2.2 The solution
Fortunately, the solution is much simpler than the causes, and anybody anywhere can partake in working against child slavery. Everybody is needed, and it is never too soon to start changing the world.
The key to solving some of this problem is in a chain reaction:
If consumers change their spending habits to reflect a hatred of the child slave trade, then chocolate companies will start producing more and more non-slave chocolate. As companies stop buying Côte d’ Ivoire cocoa, the farmers will stop trafficking young people.
That is what Fairtrade chocolate can help you do. By buying certified Fairtrade products, consumers can know that none of the chocolate they eat is coming from farms that benefit from child slavery. The more that consumers demand a change in their chocolate’ s supply chain, the more larger companies will start to pay attention and see an incentive for change. In addition, many Fairtrade brands put their profits back into the cocoa farms and communities. Instead of supporting child slavery, this chocolate supports education and sustainable farming in nations where children are at a great risk of trafficking.
‘ Transporting slaves in Africa’, from‘ Textbook of World History or the History of Humanity’ by William Rednbacher, 1890.( Originally German,‘ Sklaventransport in Afrika’ from‘ Lehrbuch der Weltgeschichte oder Die Geschichte der Menschheit’.)
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