Fair Trade Trick-or-Treat: End Child Slavery

Want to know something truly spooky?

Child slavery does still exist, according to a 2001 report by the International Labor Organization. In African countries such as the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, and Cameroon, child laborers are forced to help harvest the cacao pods that are later made into our favorite chocolate bars. Children may be sold by their parents into slavery, or tricked into working for a wage less than what was promised to them.

From a Global Exchange report:
Parents in these countries sell their children to traffickers believing that they will find honest work once they arrive in Ivory Coast and then send their earnings home. But as soon as they are separated from their families, the young boys are made to work for little or nothing. The children work long and hard -- they head into the fields at 6:00 in the morning and often do not finish until 6:30 at night.

Rural cacao farmers in West Africa are often very poor. Exploited by middlemen to sell their beans to chocolate processing corporations that do not buy at a fair price, the farmers are kept poor even if chocolate prices rise.

Everyone loves to be spooked at Halloween, but this is one sad story that doesn't need to be told.

Fair Trade Certified chocolate bars, fortunately, guarantee a fair, stable price goes directly to the bean harvesters through cooperatives dedicated to developing sustainable farming economics and put an end to abusive labor practices.

Fair Trade chocolate can be purchased at Trader Joe's, online at Global Exchange, or sometimes in the health food section of the supermarket.
This fall, Global Exchange offers a Fair Trade trick-or-treat package of fair-trade chocolate and awareness postcards for $15, guaranteed to be delivered by Oct. 31.

When shopping for chocolate, be sure to look for this Fair Trade Certified logo!