Chocolate: A (Really) Guilty Pleasure

Though Valentine’s Day may be over, the pink foil-wrapped, heart-shaped chocolates remain. For some they’re evidence of their loved ones affection, for others they’re merely a reminder of why they’re still suffering a sugar-induced headache, but few see chocolate as a political object. 

Over the past few years (while many of us continued to mindlessly binge on chocolate), a growing field of study called “cocoa-nomics” has emerged with the intention of illuminating the chocolate production process, from the cocoa bean tree to our candy bowls. This nifty interactive infographic provides a simple explanation of this process, along with some statistics on global consumption and production costs. Why are we suddenly interested in these things? In 2012, CNN filmed a documentary called Chocolate’s Child Slaves, as a part of The CNN Freedom Project. Their research reveals:

The chocolate industry is worth an estimated $110 billion a year, and yet its key commodity is grown by some of the poorest people on the planet, in plantations that can hide the worst forms of child labor.

Accurate figures are impossible to come by, but up to 800,000 children are thought to work in the cocoa sector across the Ivory Coast; children who are both a symptom of and a self-perpetuating factor in a much wider problem -- poverty.

While this may be a shock to many, efforts have been made to combat unethical practices in the cocoa industry. Some companies are working to make a change overseas, on the cocoa farms. Nestle has devised the Cocoa Plan, which aims to improve the lives of farmers, bring awareness to child labor and provide aid to the impoverished youth of Ivorian rural communities. Other organizations are working to promote ethical chocolate companies, as a means of spreading awareness and making a difference through conscious consumerism. World Vision’s No Child For Sale campaign recently released The Good Chocolate Guide, a colorful and interactive website that displays approved candy bars.


It may seem like a pain (and a bit pretentious and expensive, too) to buy only fair trade, organic, single origin chocolate, but do you really want the guilt of supporting child labor added on to the guilt of consuming empty calories?