The truth about chocolate

Have you ever hear of the children of the children who are forced to work without pay in cocoa farms? Chocolate can come at the price of someone's freedom and life.  I couldn't believe it when I first heard about this.  It's so unreal.

There are an estimated 12,000 children who have been trafficked into cocoa farms just in the Ivory Cost alone.  Today there are chocolate manufacturers who have made the effort to guarantee that their chocolate if fair trade and has not been produced by trafficked children.  But there are many, many more chocolate producers who have not made efforts to filter out any forced labor within their cocoa farms.  My question is, how can we persuade these companies to take action against this injustice?

The organization www.stopthetraffik.org has been campaigning to end the trafficking of people in these cocoa farms.  Visit their site to find out more on how you can help save a life and end slavery.

One practical way to help this cause is to commit to only purchasing fair trade chocolate. 

Here is a list of guaranteed fair trade chocolate:

Shops that Sell:

Trader Joe's

Target

Whole Foods

Wild Oats

Ten Thousand Villages

Chocolate to look for:

Green & Black's

Green & Black's Maya Gold Organic Dark Chocolate Bar

Divine Bars

Divine Milk

Divine Dark

Divine Milk with Hazelnut

Trader Joe's 

Trader Joe's Swiss 71% Dark Chocolate

Trader Joe's Swiss Milk Chocolate

Equal Exchange

Organic Very Dark Chocolate

Organic Dark Chocolate with Almonds

Organic Chocolate Espresso Bean

For more information on what you can do and simple steps you can take to create awareness  please visit http://www.stopthetraffik.org/chocolatecampaign/