As a chocolate expert with over 25 years of experience 🧐, I have always wondered how I can satiate my chocolate cravings without contributing to deforestation or slavery. Visiting the Salon du Chocolat in Paris inspired me to dive deeper into this topic and find the answers for all the conscious consumers out there!
0:00 Intro – The Inequity at the Heart of the Global Chocolate Industry
2:00 - The Hidden Costs of Chocolate
4:42 - The Importance of Transparency and Due Diligence
7:09 - How To Make Ethical Choices?
12:47 - Outro
Links:
https://www.chocolatescorecard.com/
https://cocoabarometer.org/wp-content...
https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/food-...
Sources can be found throughout the video.
Video effects and some of the visual content was created in Canva and edited on Final Cut Pro.
Music by SOUNDS FROM AFRICA from Pixabay.
Enquiries: acrosstheglobewithelvi@gmail.com
#EthicalChocolate, #FairTradeChocolate, #SustainableChocolate, #SlaveFreeChocolate, #CocoaIndustry, #ChocolateTransparency, #ChildLaborAwareness, #SustainableCocoa, #ChocolateEthics, #FairTradeCocoa, #ChocolateWithACause, #ResponsibleConsumerism, #CocoaFarming, #EthicalConsumer, #ValueAddedChocolate, #SustainableLiving, #DeforestationFreeChocolate, #EmpowerCocoaFarmers, #ChocolateJustice #dubaichocolate
0:00 Intro – The Inequity at the Heart of the Global Chocolate Industry
2:00 - The Hidden Costs of Chocolate
4:42 - The Importance of Transparency and Due Diligence
7:09 - How To Make Ethical Choices?
12:47 - Outro
Links:
https://www.chocolatescorecard.com/
https://cocoabarometer.org/wp-content...
https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/food-...
Sources can be found throughout the video.
Video effects and some of the visual content was created in Canva and edited on Final Cut Pro.
Music by SOUNDS FROM AFRICA from Pixabay.
Enquiries: acrosstheglobewithelvi@gmail.com
#EthicalChocolate, #FairTradeChocolate, #SustainableChocolate, #SlaveFreeChocolate, #CocoaIndustry, #ChocolateTransparency, #ChildLaborAwareness, #SustainableCocoa, #ChocolateEthics, #FairTradeCocoa, #ChocolateWithACause, #ResponsibleConsumerism, #CocoaFarming, #EthicalConsumer, #ValueAddedChocolate, #SustainableLiving, #DeforestationFreeChocolate, #EmpowerCocoaFarmers, #ChocolateJustice #dubaichocolate
Category
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LearningTranscript
00:00There's nothing more comforting than a delicious chocolate bar. Whether it's an occasional
00:04indulgence or a daily guilty pleasure, everybody loves chocolate. But have you ever thought about
00:11where your chocolate bar comes from? Because the journey that it makes is anything but sweet.
00:17When we buy from big brands like Mondelez, Nestlé, Mars or Hershey, who control over 35%
00:24of the global chocolate market, were often supporting harmful practices like child labor,
00:30slavery and deforestation. These companies profit enormously while farmers barely scrape by.
00:38Laboring in the blistering heat here as young as six, slicing the grass with lethal ease,
00:45their machetes nearly half the size of the smallest among them. These Ghanaian children are harvesting
00:51the cocoa that ends up in America's best-loved chocolates like M&Ms and Snickers. Instead of
00:59going to school, they are learning that sharp blades cut deep and big corporations make promises they
01:06seldom keep. Most of the world's cocoa comes from small-scale farmers in West Africa. Yet cocoa
01:12farmers receive only 6 to 11% of the 100 billion dollar industry revenue. Over half of farmers in
01:19Cote d'Ivoire, for example, live below the global poverty line. And most of them have never even
01:24tasted chocolate before. And here's an interesting fact. Europe imports 50% of the world's cocoa but
01:31grows none. And Europe also eats more chocolate than anywhere else, consuming around 50% of the world's
01:38supply and reaping 75% of global profits. This concentration of wealth highlights the inequity at
01:46the heart of the global chocolate industry. So let's uncover the hidden costs of chocolate production
01:52and see how we can make more ethical, smarter and sweeter choices as consumers.
