Chocolate not produced by slaves is indeed awesome, but unfortunately the benefit of eating it does not always reach Côte d’ Ivoire, and although the slave trade can be stopped by not buying chocolate produced by slaves, this will still not immediately directly help the child slaves in the Côte d’ Ivoire, only put slaveholders out of work. What we really need is for big companies like Nestlé, Kraft Foods, Mars, Hershey’ s, General Mills, and Unilever to start helping children in West Africa who are enslaved. How can we make this happen? We need to not only boycott chocolate produced by slaves, but also inform more people and companies about this human rights cause. Together we will fight.
2.3 Who bears the blame?
• Companies who use Côte d’ Ivoire’ s cocoa. Cocoaʹs first consumers are chocolate companies, who have the power and ability to clean up the industry.
• Consumers who knowingly buy slave-grown chocolate. By refusing to buy products grown by slaves, consumers can change the world.
• Farmers who have the child slaves. The slave driving farmers have started this mess.
• Authorities who can stop this. The government of the USA has failed to enforce laws preventing the import of chocolate produced by slaves. The government of Côte d’ Ivoire has failed in its duties to prevent child slavery, although the Ivorian government is aware that these illegal activities are going on.. All governments should take an activist stand against child slavery.
If large chocolate-makers had the same amount of motivation to make chocolate as they have in fighting child slavery, the industry would have crumbled long ago.“ Hershey continues to drag its feet in dealing with child labor”, reported ILRF( International Labor Rights Forum). " Like Mars and Nestlé, Hershey has not effectively produced transparency or accountability... ʺ Nestlé has been a main target of reformers because ʺunlike other chocolate manufacturers, Nestlé directly sources
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