The Reason Chocolate is Bitter

By Adam Sanders

We all know chocolate as the hard liquor of childhood. As children, we obsessively beg at the homes of strangers, acquire as much as possible, eat as much as we can in one sitting until we are sick, and then swear we will never touch chocolate again. Yet, we always do. But, as adults, we usually do not think too much about chocolate unless we ourselves have small children. However, it is worth taking a look at the confectionery industry for a number of reasons.

Firstly, chocolate is a highly concentrated industry. Secondly, it is something anyone can acquire and consume, and thus it warrants making sure the industry is transparent. Finally, confectionery companies often relate with the chemical and agricultural industries, which may make confectionery companies the beneficiaries of multiple concurrent lobbying campaigns.

For one thing, there is the issue of industry concentration. For example, a significant portion of the chocolate industry is owned by just three companies, Nestle, Mars, and Hershey. Even if their names are not on the products they sell, chances are a product involving chocolate is owned by one of these three companies. Industry concentration in and of itself is a problem, not least due to issues of market competition and consumer prices. However, such concentration is also a problem if an industry engages in questionable business or corporate practices.

In the case of the major chocolate companies, they have at times suffered criticism for overexploitation of cocoa, child labor, slave labor, and even fostering neo-colonial relations with cocoa-exporting nations. A laboratory in which to see how these issues play out is in Cote d’Ivoire. The West African nation is the Saudi Arabia of cocoa production, exporting nearly twice as much as the next two producers combined. But the country’s attractiveness is at times also its curse.

One of the most notorious aspects of the cocoa farming industry in the country is child slave labor. Yes, apparently to the industry, neither child nor slave labor was enough on its own. As one would expect, conditions are so brutal as to bring to mind Antebellum chattel slavery in America. Specifically, these children were carrying loads so heavy that they suffered permanent injuries, were hunted down, beaten if they escaped, and worked as much as 100 hours per week. Even in the relatively improved situation of paid adult workers, the wages are as low as 50 cents per day. Without a doubt, labor is not even the only issue with the cocoa industry in countries like Cote d’Ivoire.

The environmental impact of cocoa farming is a little short of disastrous. Four-fifths of Cote d’Ivoire’s forested landmass have vanished in the half-century since independence. Not only is that an ecological apocalypse in its own right, but the domino effect on the nation’s fauna has been tragic as well.

Cocoa farming has resulted in the country losing over a quarter of its chimpanzee population due to habitat destruction. It does not help that a major portion of the country’s cocoa cultivation is illegally fostered in what are ostensibly national parks and wildlife preserves. To be sure, this segment is not meant to single out Cote d’Ivoire. Ghana also has a problematic record in the labor, child exploitation, and sustainability realms. Mali, Togo, and Burkina Faso are also all major sources of child trafficking for the purposes of enslaving them on cocoa farms in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana.

It would be delightful if this blog could tell people that this information could help them choose an ethical chocolate company. Sadly, that lofty goal is completely impossible. This year, eight now-free Malian children filed a class-action lawsuit against virtually the entirety of the chocolate industry in a single suit, accusing the firms of actively facilitating their enslavement in Cote d’Ivoire. The companies named in the lawsuit include Mars, Nestle, and Hershey, along with several others.

To put it bluntly, if one buys chocolate at all, anywhere, from anyone, there is a near-certain chance that they have given money to a company deeply involved in child trafficking, labor, and slavery. These African children are the same age as the ones that will be knocking on doors this Halloween in America and throughout the rich world.

In conclusion, there are some serious issues with the chocolate industry as a whole. This is an example of a situation where the consumer/voter has to fight like hell. People should be calling their elected representatives and screaming in their ears until they bleed. Shopping ethically at the grocery store, as many chocolate companies have spread their tentacles into non-confectionery foodstuffs, bottled water, and even pet food, is extraordinarily difficult. But, it can be done, and it would be an excellent opportunity to lose weight and stop disappointing the dentist, even if it may result in small children being sorely disappointed. But their Ivorian or Ghanian counterparts would trade problems with them any day of the week.