Chocolate Kills Children

I love chocolate. But I’m willing to put that aside for something much larger.

More than 40% of the world’s supply of cocoa comes from the West Coast of Africa (the Ivory Coast). There, children are regularly sold into slavery to work the cocoa farms. From the age of 12, young boys are ripped from their families and forced to work under inhumane conditions and abuse. The time has come for this barbarism to end.

Below are several ways for you to actively participate in the extermination of the slave trade, especially in all chocolate goods. The list isn’t exhaustive – it barely scratches the surface. It is up to you to come up with new and innovative ways to engage your community in ending this global atrocity. Please leave a note to tell me how things are going.

Read your history. One of history’s greatest abolitionists was William Wilberforce. In order to raise awareness of the moral and ethical sin of slavery in England, Wilberforce mobilized his community to boycott all goods produced by the slave trade. While the efficacy of any boycott is always questionable, if the motivation is to raise awareness of an issue – sometimes a noisy, difficult protest is the best way to wake up a generation of zombies.

Don’t discriminate. In order for our voices to be heard, the entire chocolate industry must feel the impact of global slavery. Let your baker know, your favorite restaurant, your neighborhood grocery store, that great local coffee shop.

Take up the mightier sword. Write your Congressman, your Senator, your Governor, your Mayor. Write the heads of Toll House, Dunkin Hines, Mars, Hershey’s, Little Debbie herself. Don’t afford anyone the excuse of “we just didn’t know.” Know what you are asking for. Make sure you include in your letters ideas for legislation forbidding the importation of slavers goods. Or ideas for packaging to guaranty that chocolate is slave free.

If you must indulge. Do so wisely. Buy fair trade, or find a new desert. Some of you restaurant owners will be dismayed at the price of a fairly traded product – let your customers know what happened to their favorite desert, or why the price of that mouse just went up.

Be aggressive. This is slavery we are talking about. The point isn’t chocolate, the point is every child’s right to life. The point isn’t your sweet tooth, the point is every human being was made in the image of God.

Some Web Resources:
Stop the Traffik
International Justice Mission
HumanTrafficking.org
Not For Sale