02:04So first of all, cocoa farming drives deforestation and biodiversity loss. Over the past 30 years, Ghana has
02:11lost 65% of its forest cover and Cote d'Ivoire has lost an alarming 90%. Similar trends are observed
02:18also in producing countries in Latin America, like Ecuador or Brazil. And what happens is that these forests
02:24are replaced with cocoa plantations, which leads to biodiversity loss and worsens climate change because
02:30it reduces carbon absorption. Then there's the human cost. Slavery remains a significant issue in cocoa
02:36production, particularly in West Africa, where most of the world's chocolate is produced. Millions of children
02:43and adults are trapped in forced labor conditions, often working long hours under dangerous circumstances,
02:50without fair pay or freedom. And this exploitation is driven by poverty, weak enforcement of labor law,
02:57and the relentless demand for cheap cocoa by major chocolate companies. Furthermore, West Africa's cocoa farms
03:04employs 1.5 million children in hazardous labor, and these children miss out on education, face health risks,
03:11which all falls under the definition of the worst forms of child labor, according to the International
03:18Labor Organization. According to the cocoa barometer, gender inequality adds another layer to this problem.
03:24Women run many cocoa farms, but often lack land ownership, decision-making power, or fair wages.
03:34Women run many of the best and fair wages.
03:41Here, there are families who are not also able to give the forest to women.
03:48Because they say that women should marry and work with their husband.
03:53When you work for your husband, the child is done with the man, but at the end of the year, we are married.
04:01These issues, deforestation, slavery, child labor, gender inequality,
04:09all stem from another layer of the problem, poverty. Most cocoa farmers earn far below a living income,
04:16which leads them to make impossible choices like cutting down forests to grow more cocoa,
04:21or leaving their children out of school. And let's not forget the colonial legacy of cocoa production.
04:27For centuries, African nations produced raw cocoa for European profits.
04:32And today, the pattern remains the same. 64% of cocoa is grown in Africa,
04:38but the continent sees only a little fraction of the industry's profits.
04:42Transparency is critical to solving these issues. Consumer countries like the EU and the UK are
04:55stepping up with new due diligence legislation aimed at breaking the tie between cocoa production on one
05:02hand and slavery, child labor, deforestation, etc. on the other hand. For example, the EU has developed
05:10regulations on deforestation as well as wider due diligence legislation. And this reminds me of a
05:15documentary that I watched recently at the Human Rights Film Festival, and I loved it. It's called
05:21Everyone's Business, and it's about these three female members of the European Parliament battling to
05:27get a new supply chain due diligence legislation adopted in order to ensure corporate environmental and
05:34social responsibility and social responsibility, which is tied to this, and was just such a fun watch.
05:40And it was really interesting to see the whole process from the inside. So if you're interested, I would
05:45definitely recommend it. But yeah, let's get back to our topic.
05:49In producing countries, legal challenges remain significant. Gaps in legislation and poor law enforcement
05:56allow exploitative practices to persist. In 2019, for example, the cocoa marketing boards of Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana
06:03decided to collaborate to raise the prices of cocoa at the world market. And later on,
06:08they introduced the living income differential of $400 per ton for cocoa, which was a significant
06:16step forward. However, it, of course, became a subject of intense debate and has been challenged by
06:22large corporations. So it still lacks full enforcement, but the producing countries are also taking some steps
06:29forward. And top-down strategies simply won't work. Effective solutions must include farmers, African
06:36and Latin American governments, and local organizations in the decision-making process.
06:41As for consumer countries like the US, the EU, the UK, etc., they also must enforce strict import standards
06:48to create a level playing field for ethical producers. Furthermore, in producing countries,
06:53cooperatives play a vital role in making cocoa production more ethical. Yet most farmers are
06:59not even part of these organizations. And for cooperatives to succeed, they also must be farmer-led,
07:05professionally managed, gender equal, and truly accountable to their members.
07:15I recently went to a chocolate festival at the Paris Expo, which inspired this video.
07:19I got to see a lot of smaller companies that really cared about the ethical production of their chocolate.
07:26And I got to speak to one of them. I interviewed Mathieu Padiullo from Akaoye France. I hope I pronounced it
07:34right. But he gave me a lot of valuable insights into how smaller companies ensure ethical production of
07:40chocolate. So the best example is today we are here with Valcaco. It's an association. They are working
07:48as a bean in Martinique. He mentioned that they source the beans for their bean-to-bar chocolate
07:52directly from associations across Africa and Latin America, ensuring transparency and sustainability
07:57at every step of the process. Actually, we are working directly from the bean. So we receive the bean
08:02at our laboratory and we transform them to the chocolate and we are in contact with the field.
