April 2009

March has been another great month for 1865 Continued. In addition to maintaining our awareness campaign, we have started the 1865 Continued Library, from which people can check out and read books about Modern Day Slavery. We have already loaned out several books. If you are interested in checking out a book yourself, email Kelsey@1865continued.org. Available titles are on our website at http://www.1865continued.org/books.html.

One important issue in Modern Slavery is the use of children and slaves in the production of chocolate. Stop the Traffik, a British anti-slavery organization, recently summarized some of the atrocities of the chocolate industry:

“35% of the world’s cocoa comes from the Ivory Coast, a nation in West Africa. Research supported by the ILO (International Labor Organization) suggests that in the Ivory Coast alone there are at least 200,000 children working in slave conditions on cocoa farms. Thousands of these children have been trafficked into the Ivory Coast, originally from neighboring countries such as Mali, Togo and Burkina Faso.

“Children working on these farms are forced to do dangerous tasks. They spray pesticide onto cocoa plants without protective clothing. They carry sacks that are excessively heavy and use machetes without supervision or guidance.

“Children are severely undernourished and overworked. They are separated from their families by force. They are denied education.”

These conditions are surely appalling. In Kevin Bales’ book Disposable People he talks about a documentary he did on child slaves in the Ivory Coast. In the course of this project, he interviewed a former child slave named Amadou about his life on the farm and explained to him that chocolate is a sweet food that people eat. He has never tasted it and did not know the plant’s use. “When he was then asked if he had anything to say to the millions of people who eat chocolate every day, Amadou replied, ‘They enjoy something I suffered to make; I worked hard for them, but saw no benefit. They are eating my flesh’” (Bales, 180).

The chocolate industry is unique compared to other major industries in a variety of ways. Most importantly, the supply chain is relatively straightforward and simple. Cars use thousands of materials, many of them including countless raw materials from varying places, but chocolate is produced primarily from cocoa beans grown in a handful of African countries. This allows the companies to easily clean up their product chain and to boycott producers that use forced child and slave labor.

This past month, Cadbury, a major chocolate producer in England, pledged to make their number-one selling chocolate bar, Dairy Milk, Fair Trade by the end of this summer. The Fair Trade certification will ensure that no slave labor is being used in the product chain, allowing consumers to be confident in the purchase of this product. This is a giant step for the chocolate industry, and we must not only reward Cadbury for making this step but urge other large chocolate companies to follow in their footsteps as well.

Stop the Traffik has recently started applying consumer pressure to Mars, a large chocolate company that makes Snickers, Dove, Twix, Mars, and M&M’s. They are urging consumers to boycott Mars products until they pledge to make their chocolate slave-free as well. In addition, they are urging consumers to call, write, or email Mars stating their concern about the supply chain for their chocolate. For more information about Mars and how you can apply consumer pressure to help these helpless child slaves, go to Stop the Traffik’s website at www.marchonmars.org.

Thank you so much for your concern and support. Never forget that the collective actions of our generation will shape the world for those that follow.

Kelsey Snapp
1865 Continued: The Fight against Modern Slavery
www.1865continued.org