Child Labor,Slavery&Human-Trafficking Within the Chcolate Industry in West Africa
The Chocolate Industry, where is it located?
According to Foodispower.org they stated how most of the chocolate industry resides in "Western African countries, mostly Ghana and the Ivory Coast, supply more than 70% of the world’s cocoa. The cocoa they grow and harvest is sold to a majority of chocolate companies, including the largest in the world"(Foodispower.org).South america is also another country where the chocolate industry also exists. Some well known companies that buy their supply of cocoa from Ghana or the Ivory Coast are Hershey's, Mars and Nestle.
Child Labor:
"In recent years, a handful of organizations and journalists have exposed the widespread use of child labor, and in some cases slavery, on cocoa farms in Western Africa.Since then, the industry has become increasingly secretive, making it difficult for reporters to not only access farms where human rights violations still occur, but to then disseminate this information to the public"(Foodispower.org).
Some interesting facts about child labor that occurs in these farms within Ghana and the Ivory Coast are that these children are "…surrounded by intense poverty, and most begin working at a young age to help support their families, Some children end up on the cocoa farms becuase they need work and traffickers tell them that the job pays well. Other children are "sold" to traffickers or famers by their own relatives, who are unaware of the dangerous work environment and the lack of any provisions for an education. Often, traffickers abduct the young children from small villages in neighboring African countries, sucha s Burkina Faso and Mali, two of the poorest countries in the world. Once they have been taken to the cocoa farms, the children many not see their families for years, if ever"(Foodispower.org).
These children work everyday for about two dollars a day harvesting this chocolate meanwhile America, and Europe gets to relax while eating chocolate. They are between the ages of twelve and sixteen, and many of them are as young as five years old. Also forty percent are girls, who stay for a few months, while others end up working on cocoa farms through adulthood. Typically a child's work day would consist of working from 6 am and their work day ends in the evening. While they are working, they tend to use dangerous equipment, such as chainsaws to clear the forest down, and even climbing the cocoa trees to cut bea pods, by using a machete.
They are also exposed to agricultural chemicals within the cocoa farms. These children also work in a tropical environment, which leads to having a insect population. They usually have to spray the pods with large amount of industrial chemicals which can cause health problems for these young children. Many farm owners give children the cheapest food that they have available such as banana's and corn paste.
Most of the children don't attend school, which is depriving them form their education. So when they reach adulthood, that'f if they continue to work on cocoa farms, they will continue to live in poverty, which is unfortunate.
I find it to be quite unbelieveable how within the choclate indsutry, their are laws that state that their shall be no child labor or slavery involved in the production of harvesting chocolate, but many farms still continue to have child labor and slavery and human trafficking within their farms, and the fact that many well-known companies are buying cocoa from them after knowing this is horrible.
Slavery/Human-Trafficking:
The reason as to why these children are seen as living a life where they are slaves is due to many of them working without pay. They are also victims of physical abuse and are often whipped for working slow or if they try to escape. In many cocoa farms, children and adults are locked in at night, becuase their bosses are scared that they may escape. Whenever a child or adult decided to escape, if captured they are severly beaten. This is quite shocking for me to read about. I know that racism, and child labor still exists in today's society, but I had no idea that slavery still did. I don't understand why this world still continues to live this way.
It's devestating to hear how young children are working in farms, and are treated horribly. After all that had happened in our world's history the same events still tend to occur. Big companies that get their cocoa from many Ghana and Ivory Coast cocoa companies should adress this issue of child labor, slavery and human trafficking, but rather to adress it, they act like they have no idea what is going on in these cocoa farms. Also unfornatley the people who run these cocoa farms have no choice to to obey these big companies orders. So they can't do much to change how these cocoa farms are runned or else they will lose profit and their farms.
I hope that one day, this will change, and kid's and adults who work for cocoa farms, won't have to suffer anymore. Children should be going to school,and not be working at cocoa farms. The same applies to the adults who also work at cocoa farms. Both children ad adults, shouldn't have to deal with modern day slavery. These children shouldn't have to deal with physical abuse and neither should the adults. Quite frankly, we live in a world where our lives consist of enertainment, and wealth, and technology, but we never happen to worry about what is truly going in within our world.
We shouldn't be worrying about celebrities lives, we should be worrying about normal people's lives, and how much people are struggling with the same issues that we put an end to in the past, but truth is we never did. I pray that this issue gets resolved soon, and that these children go back home and go back to school, and that the adults find new jobs, where they treat them as civilians and respectfully and pay them.
1st article link: http://www.foodispower.org/slavery-chocolate/
2nd article link: http://www.thenation.com/article/your-favorite-chocolate-product-child-labor/
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