08:08It's very difficult in several countries to get the physical beans. As he highlights, in many
08:15countries it can be difficult to identify and partner with the right producers. It takes time to
08:20find trusted partners that would help them source the best beans from around the world. But it's vital
08:26for maintaining the quality and ethics. Speaking to different suppliers at the fair, I learned that
08:31working directly with the cooperatives, Akaoye reduces the investment, saves resources and time on
08:37the initial steps of the process. But since they still work directly with the providers,
08:41they can make sure that all the standards are still met. As for the consumers, Mathieu recommended
08:47focusing on simplicity and looking for chocolate with minimal ingredients. Because according to him,
08:51if the beans are of high quality, there's no need for additives. So as you can see, smaller companies
08:56like Akaoye really pay a lot of attention to fairness and quality in their production process.
09:01And to some extent it is more manageable on a smaller scale because you can really keep track of the
09:05cooperatives or farmers you work with and make sure that they're paid fair wages and there's no slavery
09:10involved. But at the same time, it becomes much more complicated when we analyze the supply chains of
09:17multinationals, which are often obscured and not transparent at all. Oftentimes, bigger companies
09:25simply rely on certifications and they use it as a greenwashing technique instead of actually making
09:31sure that the farmers are paid fair wages or actually investing in sustainability. And this is why
09:37traceability is a critical tool. Leading brands like Tony's Chocolonely and Ferrero use technologies like
09:44GPS mapping to track cocoa to the farm level. However, much of the industry still relies on
09:49uncertified cocoa butter or incomplete traceability systems, allowing exploitative practices to persist.
09:56So how can we make ethical choices? Well, I did some digging, I learned a few lessons from the
10:01chocolate festival. So here is what I found. So the first thing we can do is look at certifications.
10:08For example, fair trade, reinforced alliance, organic labels, they all may signal higher standards.
10:15But it's important to keep in mind that certifications are not cure all. And what is really important is
10:20transparency, traceability of supply chain and accountability, which would make the true difference.
10:26But this is the basic foundation that we can follow. Secondly, a lot of organizations recommend to look
10:32for value added at source products, which means that it's better to support brands that process cocoa
10:39in the country where it's grown because it keeps the profits local and supports small businesses.
10:44Furthermore, during my research, I found a lot of useful sources that list different ethical companies
10:51and also give a lot of useful tips on how to choose your chocolate bars more wisely. For example,
10:57the chocolate scorecard is a great website to learn the key facts and find the most ethical companies
11:03according to their ranking. To my surprise, I found some brands that I already knew on the chocolate
11:09scorecard website, for example, Ferrero, Ritter Sport, and of course, Tony's Chocolate Only. According to the
11:15website, Tony's Chocolate Only is leading the way when it comes to pushing for large scale change for
11:21cocoa farmers. But it's important to keep in mind that they're not a best buy for sure,
11:27because as I mentioned earlier, it's much harder to trace your supply chain on a larger scale for
11:34bigger companies. And they do not discuss animal welfare at all, which puts them lower in the carbon
11:40ranking. I also found this really cool infographic on ethicalconsumer.org. And what they're essentially
11:47saying is that there are ethical options for any budget. But of course, a best buy would be local
11:56African or Latin American brand like 57 Chocolate from Ghana, Mon Choco from Cote d'Ivoire, Pocari from
12:03Ecuador, which are all excellent examples of ethical chocolate. Another thing to keep in mind is that
12:08fair ethical chocolate will cost more simply because farmers are usually paid more fairly and have higher
12:15wages. So really, every chocolate bar we buy makes a huge statement. As a big chocolate lover,
12:21sometimes I may be easily tempted to go for unethical chocolate. But from now on, I will always
12:27think whether I really want to support child labor, slavery, deforestation, and many other terrible things
12:34that I actually don't want to support. So sure, the majority of global chocolate production is in the
12:39hands of the multinationals. But imagine how much leverage they will lose once millions of consumers
12:45decide to go for other options. So that's it for today's video. Thank you so much for watching it,
12:51and let's make smarter and sweeter choices together.
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