Chances are Child Slaves Harvested the Cocoa to Make Your Child’s Easter Chocolate Bunny.

This fact the cocoa industry chooses to hide and has broken international agreements not to import beans from West African countries that support slave labor. The exporters buy children as young as 7 years old to cut down the cocoa pods with machetes and harvest the beans.

These children are smuggled into the Ivory Coast by human traffickers with the promise that they will make money for their needy families in nearby countries. These families never see their children again. Human traffickers make about $230 euros per child. Their corrupt government has covered up this issue since cocoa is their leading export.

How sad it is that American children receive “Blood Chocolate” to celebrate a Holy day at the expense of children their own age. If you give chocolate for Easter, do not give any chocolate made by Hershey, MM Mars, Godiva, Cadbury, Nestle, Kraft or any generic or brand drug store chocolate. Look for the Fair Trade label or Direct Trade that is described on the label.

Exotic Chocolate Tasting approves of the following sources: Savorique has fine chocolates that are slave free, also you can find them at Food Emporium, Fairway, Whole Foods and health food stores. Even local chocolatiers buy bulk chocolate to re-melt it down and mold into those cute bunnies. They may not even know that the bean source is from West Africa, where in the Ivory Coast alone 12,000 children are enslaved.

Be an informed and caring consumer by knowing where your chocolate and other foods like coffee and tea come from. More info is on my site at Exotic Chocolate Tasting and Stop Chocolate  Slavery.

Tags: child slavery free chocolate, fair trade chocolate, fair trade cocoa, fair trade Easter chocolate, fair trade Easter chocolate gift, slave free chocolate, slave free cocoa

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 17th, 2011 at 1:28 pm and is filed under Food News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.