Cocoa and Child Labour

There was nothing on TV last night after Masterchef so I started flipping through the channels and happened to press '2' on the remote which took me to the ABC channel. The show Four Corners had just started and it was all about the harvesting of cocoa and the problem of child labour and child trafficking. The show caught my attention so I continued to watch. What I saw over the next 45 minutes has shocked me, disgusted me, changed me.

When I went to the store and picked up a chocolate bar I have never before considered "where did the cocoa come from that has made this chocolate bar?". It never even entered my mind. After watching Four Corners I feel almost ashamed that I never asked the question. I am not naive. I know there is child labour out there, I know that child trafficking exists. I see something that says 'Made in China' and I wonder... "did a child make this?" but I never considered where cocoa comes from. This report had a reporter going undercover in regions such as the Ivory Coast and Ghana and not only did they visit cocoa plantations that used child labour but they also bought and sold cocoa from child labour plantations and never once were asked by those buying it from them if child labour was involved. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Cocoa is a MASSIVE industry all over the world. Chocolate companies record tens of millions of dollars profit every year. Why would they care where it came from! It is business....right?

Chocolate companies have come on board with a FairTrade corporation and 1 or 2 chocolate bars here in Australia display the FairTrade logo saying that the cocoa came from non-child labour plantations. But how much do they really know? This reporter went again undercover to some of those "fairtrade" plantations and lo and behold there was child labour occuring. These children, some as young as 6 or 8 did not go to school and worked in the plantation all day long. And for what?? They don't receive any money. They don't receive adequate housing. It is such a sad shame.

I am sorry to rant on about this. I just never considered it before. From this point forward I am pledging not to eat chocolate...not chocolate bars, not anything with cocoa in it unless I know with 100% certainty that child labour was not involved. People might say well you can relate that same thing to everything - clothing, furniture etc. But the fact of the matter is I can't do without clothing, I can't do without furniture but I can do without chocolate. And I will. Maybe if more people did it then it would force the cocoa traders and chocolate companies to take notice and try harder to make a change. After all, why should they change anything when they are making millions of dollars profit each year? It is called a conscious... and everyone should remember we all have one.