoatl aka Kukulkan, was the same Toth of Egyptians, who was originally the ENKI's son NINGISHZIDDA. So, according to Mayans and Aztecs, the technique of producing chocolate was a gift of the Anunnaki...

I know I totally changed the point of the thread, but... whatever!

Most foreign food has this issue.

NEVER ??? Dang you must've been living under a rock if you didn't know this.

And yeah most of these type of food has this issue.

Yeah it's true alot of things have this problem, usually all the tasty things, maybe that is why it is so tasty :p

Though maybe it gives some light on the pleasure/pain theory!

Although there is some truth to this consider the source. CNN spins Everything. They may be misreporting opinions as facts.

Originally posted by CynicalDrivel
Most foreign food has this issue.

Not only food!! Shoes, clothes, electronic components... Some time ago a scandal about Nike industry using enslaved Asian children labor, was in the media. But not for longer.

Originally posted by no special characters
NEVER ??? Dang you must've been living under a rock if you didn't know this.

And yeah most of these type of food has this issue.

No I didn't know that!!! I'm the kind of person who enters in another dimension, while is eating chocolate.

sadly its true and really what can you do supply and demand....while i may not agree with how certain things are obtained...im not gonna deny a pmsing/prego gf her chocolate because of how it was obtained.

Somebody has got to tell Starbucks. They are gonna have to change their ways, oh but maybe they already only use cocoa from non-slavery plantations, being they are so socially conscious.

I recently returned from living outside the U.S. for more than 6 years. One of the things I found out was the level of fraud and waste involved in foreign aid programs.

I was in Eastern Europe and the big thing was "human trafficking". It was "BIG" because there are lots of NGO's who get government money for combating it. These issues and the issue of child slavery in Africa are blown out of proportion by the very agencies who are supposed to work to combat the problem.

I know about the situation in Ivory Coast and most of the Cocoa is grown on small family farms. Who works on small family farms? The whole family.

All these stories about human trafficking and child slavery need to be taken with a grain of salt. It is mostly propaganda by those who enrich themselves at our expense. Most of the foreign aid programs need to be just stopped, it is just a racket and very little ever gets to the people that really need it.

If some children are being abused that's wrong and should be stopped. But if you search other sources you will see that on;y a small percentage less than 30 % of the children working in these fields are actual slaves. Many of them work with their families on family farms.

Child labor is Not itself a bad thing, or a serious crime unless children are being abused.. in other words, just the fact that a child is working does not make it wrong. Many of these families have been working in these fields for all their lives as did their parents before them and so on. In some countries children go to work willingly at an early age because they can.

The CNN people and others would have you believe that all children working in fields are slaves and are treated harshly. This is simply not true. Although 1/3 is still a bit shocking for most of these people it is the way of life and has been for hundreds of years. So stop the abuse yes, but to force our western values on these people is also wrong. Many of these people like the blacks in the south do not mind being slaves because they are treated fairly and don't have any other skills to use to feed their families. That's just simply how they live. Not all slave owners treat the children badly so you cannot just say it's wrong simply because they use slave children or because children are working, you must only help any abuse to stop which is fair then get the heck out of their lives and way of life.

I didn't know this either. I love chocolate I guess I need to research how to grow it in my backyard and make it myself.

Most brand name clothing is made in sweat shops abroad the last time I checked...

The real question is: "Could you afford chocolate if it was produced, largely, by people receiving wages we would consider to be "fair" in this nation?"

In many of those countries, work -is- your education. Children are put to work in all forms in society - from helping their mothers prepare food to making little rocks out of big rocks. They don't really have the luxury of allowing kids to run around all care-free for 18 years.

These kids have a considerably brighter future than those who end up in 'armies' belonging to warlords vying for power within the region. Shelter from that insanity is a form of payment all of its own.

