Lenten Discipline: Fair Trade Chocolate

In 2000, the world became aware that children were being traded and enslaved in the production of chocolate. Encouraged by consumers, chocolate companies set in motion efforts to eliminate this child abuse, but today more than 2 million children in Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire, where 70% of the world’s cocoa is grown, work in hazardous conditions growing cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate. Poverty and limited access to education contribute to this abuse, but chocolate companies have failed to trace their supply chains effectively to prevent child labor. Progress, however, can be seen as local governments work with cocoa manufacturers and farmers to address the root causes of child labor in order to get children off farms and into schools.

Fair Trade has proven to be one of the most effective tools for reducing child abuse. Look for Fair Trade emblems when you purchase chocolate You’ll find them on Equal Exchange bars St. Andrews sells as part of the Presbyterian Coffee Project.