Child Slavery in Food Production

[halloweencat]

has this ever been discussed on egullet before?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/africa/2042474.stm

i had come across information on this a while ago, via an individual's site. he contacted or tried to contact all the cocoa producers he knew of to get verification from them that they did not purchase chocolate that came from these sources. apparently it's not uncommon to cut the soles of the feet of the children to prevent them from running away. i'm still trying to find that particular site again, but in the meantime...

<snip>

Meeting the 'chocolate slaves'

By Humphrey Hawksley

BBC, Mali

Former child slave

...

Next door was 20-year-old Moussa Doumbia. He slipped off a freshly pressed pink shirt to reveal welted scars where he had been made to carry sacks of cocoa until he managed to escape two years ago.

At night he slept on the floor in a locked room. He was given food once a day. If he complained, he was beaten. The boys who tried to escape had their feet cut with razors.

...

... with chocolate you don't know for sure which country the cocoa comes from. The chances are, though, it is the Ivory Coast, which produces almost half the world's cocoa.

...the big household names, such as Cadbury Schweppes, Mars and Nestle, refuse to speak individually on the thorny issue of child labour.

...

(more....)

</snip>

cheers --

Edited January 18, 2005 by halloweencat (log)

[halloweencat]

i had read on that site (which i cannot now find) that scharffenberger is aware and concerned about the issue, and states that none of it's cocoa is a product of child labor.

is anyone else familiar with this issue?

cheers :)

hc

[Moopheus]

This guy appears to have made an attempt to get chocolate companies to state policies and sources of their chocolate regarding this issue, though his website seems to not have been updated in some time. Some companies seem to brush off the issue, saying it is exaggerated. It does appear that the problem is largely in West Africa and Ivory Coast in particular. It's not a problem in South America.

[halloweencat]

yes, that's the site where i first encountered this issue...'tho you can just google "chocolate" and "slavery/child slavery/slaves" and get many, many, many links.

cheers --

hc

[David Lebovitz]

Here's a good site for information:

http://www.chocolateandcocoa.org/

[chocophile]

Many of the reports of slavery and child labor are largely unsubstantiated and exaggerated based on my admittedly armchair research (I have never been to Western Africa). Here is a link to a PDF file that presents a summary of findings of a survey of labor practices in 4 West African countries in 2002.

The gist of the summary is that the majority of child labor (children under the age of 14) in the cacao industry in Western Africa is family-provided (i.e., cacao farming is part of the family business just as the small, family-owned farm is here in the US).

There is a sizable percentage (but less than 10%) of child labor in Cote d'Ivoire where there is no family relationship, and this leads to a greater potential for exploitation. The 2002 survey does not show that there were any examples of "the worst forms of child labor" (defined ibid as the use of any individual under the age of 18 for the purposes of debt bondage, armed conflict, commercial sexual exploitation, drug trafficking, and other types of work identified as hazardous to children), but implies that there has been improvement since 1999 when scrutiny of forced labor practices became more acute because of international attention drawn to the matter.

However, the 2002 survey does indicate that children in cacao farming in West Africa are performing dangerous jobs with potentially serious health consequences, including using machetes and applying pesticides, and that children involved in farm labor are less likely to go to school.

These latter aspects of the survey's findings are echoed on the chocolateancocoa.org web site with a progress report from 2003 posted. The progress report also indicates that there are problems implementing projects aimed at reducing abusive and dangerous child labor practices due to the ongoing civil war.

I have no doubt that in the past forced labor has been used to harvest cacao - pretty much anywhere slavery has been practiced, not just West Africa (if slaves were used to harvest sugar cane and tobacco in the New World you can be assured that they were used to harvest cacao, too) and there are almost certainly isolated instances of forced labor even today. However, nowadays these can only be seen as aberrations, not the norm.

Child labor, as in kids on the family farm used being involved in the family business - well, that has been the norm for millennia and is still the norm today with a vast percentage of the world's children still involved in agricultural production to some extent. Is their labor forced and/or abusive? In some cases, assuredly yes - as child abuse is unfortunately not limited to situations of forced labor. Is it the norm? Thankfully, no.

Scharffen Berger is not alone in their compassion for the labor force that is involved in cacao production. Fair Trade, Organic, Rainforest Alliance, sustainable agriculture, and related programs are also intensely interested in the subject and are doing what they can, each in their own way, to improve the lot of these farmers. I can tell you from personal experience based on my trip to the middle of nowhere in the Amazon River basin off the Rio Napo in Eastern Ecuador in 2003 that growing cacao is backbreaking labor that usually pays very little and there is a lot that can and should be done to improve the lives of cacao farmers and their families. Education and medical care loom large here, not issues that will be solved by paying individual cacao farmers more money. These have to be done on a larger scale with whole communities. One good example of what can be done is Funedesin.

:Clay

On a final note, the Cocoa industry initiative to end forced labor cites 2005 as the year when the practice will be eliminated.