Not saying it is ideal... but our lower income earners can live at the standard of living they do because of the cheap labor in other countries along with the benefits of mass-production and automation. One day, many more people will be able to enjoy a similar standard of living within a similar set of working conditions... but it will take a while for that to finally happen (and some considerable improvements to manufacturing and farming).

Originally posted by 1AnunnakiBastard

Originally posted by no special characters
NEVER ??? Dang you must've been living under a rock if you didn't know this.

And yeah most of these type of food has this issue.

No I didn't know that!!! I'm the kind of person who enters in another dimension, while is eating chocolate.

Well it does have nice chems similar to that wot must not be uttered here.

mmmm cannocholate...

Wait just a minute OP...

Are you saying Oompa Loompas don't make chocolate?

Total dis-info thread

www.abovetopsecret.com...
Blood Chocolate - And the suspicious death of a chocolate CEO

A different category, but still good posts.

We quit buying chocolate.

Coffee is bad too. We buy some of the fair trade coffee and order in Fair Trade chocolate from a company in Vancouver that delivers.

Its outrageous that more people don't realize this. I've put suggestions into the stores and spoken to some of the workers, most are not aware, though all the corporate heads and politicians we elect ARE aware.

Child labour != slave labour

Usually entire families work the fields, from Granma right down to the children. They are paid (not well by western standard, but they have a different standard of living and different expectations anyway). They are not slaves.

I lived for a short period of time in Kenya (less than a year), and I can tell you that despite not having modern electronics, designer clothes, they are amonst some of the happiest people I have ever met.

So please, accept that they are a different culture, and try not to judge them by your standards. Im quite sure child slavery does go on, but, child labour does not automatically mean slavery.

The children are SOLD into the slavery, and made and example of if they escape. REAL slavery. In families working for the corporations that have overtaken the regular family farms, by murdering families and villages, this was done from teh 60s on by corporate militia. have children working as slaves, instead of in school.

FAIR TRADE has children in school, having a childhood like they have the right to.

This is HIGHLY ILLEGAL, right up there with genocide, mass murder.


Blood Chocolate


Fairtrade


Child Labour In Chocolate Factories 2 Minutes To Make A Difference 2010 Final Cut


Tackling child labour in the cocoa industry

en.wikipedia.org...

also because up to 12,000 of the 200,000 children working in Ivory Coast, the world's biggest producer of cocoa,[1] may be victims of human trafficking or slavery.[2] Most attention on this subject has focused on West Africa, which collectively supplies nearly 80% of the world's cocoa,[3] and Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) in particular, which supplies half of the world's cocoa.[4] Thirty percent of children under age 15 in sub-Saharan Africa are child laborers, mostly in agricultural activities including cocoa farming.[5] The major chocolate producers such as Nestle buy cocoa at commodities exchanges where Ivorian cocoa is mixed with other cocoa

This issue goes far beyond Nestles anymore, and I don't buy any of their products, for years, since their baby formula kills most third world children who should never have been taken off their mother's breasts for any reason, never mind causing brain damage, as the essential WHOLE fats in milk, especially breast, are absolutely needed for bone and brain development. Doctors put up huge signs in their offices to undo the designer baby on 2% generation giving the warnings.

Nestles was boycotted by my family ever since.

But this is most of the major chocolates and all the hot chocolate in the stores.

People really need to stop being asleep at the wheel like they are. As consumers, IF AWARE, they have all the power to stop and change, not only governments, but undo all mass criminal and unethical practices. They have the ability to boycott it all. And then meet with government reps in local groups and make it very clear, they are never buying from any company that abuses human beings.

We have the ability to only buy from companies that pay good wages, have good benefits etc. We have always had the power.

Its time to grow up. Wake up. Be conscious consumers, for one thing.

I was trying to find the good articles out some time ago. George Soros, right up there up to his ying yang in this. Its his cup of tea apparently. Now that brings up tea as well.........

And dollar store goods and things from China, poison and child labor, they don't mix well with me either.