Beneath the pleasures of chocolate
“When people eat chocolate, they are eating my flesh” (Free the Slaves, as cited by Sapoznik, 2010, para. 2). This is a statement by Amadou, a former child laborer that has worked in cocoa farms. He has been one of the many child laborers in cocoa farming. In the Ivory Coast, there are around 300,000 children that harvest cocoa beans for massive chocolate enterprises in extreme working conditions (Dunn, 2008).
“They are modern-day slaves, bonded to their employers and forced against their will to work in hazardous and heartbreaking conditions. Denied access to basic education, medical care, and in many cases, the comfort and reassurance of their own families, these children have no voice and little hope for the future” (Athreya & Newman, 2009, p.12).
According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as cited by Rea (n.d.), “child labor is any work done by a child that may be harmful to their physical, emotional, intellectual, and social development” (p. 1). Academic tasks such as attending classes and accomplishing school works are not considered as child labor, nor daily household duties such as housekeeping and running errands, because they are beneficial to a child’s growth and learning. It does not harm a child’s physical, mental, social, and emotional aspects.
In an interview done from the documentary film ‘Slavery: A Global Investigation’ by Woods & Blewett (2000) with 19 rescued child laborers, they asked a boy about the working conditions they were in. The film showed the boy replying that they have experienced beatings and whippings from their cocoa masters whenever they try to escape the plantation. According to the film, they have also received not a single penny after doing the laborious work they have done. Even after harvesting a lot of cocoa, they have not even tasted chocolate (Woods & Blewett, 2000).
Illegal child labor in cocoa farms, especially in the Ivory Coast, is a situation that has been going on for years. As a matter of fact, an article from Candy Industry (2015) has reported that in the Ivory Coast, the number of children working in cocoa production has increased 59 percent from 2008 up to 2014. The article also stated that the numbers have increased 48 percent for those children who are doing labor in cocoa production. In addition, those children doing hazardous work in cocoa production also grew by 46 percent (Candy Industry, 2015). Statistics have spoken, the increasing numbers are quite alarming. Though policies and protocols were already legislated from the past decade i.e. Harkin-Engel Protocol or as known as the Cocoa Protocol, strict enforcement has not been fully pursued. Child labor in the cocoa industry has truly remained a persisting force in our time.
Ignorance should not bar the world from achieving a better future. The pleading voices of children should be addressed by adults who have the ultimate power to make things possible in their hands. Through petitions, political mobilization, and promotion of fair trade chocolate as an alternative, illegal child labor should be alleviated in cocoa farming because it affects the child, the society, and the chocolate enterprise.
Impact to the child
Health
O’Keefe (2016) mentioned in his article his short encounter in eastern Ivory Coast with a child laborer named Ibrahim Traoré, and a parade of other younger boys, holding their machetes or sickles as they pass by him to harvest cocoas from their trees. Sharp knives, like machetes and sickles, are essential tools for gathering and reaping produce in farms, however these tools are very dangerous for children to use. Children are more prone to mishaps, therefore the weight and sharpness of these tools can result to imminent wounds and injuries.
As a matter of fact, Reigart & Etzel (1995) disclosed agriculture as the most dangerous occupation, even surpassing mining. This could account as to why Wilk, as cited by Graitcer, Lerer & World Bank (1998), has stated in their study that the morbidity and mortality rates in agricultural work are unbelievably high.
Aside from accidents and casualties, children working in the agricultural sector, particularly child laborers in cocoa farms, are exposed to further dangers and threats. According to Graitcer, Lerer, & World Bank (1998), the hazards children working in cocoa farms could face include dangerous machinery, structures and transportations, toxic chemicals, and long hours of physical labor. Such conditions, without proper care and caution, can be extremely difficult for children to bear. It could result to implications such as “trauma, repetitive strain conditions, deformities, occupational lung diseases, parasitic and other infectious diseases, dermatitis, and chemical and pesticide poisoning” (Graitcer, Lerer, & World Bank, 1998, p. 7).
Education
According to the 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, as cited by Rea (n.d.), Articles 28 and 29 have stated that it is an imperative for a child to be educated. They must be able to completely exercise their right, and therefore must be granted the opportunity to receive education. However, in a case of a child laborer, this is an opportunity that has a bleak chance of transpiring.
“I wish I could go to school. I want to read and write,” Yacou, a victim of child labor in cocoa farms, said in an interview according to a news article by CNN’s McKenzie and Swails (2012, para. 26).