[halloweencat]

thank you for your information and links. :) fwiw, the focus here (at least my focus) is not the family farm, but kidnapping and slavery.

cheers :)

hc

[duckduck]

The latest issue of World Pulse magazine has an article on the slave trafficing going on in the world. It's not about chocolate but I was shocked to see the numbers and how many organizations are fighting it. It's a much bigger problem than I ever imagined.

[K8memphis]

thank you for your information and links.  :)  fwiw, the focus here (at least my focus) is not the family farm, but kidnapping and slavery.

cheers :)

hc

←

Question for you, halloweencat,

If your focus is kidnapping and slavery why did you post on egullet society for culinary arts and letters?

Thanks

Kate

[duckduck]

I think it is a valid topic for eGullet myself. But thanks for all the links and info.

[halloweencat]

thank you for your information and links.  :)  fwiw, the focus here (at least my focus) is not the family farm, but kidnapping and slavery.

cheers :)

hc

←

Question for you, halloweencat,

If your focus is kidnapping and slavery why did you post on egullet society for culinary arts and letters?

Thanks

Kate

←

a post upthread (was it yours?) folded in children working on family farms, which was not the focus of the original post. the focus of the original post was and is the use of children as slaves in the production of cocoa, which is certainly an egullet sphere. and, as i stated, i was looking to see if any egulleters had information about chocolate companies that took this problem seriously, and worked not to use cacoa beans from these sources. i certainly don't want to be making or eating chocolate if it comes from this sort of production, and if what i have to do is become a little more aware regarding cacoa farming, i want to do that.

also, a post upthread mentions unsubstantiated claims...from what i've seen on the web (perusing news stories, etc.), this seems to be a real problem, so i'm a little confused by the post.

cheers --

hc

[prasantrin]

In a recent NYTimes article about chocolate (registration may be required), I read

The use of child slave labor in cocoa production is of particular concern. In the late 1990's, reports of large numbers of child slaves being used in cocoa production in Ivory Coast began to surface. Since then, the world's major chocolate producers and the Chocolate Manufacturers Association have vowed to work to end child slavery in the cocoa business.

So has TransFair USA, the fair trade certifying group, but less than 1 percent of chocolate sold in the United States meets the group's standards for safe labor practices, fair wages and social responsibility, said Ella Silverman, cocoa accounts manager.

After reading this, I started to wonder...Many people have no qualms about banning foie gras because of cruelty to animals. Or banning the slaughter of horses for human consumption, because horses are companion animals and shouldn't be eaten. However, how many people would support a ban of any chocolate which child slaves helped produce? Why was Kathy Lee Gifford's clothing line under fire for the use of unfair working practices, while chocolate gets off with nary a wimper?

The above are rhetorical questions, but I do wonder...how many eGulleters (if any) who refuse to eat foie gras and horsemeat because of cruelty to animals (not just because you don't like them) would also refuse to eat chocolate because of cruelty to humans?

[Megan Blocker]

I'll have to do more research into this. I do eat foie gras, but I do try to stay away from things I think have been raised or cultivated with a lack of respect for the farmer, the animal or the earth.

Far and away, child slavery for chocolate falls into this category, and I want to learn more.

Edited February 11, 2006 by Megan Blocker (log)

[maggiethecat]

Child slavery trumps foie gras, horsemeat, fur coats, crocodile handbags and inhumanely harvested fiddleheads.

I could give up chocolate sans regrets, tomorrow, if I found out it was all the product of child slaves. Like Megan, I would like to learn more.

[Megan Blocker]

To that end, here's a link to some information I found via TransFair's website. They're also selling Fair Trade certified chocolates!

The first link will take you to an NPR podcast...haven't listened yet, but plan to tomorrow!

[divalasvegas]

Thanks Ruth/prasantrin for bringing up this topic. Like Megan I'd like to know more about this as well. The topic reminded me of a 60 Minutes show I saw years ago (it aired in the mid-1990's as I recall). It was about workers "hired" by grove owners in Florida and how these people were basically modern day slaves. Once they were bussed to the groves, every aspect of their day-to-day existence was controlled by the grove owners and their staff: housing, work and living conditions (both abysmal), pay or lack thereof. The grove owners also owned onsite stores where they would charge exhorbitant prices to workers, thus always leaving them in debt.

I know this topic has been started specifically to speak of cocoa production and child slavery in one country in Africa, but I think this leads to a larger discussion of the modern-day exploitation of the people--men, women and children--that put the food on our plates, both in the United States and abroad. After all, slavery is an abomination whether it be children or adults. In the above case, these were mostly men who were from Central American countries or the Caribbean; however, there were native born Americans as well. maggiethecat I understand your sentiments when it comes to chocolate, giving it up and all. But I wonder how much of what we eat every day would we have to give up if we knew the totality of the human suffering associated with its production?

More than once I have had a vegetarian proudly say that they don't eat anything with a face. And on more than one occasion I have had to remind them that those fruits and vegetables that they are so proud of eating instead of animal flesh more often than not were planted, tended, and harvested by human beings, who also have faces, living and working under the most inhumane conditions imaginable.

