For Social Justice Conscious Chocolate Lovers...
Just read about this in an Alternet article. You might want to check it out if you are thinking about buying chocolate this week (or in the future).
The human rights group Global Exchange is launching a "Fair Trade Cocoa" campaign this Valentine's Day to get the slave labor out of your chocolate. See http://www.globalexchange.org/cocoa for more information.
Also, Steven Millman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sent letters to over 200 chocolate companies, asking if they used cocoa which might be tainted with child slave labor. He posted their responses, and his list of best chocolate companies at RadicalThought.org.
Here's a short (incomplete) list of companies known to sell slavery-free chocolate and cocoa products:
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
La Siembre
Montezuma's Chocolates
Newman's Own Organics
Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company
Rapunzel Pure Organics
The Endangered Species Chocolate Company
Note: No organic beans are produced in Ivory Coast, but an organic label is no guarantee that the product is slave-free. Newman's Own, however, is both. Newman's Own contracts with Costa Rica producers who are closely monitored to comply with labor laws and organic standards.
(Source: Food Revolution, by John Robbins)
The human rights group Global Exchange is launching a "Fair Trade Cocoa" campaign this Valentine's Day to get the slave labor out of your chocolate. See http://www.globalexchange.org/cocoa for more information.
Also, Steven Millman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sent letters to over 200 chocolate companies, asking if they used cocoa which might be tainted with child slave labor. He posted their responses, and his list of best chocolate companies at RadicalThought.org.
Here's a short (incomplete) list of companies known to sell slavery-free chocolate and cocoa products:
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
La Siembre
Montezuma's Chocolates
Newman's Own Organics
Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company
Rapunzel Pure Organics
The Endangered Species Chocolate Company
Note: No organic beans are produced in Ivory Coast, but an organic label is no guarantee that the product is slave-free. Newman's Own, however, is both. Newman's Own contracts with Costa Rica producers who are closely monitored to comply with labor laws and organic standards.
(Source: Food Revolution, by John Robbins)