Being a victim of child labor and forced employment denied Yacou’s right for education. Therefore, this violates the international law (specifically Articles 28 and 29) ratified in the 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Also, Reigart and Etzel (1995) stated that early employment causes a child’s attention to be divided from their school works, and also impedes his ability to pour out his full potential in his academics. The child may find it difficult to balance both their academics and employment, and may be left with no choice but to quit their education to fully immerse himself in his work (Bhat, 2010).
Impact to Society
Poverty and Unemployment
According to Lopez-Calva (2001), earnings adult workers gain are being lowered by child labor. The overwhelming amount of exploited child laborers, as a result, left them in an impoverished state, such as plummeting income, or worse, unemployment. Similarly, Rea (n.d.) said that child labor has kept adults out of the workforce. Both authors, Lopez-Calva (2001) and Rea (n.d.), affirmed then that this has been creating and producing a vicious cycle of child labor and poverty. Therefore, child labor could be raised as one of the root causes of poverty and unemployment.
An example of this is by assuming a parent forces his child to work for additional income to cover their family’s needs. The child does so, and goes to apply himself into a job, even the one that pays little to no income. The job has caused the child to neglect his academic responsibilities, and as a result, his employment would leave him no choice but to drop his education. The child then grows up with the least educational background, thus becoming deprived of good employment opportunities. He will eventually start to raise his own family, and due to poverty, it may perhaps leave him with no choice but to compel his children to work in a younger age. Thus, the vicious cycle continues.
Political Apathy
Sometimes, it is in the greed of those men in power. According to Otis, Pasztor & McFadden (2001), governments that are administrated mostly by the elite or the higher class disregard child labor as an impediment of the society towards development, and tend to only value its short-term benefits. In addition, government officials from several countries who are in the hands of corruption practice bribery from corporations or persons with economic interests (Otis, Pasztor & McFadden, 2001). This is an indication of political apathy, where those men who have the administrative power turn a blind eye and resort to ignorance against the crisis in their hands.
Despite this, there are still some administrative officials who recognize child labor as a social problem that needs to be addressed through comprehensive laws, policies and protocols. One is from the 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), as cited by Rea (n.d.), where countries have gathered to settle and approve laws that protect children’s rights, for instance, the Article 32 where it states “the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development” (p. 10). Another is the 2001 Harkin and Engel Protocol signed by chocolate companies such as Nestle, Hershey, Mars, etc., where they agreed to foster their own certification process that guarantees the prevention of using child labor in cocoa production until July 1, 2005 (Manza, 2014).
All these laws were established, yet according to an article from Candy Industry (2015), they reported that the number of children working in cocoa production in the Ivory Coast has increased 59 percent from 2008 up to 2014. It is evident that the solutions, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Harkin-Engel Protocol, agreed and ratified a decade ago were not effective. The government lacks strict enforcement and discipline of the established laws against child labor and needs further revision of the agreed terms.
Impact to chocolate enterprise
Income and Reputation
In just a flash, social media nowadays can easily spread awareness like wildfire, and form social movements from worldwide phenomena. Lopes (2014) stated that “the introduction of social media such as blogs, Facebook, and Twitter as a new way to social network, has become the new catalyst tool in the formation of social movements” (p. 4). When propaganda is spread on social media against scandals such as child labor, this can entail to a crippling dent of a company’s reputation.
The issue of child labor in the cocoa industry was first exposed by documentary films such as the 2001 Peabody Award-winning Slavery: A Global Investigation by Brian Woods and Kate Blanchett in 2000, and The Dark Side of Chocolate by Miki Mistrati and U. Roberto Romano in 2010. Both films exposed child laborers in cocoa plantations in the Ivory Coast, and also revealed chocolate companies like Nestle and Hershey who purchase their supply of cocoas from farms who exploit children.
Online articles were also published on social media such as Wellman’s (2015), who exposed chocolate companies that bought child-labored cocoas e.g. Hershey, Mars, Nestle, ADM Cocoa, Godiva, Fowler’s Chocolate, and Kraft. Also, from Food Empowerment Project’s (n.d.) F.E.P.’s Chocolate List who listed on their website their recommendations of ethical chocolate companies.
Social movements can take a toll on a company’s income and revenue. As a matter of fact, in Fortune (2015) magazine’s ranking of largest U.S. corporations based from their total revenue titled ‘Fortune 500’, chocolate company Hershey dropped down 10 spots from 366th to 376th last 2015.
Corporate Social Responsibility
According to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, as cited by Rea (n.d.), “Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large” (p. 26). Businesses and corporations must practice corporate social responsibility because as an economic stockholder in our society, they should initiate in engaging themselves into ethical practices such as charity works and social development projects.
