The children awake at sunrise, aching to see their families again, although they know they’ll likely never escape. They walk briskly to their machetes—those who amble are beaten—and begin chopping down cocoa pods. One boy slices his leg with the blade and screams in pain. They’re forced to work until night falls, when they are then hustled into a tiny, claustrophobic room and locked up for the night.
Danish journalist Miki Mistrati exposed this horror in his 2010 documentary, “The Dark Side of Chocolate.” Still, most chocolate consumers aren’t aware of this secret ingredient in their chocolate: forced child labor.
Right now, an estimated 1.8 million children in the Ivory Coast and Ghana are coerced into rigorous labor on cocoa farms in order to produce chocolate delicacies for the rest of the world. These children, mostly boys ranging in age from eleven to sixteen, not only work long and difficult hours, but also handle dangerous machetes that easily slice their skin. Their captors beat them and force them to handle pernicious chemicals. Their blood and sweat taints the cocoa they help produce, yet companies such as Hershey, Nestle, and Mars continue to acquire their chocolate from these farms.
The Ivory Coast’s economy thrives on its cocoa industry and, in need of cheap labor, many cocoa farmers traffic children over the border from poor neighboring countries, such as Mali or Burkina Faso. These traffickers may persuade the children to come work for them, promising decent money, or kidnap the children from their homes.
“These children often initiate the work in order to earn some money to support their families,” states President of Ridge’s Crossing Guards club, Young Park ’15, “yet they become stuck in what is now called modern day slavery. They could be threatened or abused to continue and it is extremely difficult for these children to get out and live lives that children should be living.”
Recent attempts to abolish child labor and trafficking in the cocoa industry have taken off over the past few years. Journalists like Miki Mistrati have gone to dangerous measures to expose the injustice in the region. Additionally, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently approved a lawsuit involving chocolate companies Nestle and Cargill, who were apparently aware of the slavery, but insisted on “finding the cheapest sources of cocoa.”
Those trying to eradicate child labor do not have to abstain from all chocolate, however. Brands such as Trader Joe’s Organic Chocolate, Green and Black’s, Newman’s Own Organics, Clif Bar, and Denman Island Chocolate do not use child labor to produce their chocolate. Furthermore, those aiming to make a change should spread awareness about the injustice, as well as lobby local politicians to ban companies that acquire cocoa from child laborers. Park also suggests getting involved in a local club or organization such as Crossing Guards: “Our goal as a high school club is to raise awareness of the cause which is relatively unknown and raise a little money to help these large organizations save lives.”
Especially with Halloween approaching, it’s crucial to keep chocolate’s secret ingredient in mind.