MB Civic

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http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2006/10/16/chocolate/index.html

In 2002, a report [PDF] by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and the U.S. Agency for International Development estimated that about 300,000 children work in the cocoa industry in the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, and Nigeria…

The fair-trade movement asserts that a way out of this far-from-sweet situation is to work with farmers and farmer cooperatives directly, prohibiting child labor and paying farmers a fair, guaranteed price for their crop (usually based on the current world market price plus a premium). With such a wage guaranteed (and inspections to make sure child-labor promises are kept), farmers’ lives can begin to improve, their kids can go to school instead of working dangerous jobs, and you, the consumer, can feel good about your delectable treat.

It’s estimated that fair-trade chocolate represents less than 1 percent of the world’s roughly $60 billion chocolate market. But the more people like you who buy it, the better things will get for cocoa farmers, we hope. So keep on looking for Fair Trade Certified or Fair Trade Federation labels.

Remember: fair trade doesn’t mean organic, and organic doesn’t mean fair trade. They are two different certifications at this point. Though if you look at your local co-op or health-food mega-store, you’ll see it isn’t difficult to find chocolate that can deliver both — and way too easy to find chocolate that offers neither.

Once you hold everyday items like the chocolate bar under a microsope you open a whole can of worms … I bet there are dozens of similar examples. It’ll have to take a sea change in policy and conciousness before we can get through the day guilt free.
-MAB