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unspeakablehorrorSo, there's a lot of problems with chocolate.
I don't bring up this kind of information because I think everyone is in a position to do anything about it or because I think the solution is to just boycott everything exploitive or with high environmental impact (I actually don't think that's possible). Nor do I think I should be the judge of what is or isn't necessary to another person, not the least because chocolate may be an important form of self-medication for some, and so not ultimately as optional to them as some would like to think.
But I think it's important to have more of an awareness of the profound injustices that pervade our supply chains. Chocolate is not unique in its exploitative labor practices or climate impact. Which is why a consumerist attitude of personal consumption cannot fix this problem. Even if people were to collectively manage to stop consuming chocolate entirely, that's not addressing the root issue, and they could very well just end up switching their consumption to something just as harmful or worse.
At the same time, while a lot of things are harmful, not everything is equally harmful, and learning about supply chains can not only help us make more ethical personal choices, but also know what political changes we need to strive for as a society. And it's not the chocolate trees themselves that are the problem, but rather the farming and labor practices that are used to produce chocolate, and the unequal power dynamics between the countries that largely produce the chocolate, and the ones that largely consume it.
Edit: Thanks to ArgentDandelion for pointing out that the links weren't titled or clickable. I have now fixed this.
Let's start with environmental impact. According to the table in:
Our World in Data: Environmental Impacts of Food Production
Chocolate produces 46.65 kgCO2Eq per kg produced. To put this in a bit more context, the same table lists beef as producing 99.48 kgCO2Eq per kg and rice as producing 4.45 kgCO2Eq per kg produced. So that is...very high.
But the harms of chocolate don't end with the environmental devastation it causes.
Food Empowerment Project: Child Labor and Slavery in the Chocolate Industry
Of course, many argue that the solution is to simply check the label for a certification, but the truth is, the labels are lying to us:
Are the Labels on Chocolate Meaningful?
Our World in Data: Environmental Impacts of Food Production
Chocolate produces 46.65 kgCO2Eq per kg produced. To put this in a bit more context, the same table lists beef as producing 99.48 kgCO2Eq per kg and rice as producing 4.45 kgCO2Eq per kg produced. So that is...very high.
But the harms of chocolate don't end with the environmental devastation it causes.
Food Empowerment Project: Child Labor and Slavery in the Chocolate Industry
Drissa, a freed enslaved worker who had never even tasted chocolate, experienced similar circumstances. When asked what he would tell people who eat chocolate made from slave labor, he replied that they enjoyed something that he suffered to make, adding, “When people eat chocolate, they are eating my flesh.”[41]
Of course, many argue that the solution is to simply check the label for a certification, but the truth is, the labels are lying to us:
Are the Labels on Chocolate Meaningful?
The truth is that as consumers today, we have no sure way of knowing if the chocolate we buy involved the use of slavery or child labor. Between a quarter and a third of all cocoa is grown under a certification label, such as various fair trade certifications and the Rainforest Alliance/UTZ Certification; however, no single label can guarantee that the chocolate was made without the use of exploitive labor.[54, 55] The third-party inspectors for these certifications are usually only required to visit fewer than 10% of cocoa farms.[8] Moreover, audits are usually announced in advance, which enables farmers to hide evidence of rule violations.[56] These inspections have made child labor more hidden while remaining just as prevalent.[22]
Some certifiers even claim that their standards for labor practices do not come with a guarantee that they are being met. One certifier said, “There is no guarantee. We don’t use the word guarantee.”[40]
In 2010, the founders of the “Fair Trade” certification process had to suspend several of their Western African suppliers due to evidence that they were using child labor.[57] Additionally, in 2011, a Danish journalist investigated farms in Western Africa where major chocolate companies buy cocoa. He filmed illegal child labor on these farms, including those certified by the now merged certification bodies, UTZ and Rainforest Alliance.[3] Another advocate found trafficked children laboring on Fair Trade certified cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast as recently as May 2017.[49]
I don't bring up this kind of information because I think everyone is in a position to do anything about it or because I think the solution is to just boycott everything exploitive or with high environmental impact (I actually don't think that's possible). Nor do I think I should be the judge of what is or isn't necessary to another person, not the least because chocolate may be an important form of self-medication for some, and so not ultimately as optional to them as some would like to think.
But I think it's important to have more of an awareness of the profound injustices that pervade our supply chains. Chocolate is not unique in its exploitative labor practices or climate impact. Which is why a consumerist attitude of personal consumption cannot fix this problem. Even if people were to collectively manage to stop consuming chocolate entirely, that's not addressing the root issue, and they could very well just end up switching their consumption to something just as harmful or worse.
At the same time, while a lot of things are harmful, not everything is equally harmful, and learning about supply chains can not only help us make more ethical personal choices, but also know what political changes we need to strive for as a society. And it's not the chocolate trees themselves that are the problem, but rather the farming and labor practices that are used to produce chocolate, and the unequal power dynamics between the countries that largely produce the chocolate, and the ones that largely consume it.
Edit: Thanks to ArgentDandelion for pointing out that the links weren't titled or clickable. I have now fixed this.