With Halloween quickly approaching, most of us are running around trying to find costumes, decide what parties to attend, and most of all make sure we are stocked up on candy for the wee ones that will barrage our doors in their tiny costumes. No one wants to be left with there pumpkin bowl empty and unable to greet the little ghost, princesses, supper heroes, and characters are greeted with a sweet treat. But what if your handing them a sweet treat that was made at the price of another child?
Last year American’s spent nearly 2 billion U.S. dollars on Halloween candies and treats, and when compared to the some Fair Trade Trick or Treating, and while it is almost frightening to think of how much we spent for sweet treats, the real fright is that much of it is produced by children and slave labor. The Cocoa industry often traffics children to work as slaves, according to UNICEF (The United Nation’s Children’s Fund), 200,000 children in West Africa alone, are living in conditions of forced labor and slavery on cocoa farms.
In the United States the chocolate industry is worth some $13 billion and is led by Hershey’s and M&M Mars, who combined hold two-thirds of the consumer market. Sadly both Hershey’s and M&M Mars use large amounts of cocoa harvested in the Ivory Coast, and thus whose products are tainted by slavery. Other such companies who are tainted by slavery include; ADM Cocoa, Ben & Jerry’s, Cadbury Ltd., Chocolates by Bernard Callebaut, Fowler’s Chocolate, Godiva, Guittard Chocolate Company, Kraft, Nestle, See’s Candies, The Chocolate Vault, and Toblerone. However there are many chocolate companies who have gone to the lengths needed to ensure that they do not use cocoa that has produced with slave labor. However recently Cadbury and Mars have recently made a commitment to ending child slavery in Africa by buying Fair Trade. However, Hershey still has not agreed to any third-party certification programs for their cocoa supply, despite significant public outcry’s. Companies who are certified include; Clif Bar, Cloud Nine, Dagoba Organic Chocolate, Denman Island Chocolate, Gardners Candies, Green and Black’s, Kailua Candy Company, Koppers Chocolate, L.A. Burdick Chocolates, Montezuma’s Chocolates, Newman’s Own Organics, Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company, Rapunzel Pure Organics, and The Endangered Species Chocolate Company.
So this year when your doorbell rings on Halloween and you reach for that candy bowl to hand out treats to the fairies, pirates, and superheroes outside, you can send your trick-or-treaters away with more than just sweets in their bags and your night wont be haunted by purchasing products tainted by slavery. When you hand out Fair Trade Certified™ chocolate, your Halloween treat will be left without the trick, as it represents a guaranteed fair income for workers who spend their days in the cocoa fields.
Fair Trade Trick or Treating will allow you to not only do the ‘right thing’, but also give you an opportunity to educate others, especially children, about human rights issues, such as child labor and modern slavery. So why not talk to the other parents and teachers at school and convince your whole block to go Fair Trade this year! By supporting companies who do not profit from labor servitude you not only ensure that you are purchasing free and fair goods, but are one step closer to helping to end modern slavery.
So pass out those Fair Trade treats to all the little witches and goblins this year and bring light to a worthy and just cause this Halloween, while still enjoying all the fun and yummy goodness, minus the gory mess!
By promoting and purchasing Fair Trade this Halloween you will be helping to:
- END poverty among cocoa farmers,
- END abusive child labor in the cocoa industry,
- PROMOTE Fair Trade, and
- PROTECT the environment.
Here are a few options to obtain Fair Trade chocolates in mini sizes this Halloween, if you cannot find them in your local stores:
