Raising an activist

So I know we all have our causes. Yours may be breast cancer, your local public school, or something more political. We tend to have countries of the world we're particular too as well. Sometimes for compelling reasons, while sometimes it's just because you like the sound of a place. With that in mind, you'll forgive me for approaching a soap box momentarily.

I've hesitated to share all that I'm learning about human trafficking and the modern day slave trade. Let's be honest, when we have our own cause, there's often little space in our lives left for someone else's. And I have my own history of being dramatic. I learned early on that putting tombstones on a college campus isn't an effective conversation starter for the pro-life agenda! Besides, who likes a picketer?

But laying my fears aside, I have to take the opportunity of Easter to share some new (to me) information about chocolate.

According to Stop the Traffik, 50% of the world's chocolate is made from cocoa beans grown in Cote d'Ivoire, in West Africa. An estimated 12,000 children have been trafficked (bought and sold against their will) into these farms and the U.S. Dept. of State estimates that 109,000 children in Cote d'Ivoire's cocoa industry work under "the worst forms of child labor."

Often times large companies like Nestle, Mars, and Hersheys buy from middlemen and don't know, nor ask, if their cocoa is coming from farms using child labor. In 2000, the U.S. imported 729,000 tons of cocoa products, ate 3.3 billion pounds of chocolate and spent $13 billion on it. And currently, there is no label required by these large companies insuring consumers that our chocolate is slave free.

So today I took my kids on a hunt. We went looking for Fair Trade Easter eggs. Anything that would indicate that the chocolate product had accountability for their source. I had prepped Aidan this morning and he came home exclaiming, "I'm so glad I'm a Christian! I get to go to stores and say I'm not buying your chocolate if you use kids! And I'm going to tell others!" Hilarious! Anyways, once in front of hundreds of chocolate bunnies, eggs, and such he lost the plot. At one point he turned around and said, "I can't look! I've got the gimmies."

We only went to two places today. The first was a Hallmark store which had a huge display of gourmet chocolates. I asked if any were Fair Trade and she politely said no and started trying to think of where to send me. I smiled and said that my children and I were on a hunt for Fair Trade Easter candy and the letter (that I handed her) explained what could be going on if it's not Fair Trade.

She gave me one of those "You're one of them" smiles. WOW! I've GIVEN that smile before! I recognized it! It felt so weird to receive it! It's been SOOO long since I've done anything to warrant it!

Our second stop, QFC (Kroger), at least had a few Fair Trade bars in the organic section, which we bought to celebrate. But of all the Easter candy, not one bag was labeled Fair Trade.

My concern is that without a label, we have no way of knowing that that chocolate wasn't produced by forced child labor. And this boy's story says enough:

"On the very first day, he [farmer] took our luggage and locked it away. He ordered us to move heavy sacks of cocoa. They were so heavy I could barely lift it. [One boy] could not lift his sacks. The owner took a branch off a tree and started whipping him. He beat him until all his body was covered in cuts and blood. At that moment, I know he would beat us too...We have never tasted chocolate...our bosses [farmers] never tasted chocolate...we work hard to pick the beans in the hot suns for 12 hours..not breaks... if we sit...we are dead." Save the Children Report 2005

Isaiah 58:6
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

For more information:
A 45 second Stop the Traffik film
Easter chocolate campaign ideas