What the Easter Bunny isn't telling you

My favorite Puerta Rican recently made me aware of a problem with Easter. While I fully support egg-hunting, bunnies, bright colors, fake grass, jelly beans and Jesus rising from the dead to bring life to the world, there is one aspect of this joyful holiday I can no longer endorse with a clear conscience.

I'm warning you right now, if you are female or under the age of 13 and want to fully enjoy the holiday, go read about the latest invention that should be in every Easter basket.

Just so that you're fully informed, this will definitely put on smudge on your festivities.

Last chance.

Ok.

For real.

...

It's the chocolate. (you still have a chance to stop reading!!) I can no longer endorse most chocolate for Easter or any other application for that matter. If there was an official website where you could endorse things officially, I would heretofore withdraw my endorsement of chocolate in most forms.

Here's the scoop. Most cocoa or cacao or whatever you want to call it is grown in Ivory Coast, roughly 40% comes from there. Now while there are many family farms that pass from generation to generation, there are also farms that employ forced labor, offering lucrative jobs to children and then completely enslaving the workers once they arrive on site. They often recruit from other countries in order to completely subjugate their workers and leave them no recourse to protest their conditions. Mali has been especially hard-hit by slave traders. There are countless stories online detail the practice of cocoa slave traders. One boy way promised a bicycle to come work, then inhumanely abused as a worker. Needless to say, no bicycle ever appeared.

What can we do about it? Not a whole lot right now, but the idea of buying a Snickers doesn't seem quite as sweet now thinking that I would be enjoying on the backs of abused children. It actually bothers me a lot that I could still eat chocolate and probably not flinch. I've become dulled to oppressing others by my purchasing and indulging habits. Is it ridiculous to cut out chocolate completely? Probably. But that's the kind of life I have committed myself to when I signed on with Christ. Ridiculous. oh well.

Who's guilty??? Almost all cocoa not specified as "Fair Trade" is bought by purchasers at cocoa markets where cocoa from all over the world mixes. In these markets, there is no differentiation between chocolate produced by just practices and that produced by oppression. This almost guarantees that slave cocoa makes it into the mix of most major brands. Specifically, Nestle, Hershey's, Mars and yes, even Cadbury all purchase "blood cocoa."

There is a spark of hope for chocolate lovers: Fair Trade chocolate. I wouldn't suggest that every single person stop eating all chocolate, but I would request that you would support an alternative to slavery. Start mixing some Fair Trade chocolate into your purchases.

Every purchase you make supports either fair practices or unjust practices.




P.S. I concede that not all children can realistically jump and dance all day in fields of green with butterflies and bubbles, and realize that working is actually a pretty good choice for children in poor countries given the current social conditions. Read up on what's going on in the slave trade and realize that we are supporting unnecessary slavery and abuse with our $13 billion of chocolate purchases every year.