If what I've written has strayed too far from the original topic, I'll be happy to have it re-directed elsewhere or start a new topic.

[divalasvegas]

This very same topic has been previously visited on eG almost exactly a year ago, in fact:

Chocolate Slaves Thread

Edited February 11, 2006 by divalasvegas (log)

[Sugarella]

Diva, I think I may have seen that same 60 minutes you were referring to, or a show just like it. I remember the story tracked south american-born migrant farm workers thoughout farms in the US, particularly one man and his two single digit aged children. His children worked right along with him, all day every day, just so the 3 of them combined could earn enough to pay for their food and lodgings with any semblance of a paycheck left over.

I too would be glad to eliminate chocolate if this is the case, and of course want to learn more. The only way to end these practices for good is to stop enabling them.

[divalasvegas]

Diva, I think I may have seen that same 60 minutes you were referring to, or a show just like it. I remember the story tracked south american-born migrant farm workers thoughout farms in the US, particularly one man and his two single digit aged children. His children worked right along with him, all day every day, just so the 3 of them combined could earn enough to pay for their food and lodgings with any semblance of a paycheck left over.

I too would be glad to eliminate chocolate if this is the case, and of course want to learn more. The only way to end these practices for good is to stop enabling them.

←

It's been so long ago Sugerella that you may be right and we both saw the same show. I don't seem to recall that program focusing on anyone in particular or following one set of people more closely than the other. What I do recall was the utter inhumanity of the people employing--and I use that term loosely--these people and just how desperate to survive one would have to be to do this kind of work and live under those conditions. It was indeed heartbreaking. I guess what I'm trying to say is that be it chocolate and child slaves or those poor souls in the Florida groves, how do we stop enabling them? Only eat what we grow ourselves, research every morsel of food we put into our mouths? I really don't know.

[prasantrin]

I could definitely give up chocolate, but I don't really like it that much, anyway (though it might be difficult for me to give up Korova cookies).

In the previous discussion (thanks for the pointer divalasvegas!), there was some talk about child labour vs. child slavery. I am torn about child labour. In most third world countries, it is very difficult for families to survive without sending their children out to work. But child slavery is something else.

The articles about chocolate and children definitely point to slavery. The children are forced into the position, and are often beaten. It's extremely difficult to police the industry, especially in countries like the Ivory Coast. So then how do we make a fair judgment? I've been reading a lot of articles on the internet, but few are recent and few detail any improvements in the situation. The TransFair group says less than 1% of chocolate sold in the US meets their standards--but is it fair to judge another countries working conditions according to the standards of the US?

As maggiethecat says, child slavery trumps foie gras, horsemeat, etc. It should be a bigger issue here, but it really doesn't surprise me that the discussion on foie gras generated several pages of posts, while the previous disucssion along with this one on child slavery barely make a page.

[TPO]

Coffee is another product that is harvested by slaves, including children. I prefer paying more money for Fair Trade Certified coffee than non-certified coffee, and I would gladly do the same for chocolate.

I don't think any human being, regardless of age, should be beaten or abused just so that I can buy cheap stuff. Unfortunately, not everything is labeled (yet), and for many people (including me) it is easy to not think about what isn't right in front of us.

[halloweencat]

i was the poster of the original "chocolate slaves" thread of about a year ago.

perhaps these two threads should be merged so that any good information that is brought to the community is in a central place?

does one have to make a formal request of a moderator for this?

cheers --

[kiliki]

However, how many people would support a ban of any chocolate which child slaves helped produce? Why was Kathy Lee Gifford's clothing line under fire for the use of unfair working practices, while chocolate gets off with nary a wimper?

Well, geez, I think most people would support such a ban. I consider myself well informed on social justice topics and I'd never heard of this, so I think the key here is information and education.

Edited February 14, 2006 by kiliki (log)

[helenjp]

Ivory Coast background

Ivory Coast has (I think...) one of the most urban populations in the region, so I wonder exactly what the characteristics of the agricultural population are...how much of a shadow is cast by the old French plantation labor systems...how much the more fragile ecology and economy of the Sahel further inland affects the Coast, etc.

Ivory Coast is definitely an agricultural trading economy - what we buy or don't buy is going to have a huge impact on how people there live. I'm curious to know what people think - is it better to pressure the existing traders and importers/processors; or better to boycott and ban?

I wish I knew more about this area - some weird linguistic events made me interested in the Sahel and West African coast when I was in high school, and then I happened to meet a string of people who had lived there...but still don't know more than a tiny drop of all the things that fascinate me about the region.

[maggiethecat]

is it better to pressure the existing traders and importers/processors; or better to boycott and ban?

I wish I knew. Then there are all the platitudes that free-traders trot out: "So what if we pay that man only two dollars a week to pick coffee? If you boycott he won't even have that." This has always seemed to me beyond cynical, but I still worry about that two bucks he won't get.