Children in Ghana, some as young as 5, are working cocoa fields and wielding machetes instead of attending school.
  • /home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee
    12·
    10 months ago

    Thought this was known already. If you’re eating chocolate made by conglomerates then it’s probably made by child labor

    • pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.cafeOPM
      11·
      10 months ago

      I just put it here for posterity. People in the future might find this sub and they can see this is one of the reasons why we millennials overthrew the whole damn system. Nobody wants that slave chocolate

  • the_q@lemmy.world
    7·
    10 months ago

    This is true for most of not all mass produced items. We’re all contributing to others suffering even as we ourselves suffer.

    • rockSlayer@lemmy.world
      6·
      10 months ago

      You’re right, but there are some companies seeking to make ethically sourced cocao products. My personal favorite is Tony’s Chocolonely. They do a ton of research on their sources, and even still they openly acknowledge that it’s extremely difficult to hold their sources accountable and will switch sources as soon as they know it’s happening. They also have other principles to disincentivize forced and child labor in the first place, like paying higher wages and sourcing from farming cooperatives as much as possible.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
    3·
    10 months ago

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    In the blistering heat, CBS News found children in Ghana as young as 5 years old using machetes nearly as big as themselves to harvest the cocoa beans that end up in some of America’s most-loved chocolates.

    Our team traveled across Ghana’s remote cocoa belt to visit small subsistence farms that supply the U.S. chocolate giant Mars, which produces candies including M&Ms and Snickers.

    We found children working at each one of the farms — despite the company’s vow to have systems in place to eradicate child labor in its supply chain by 2025.

    He and other supervisors told CBS News they were under pressure to produce names, often with only 24 hours’ notice, and he said the companies never verify the information.

    An employee at the warehouse, who is not being named by CBS News, said child labor was “an offense” in the country, but he could not guarantee all the cocoa handled at the facility was produced without it.

    Terry Collingsworth, a human rights lawyer in the U.S., has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging consumer fraud against American chocolate companies including Mars.

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