Misled by the Allure of Chocolate

"The companies have always done just enough so that if there were any media attention, they could say, ‘Hey guys, this is what we’re doing'."
"We haven’t eradicated child labor because no one has been forced to... How many fines did they face? How many prison sentences? None."
"There has been zero consequence."
Antonie Fountain, managing director, Voice Network

"The truth is that consumers today have no sure way of knowing if the chocolate they are buying involved the use of slavery or child labor. There are many different labels on chocolate bars today, such as various fair trade certifications and the Rainforest Alliance Certification; however, no single label can guarantee that the chocolate was made without the use of exploitive labor. In 2009, the founders of the fair trade certification process had to suspend several of their Western African suppliers due to evidence that they were using child labor. Chocolate companies, however, continue to certify their products to tell consumers that they source their cocoa ethically. But in 2011, a Danish journalist investigated farms in Western Africa where major chocolate companies buy cocoa. He filmed illegal child labor on these farms, including those certified by UTZ and Rainforest Alliance. Despite the industry’s claims, child labor still plagues cocoa farms in Western Africa."
Food Empowerment Project

 ICCFO – Cocoa bean harvest in Cameroon

"Consumers believe that by buying certified cocoa they are doing something good for the environment, or children, or farmers."
"But that is a fiction."
Francois Ruf, Ivory Coast-based researcher

There are two outstanding issues in the growing of cocoa plants; that in West Africa where most cocoa plantations are located, the use of child labour is rampant. The second issue is the critical deforestation of rainforests, degrading the environment and threatening the larger global ecosystem. These issues, when they are addressed, alarm the world's chocolate industry, alerting prominent chocolate makers to a potential withdrawal of appetite for chocolate on a world scale. Not to worry: their hurried responses of assurances, lull chocolate lovers into the belief that nothing is as bad as it seems, and the chocolate industry is in the process of addressing the situation.

Chocolate wrappers come complete with traceability and sustainability certificates and manufacturer assurances that all is well, they're on top of the situation. The situation? That two and a half million children work in miserable and occasionally dangerous conditions on plantations in Ghana and Ivory Coast where most of the global supply of cocoa beans come from. And where the widespread rainforest clearing with their threatened biodiversity is increasingly imperilled. Mars and Nestle among other well-known manufacturers -- to the rescue! Despite which, somehow, the situation has managed to accelerate.

Ivory Coast is losing its rainforests even more rapidly than elsewhere. According to an article in the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies Yale Environment 360 publication, rainforests in Ivory Coast have been reduced by at least 80 percent already. The depletion rate in both Ghana and Ivory Coast last year alone was higher than elsewhere on the planet. "Any time someone bites on a chocolate bar in the United States, a tree is being cut down", environmental activist Eric Agnero warned, from Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

Utz "has had significant lapses in its compliance reviews", found an investigator for the Washington Post. The Dutch organization held to be authorized to inspect most of the cocoa supply globally appears to have slipped its watchdog moorings. Its verification of approximately two-thirds of the world's total supply of certified cocoa in 2017 alone, failed to catch breaches. "Tackling child labour is at the core" of Utz's mandate, states its website, yet the Washington Post revealed that in two reports co-sponsored by the certifier, a higher rate of child labourers were found in Utz-approved plantations.

Child labourers working on such plantations are exposed to danger, as they put "in more work deemed dangerous, such as working with machetes and insecticides". Close to 5,000 previously certified Utz farmers were in fact, located in purportedly protected areas, according to a spokesperson with Utz, which belatedly decertified them. Yale Environment 360 was informed by Richard Scobey, president of the World Cocoa Foundation "very few international companies directly source from protected areas" even as those sources indirectly supply a dozen companies acquiring 85 percent of the cocoa harvest through intermediaries.

Men and young boys working on a small cocoa farming commune near Abengourou, Côte d’Ivoire  Racounteur