Terriffic. Now I have to feel guilty about chocolate too.

[Smeghead]

@runner pat

But what do they burst the bubbles with?

All it takes is a little prick.

[Lumpy]

@Heffalump_and_Roo

To the OP: I try not to be a spelling nazi, but that spelling in the title is grating like nails on a chalkboard. Too late to change it now, but please consider spell check next time. Thanks.

Oops, sorry. I was being so careful not to misspell “chocolate”. Between vision problems and probably not the best choice of font on my browser, I missed that. Do we have a built-in spell check here yet?

[Heffalump_and_Roo]

@Lumpy

Oops, sorry. I was being so careful not to misspell “chocolate”. Between vision problems and probably not the best choice of font on my browser, I missed that. Do we have a built-in spell check here yet?

Ah OK. As between those two words, chocolate was definitely the better one to get correct.

I’m not sure if the website has spell check, but I have Firefox and it generally underlines in red any spelling errors. I’m only guessing that IE might have that as well.

Thanks for being understanding.

[Sapo]

@Lumpy

I was recently googling “chocolate” and “slave” (don’t ask)

What makes you think one would have to ask?

[Der_Trihs]

@Bryan_Ekers

I’d just assumed it was some character flaw on your part, actually.

Of course. Far more satisfying than admitting just how vile America has become.

[Starving_Artist]

Zzzzzz…

[buttonjockey308]

@Der_Trihs

Of course. Far more satisfying than admitting just how vile America has become.

Oh, just fuck right off already you tiresome turd. If you’re so unhappy here, move and continue fucking off.
Now on to the OP. Sure, fair trade is one way to do it and eventually more producers will come around, but what of it until everything is made in a perfect laborers utopia?

[even_sven]

I met a kid in a village in Mali who escaped slavery on a cocoa farm in Cote D’Ivoire and was hiding out until he felt like it was safe to try to reconnect with his family. Cute friendly eight year old escaped slave.

Nasty stuff, that modern day slavery. I kind of learned a lot on that trip about how much up it still happens.

Fair trade cocoa DOES make a real difference in people’s lives. I’ve seen the other side (with fair trade cotton in Africa) and it does make a difference- it sends kids to school, it allows families to cure their kids malaria instead of watching the kid die. We can’t all be saints all of the time, but if it’s the matter of a few cents and on your part it’s worth getting fair trade when you can.

Of course the real answer is to make our government stop providing arms, support and the occasional convenient assassination to the corrupt leaders who allow this stuff to persist. But I don’t see that happening any time soon. So all we really can do is vote with our dollar- it’s the only way to make child slavery economically unattractive.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

Is there a simple way to tell which manufacturers use slave cocoa and which don’t? Other than the fair trade products, obviously.

[Bryan_Ekers]

@Der_Trihs

Of course. Far more satisfying than admitting just how vile America has become.

Okay, America is vile and you have a character flaw.

[Aankh]

@Smeghead

All it takes is a little prick.

clap clap

[Bridget_Burke]

My favorite chocolate is Dagoba’s Xocolotl. The company is quite committed to organic, sustainable practices.

But I like the stuff because it’s delicious. And the occasional bar is probably better for me than a ton of “regular” chocolate.

[Szlater]

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

Is there a simple way to tell which manufacturers use slave cocoa and which don’t? Other than the fair trade products, obviously.

I don’t know how reliable it is, but The World Cocoa Foundation promotes better treatment of workers and education and healthcare for the farmer’s families.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@Szlater

I don’t know how reliable it is, but The World Cocoa Foundation promotes better treatment of workers and education and healthcare for the farmer’s families.

Thanks.

Interestingly, I see Mars and Hershey on there, but no Cadbury’s…

[Jayn_Newell]

@Heffalump_and_Roo

I can’t eat chocolate because it gives me a migraine. But I think I can eat white chocolate without a problem. I thought it was the lack of cocoa that made the difference and maybe I was indeed eating the inferior stuff. But I think there may be another compound in dark chocolate that makes the difference as well.

Caffeine maybe? My mother has similar issues (No milk/dark chocolate, coffee or caffeinated tea) but white chocolate doesn’t bother her.

[MrDibble]

My bolding:

@Bridget_Burke

My favorite chocolate is Dagoba’s Xocolotl.

So, tasty, this chocolate is, mmmm? Sweet, tempting, it be?

[Szlater]

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

Thanks.

Interestingly, I see Mars and Hershey on there, but no Cadbury’s…

Interesting story on the difficulties of eliminating “blood chocolate” here.

[DrDeth]

@Heffalump_and_Roo

Oh. Was that a joke? White chocolate doesn’t have cocoa so it’s not really chocolate and therefore isn’t involved with this. That’s what I thought you meant. I didn’t realize that you were trying to make a joke.

But it is, since proper “white chocolate” is make with cocoa butter, which comes from the cocoa bean.

And, let us not worry too much about 'slave chocolate", True, around 45% of the worlds choc comes from the Ivory Coast. In that area, around 30% of the local children are employed, but only 6% of that 30% could be considered “slaves”. Since we have no real idea what % of Choc is produced by child labor, let’s use 30%. So, 6% of 30% of 45% of your chocolate. Or to put it another way- of the 50 Million people who depend upon cocoa growning for their lives, maybe some 12000 or .00024 are “slaves”. Many of those who depend on the cocoa crop are poor and near starvation. By not buying cocoa, you are taking food out of the mouths of the .99976 who aren’t slaves.

Now, according to wiki "According to a broad definition of slavery used by Kevin Bales of Free the Slaves (FTS), an advocacy group linked with Anti-Slavery International, there were 27 million people (although some put the number as high as 200 million) who worked in virtual slavery in 2007, spread all over the world.[74]

27,000,000 slave of which perhaps 12,000 are working on the Ivory Coast for cocoa. Then there’s Chinese Prison labor aka “*laogai”, *pretty much slavery,and another 20 million or so (I can’t find any good surrent estimates). So, of the worlds 'slave" population, some .00025 are child cocoa slaves.

I think that puts the issue of any guilt over chocolate into perspective.

[Szlater]

@DrDeth

And, let us not worry too much about 'slave chocolate", True, around 45% of the worlds choc comes from the Ivory Coast. In that area, around 30% of the local children are employed, but only 6% of that 30% could be considered “slaves”…(snipped for brevity)…

Wow, an apologist for slavery.

[DrDeth]

@Szlater

Wow, an apologist for slavery.

You have items in your home made in China, thus you support slavery- unless you can prove they were not made in a* laogai*.

Slavery is a huge world-wide problem- thinking that by not eating chocolate you have somehow made the world slavery free is delusional.