John Oliver covered this on Last Week Tonight. tl;dw Cocoa is almost exclusively grown in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, two West African countries. Most of these farms are family run and there are millions of them. All the Cocoa they produce is purchased by a few companies who dictate price. Because they buy at such a low price, the only way these farms make money is if they force children in their families to work the farm for no compensation. Ie. Child slavery.
Sadly I don’t know how slave free Tony Chocolonely is, I was reading up about this the other day and they have been removed from the slave free chocolate list due to ties with big coco.
Not just children in their family, even children from other regions are kidnapped and forced to work on the farms. It’s genuine, old fashioned, slavery.
John Oliver covered this on Last Week Tonight. tl;dw Cocoa is almost exclusively grown in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, two West African countries. Most of these farms are family run and there are millions of them. All the Cocoa they produce is purchased by a few companies who dictate price. Because they buy at such a low price, the only way these farms make money is if they force children in their families to work the farm for no compensation. Ie. Child slavery.
After watching that episode I started going out and buying, Tony Chocolonely. Gotta support good businesses.
Sadly I don’t know how slave free Tony Chocolonely is, I was reading up about this the other day and they have been removed from the slave free chocolate list due to ties with big coco.
Article talking about it’s removal - https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2021/02/16/Tony-s-Chocolonely-axed-from-Slave-Free-Chocolate-list-defends-ties-with-Barry-Callebaut
Slave free chocolate list - https://www.slavefreechocolate.org/ethical-chocolate-companies/
Hope this is helpful :)
I highly doubt that nestle isn’t using slave labor
Not just children in their family, even children from other regions are kidnapped and forced to work on the farms. It’s genuine, old fashioned, slavery.