of slaves and chocolate...

[Guest guest]

Help End Child Slave Labor Nearly half of all cocoa beans -- chocolate’s

essential ingredient -- comes from the Ivory Coast. On 600,000 small farms,

young boys pick cocoa beans from dusk to dawn. Recently, a number of factors,

including razor-thin profit margins, have combined to tempt unscrupulous

cocoa bean growers into renewing an age-old cost-cutting method: child slave

labor. The use of forced child labor isn’t limited to the cocoa industry; the

cotton and bidi-tobacco industries also use child slaves to harvest and

process their crops. The House recently approved a bill that could help end

this tragedy by funding the Food and Drug Administration to establish a

labeling system to certify that cocoa beans, chocolates and other derivative

products are not tainted with child slave labor. Alarmingly, Bob Dole and

other Washington lobbyists for the cocoa, cotton and bidi-tobacco industries

seem intent on blocking any Senate legislation. Don’t let this happen. Urge

the cocoa bean and chocolate industry to immediately commit to work with

child labor experts among trade unions, nonprofits, and governments to adopt

a comprehensive action plan to end child slavery. <A

HREF= " http://act.actforchange.com/cgi-bin7/flo?y=hByR0BAnRI0uv0P560AY " >Click

here to take action

now!</A>

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Fraggle

 

I don't eat chocolate at the moment - I was told to avoid caffeine. If and when I start again to occasionally eat chocolate I shall buy the fairtrade, which is delicious anyway.

 

Thanks for the link.

 

Jo

 

-

EBbrewpunx

bevanmetro ; dominatrixsleeps ; ESI-List ; froggywogg ; vegan-network ;

Friday, August 03, 2001 12:34 AM

of slaves and chocolate...

Help End Child Slave Labor Nearly half of all cocoa beans -- chocolate’s essential ingredient -- comes from the Ivory Coast. On 600,000 small farms, young boys pick cocoa beans from dusk to dawn. Recently, a number of factors, including razor-thin profit margins, have combined to tempt unscrupulous cocoa bean growers into renewing an age-old cost-cutting method: child slave labor. The use of forced child labor isn’t limited to the cocoa industry; the cotton and bidi-tobacco industries also use child slaves to harvest and process their crops. The House recently approved a bill that could help end this tragedy by funding the Food and Drug Administration to establish a labeling system to certify that cocoa beans, chocolates and other derivative products are not tainted with child slave labor. Alarmingly, Bob Dole and other Washington lobbyists for the cocoa, cotton and bidi-tobacco industries seem intent on blocking any Senate legislation. Don’t let this happen. Urge the cocoa bean and chocolate industry to immediately commit to work with child labor experts among trade unions, nonprofits, and governments to adopt a comprehensive action plan to end child slavery. Click here to take action now! To send an email to -

[Guest guest]

Hi Fraggle

 

Help End Child Slave Labor Nearly half of all cocoa beans -- chocolate’s essential ingredient -- comes from the Ivory Coast.

 

Do you (or anyone) know companies who don't use chocolate from these sources - my particular favourite is Plamil (not much of a surprise there!) - I assume from their generally ethical standpoint on most issues they are OK?

 

BB

Peter

[Guest guest]

Lesley

 

Peter is away this weekend, but I know he will be pleased to read this when

he returns. Thank you.

 

Jo

 

Here is the reply we got from Plamil. Sounds OK.

 

 

The cocoa mass & Butter we use comes from Holland, and that trading

company

runs a equivelent scheme to the UK 'Fair traded' principles. We do not

currently claim this on the packaging, but it is something that we

could

consider.