Hershey is particularly known for practicing corporate social responsibility. In fact, according to Manza (2014), Hershey surpassed companies and ranked the highest in Forbes’ list of brands with “ethical leadership” in 2011. Her study stated that the Hershey chocolate company founder, Milton Hershey, committed himself to charity works. In 1909, he built the Hershey Industrial School for Orphans, and after passing away, earmarked $60 million in a trust for the said school. (Manza, 2014).
Yet their high ranking earned through the practice of “ethical leadership” somehow opposes the given fact that the company’s involved with purchasing cocoa from supply chains that exploit children in the Ivory Coast (Manza, 2014).
Solutions
Petitions and campaigns
According to International Labor Rights Forum (2012), the Raise the Bar Hershey campaign, with the collaboration of “over 150,000 consumers, union allies, religious groups, and over 40 food co-ops and natural grocers” (para. 3), is a campaign that encourages Hershey, and other chocolate companies, to address illegal child labor by improving their labor practices in their cocoa plantations and supply chains.
Many participated in the campaign advocated by Raise the Bar, Hershey!, and the persistence of the consumers pushed Hershey Co. to act. As a result of the influence done by the petitions, International Labor Rights Forum (2012) reported in their article that The Raise the Bar, Hershey! Campaign has committed their success when Hershey Co. (HSY) announced that “they will be certifying 100 percent of its cocoa by 2020” (para. 1).
There are other petitions and campaigns that promote the same advocacy as the Raise the Bar, Hershey!. One is the European campaign Make Chocolate Fair!, where they aim to commit towards the fairness of the working conditions in the cocoa industry (Make Chocolate Fair, n.d.). Another is through the website Change.org, a home to many online petitions and campaigns.
Political mobilization
One of the suggestions given by Reigart & Etzel (1995) for the government against child labor is by improving the work permit system. “Centralized data systems need to be established to track the number of permits issued, the ages and grades of the children who receive them, and the industries and specific occupations in which these children work” (Reigart & Etzel, 1995, p. 312). These work permits would duly ensure the security of the cocoa plantation’s physical conditions, and guarantee if the workplace is following the moral standards of work.
According to Munene & Ruto (2010), the government should step forward and focus on education. They stated that reforms and policies in education should be provided such as additional elementary schools, and ensuring high quality of education. Policies should also “include flexible day schedules (such as half-day schooling), a tolerant teaching ethos, and school feeding programmes, as well as dispensing with school uniform requirements” (Munene & Ruto, 2010, p.145).
Essentially, the enforcement of these policies would depend on the willpower of the government. The government must have a strong sense of political will against the issue of child labor in order to legislate new policies and ensure its implementation.
Promotion of fair trade chocolate as an alternative
According to Rodney North of Equal Exchange, as cited by Crawford (2005), "the basic idea of fair trade is for companies to buy only from farming co-ops so that small farmers, banding together, can command a higher price for their product. Unless they organize, they have no bargaining power and must accept whatever offer they get" (p.53).
Since the goal of Fairtrade is to promote the sustainability of cocoa plantations and increase the revenue earned by farmers, child labor would be alleviated because farmers are finally generating an adequate amount of money. The exploitation of children would not be necessary to sustain and meet the demands of huge cocoa suppliers any longer.
As a matter of fact, since 2009, Cadbury Dairy Milk was the first mainstream chocolate brand to become Fairtrade (“Cadbury,” n.d.). “Since becoming Fairtrade Cadbury Dairy Milk has tripled sales for cocoa farmers, bringing in over £6 million in premiums, whilst opening up new opportunities for thousands more to benefit from the Fairtrade system. Thanks to Cadbury Dairy Milk and Fairtrade, 21 schools, 2 healthcare clinics and 23,000 people in communities across Ghana now benefit from solar panels and lanterns” (“Cadbury,” n.d., para. 2). This is an example of how choosing fair trade chocolate as an alternative could receive more benefits more than they could.
Conclusion
Child labor brings forth many disadvantages, and is detrimental to the world’s further development. First, it affects the child’s health and education. Second, it affects the society’s poverty and unemployment, and political mobilization. Third, it affects the chocolate company’s income and reputation, and corporate social responsibility. However, this can all be remedied through petitions, political mobilization, and promotion of fair trade chocolate as an alternative.
In conclusion to this, in the words of Mahatma Gandhi (n.d.), “The world has enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed.” The action against child labor starts now.
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