The dark side of chocolate

Reverse trick-or-treating brings awareness

By FRITZ MAYER

NATION — Americans spend about $13 billion a year on chocolate. The downside of that is that a large part of the chocolate comes from plantations that use child slave labor.

The international police organization, Interpol, of which the United States is a member, estimates that there are hundreds of thousands of children slaves working in the chocolate industry in the West African countries of Ivory Coast and Ghana, where 75 percent of the world’s cocoa originates.

This past June, Interpol launched an operation that resulted in the rescue of 54 children of seven different nationalities from cocoa operations. The children had been bought by plantation owners needing cheap labor. Aged between 11 and 16, the children told investigators they worked 12 hours a day and received no salary. Girls were typically purchased to do housework seven days a week, often in addition to their duties on the plantations.

Some of the companies that buy large amounts of chocolate from the cocoa producers, such as Mars, Hershey and Nestles, have made some attempts to reduce the slavery in recent years, but critics say the efforts are woefully inadequate.

The Equal Exchange cooperative, which promotes the sale of goods from around the world for which workers have been paid a fair wage, is bringing attention to the plight of the enslaved chocolate workers on Halloween, when some children will go reverse trick-or-treating.

In this area, a reverse trick or treating effort is being sponsored by the Rev. Mark Terwilliger at Beach Lake United Methodist Church in Beach Lake, PA.

Here’s how it works. The reverse trick-or- treater picks up some small Fair Trade chocolate bars from the church, attaches them to a card that explains how Fair Trade is trying to reform the chocolate industry. Then, as the trick or treater is going from door to door collecting candy, he or she can return the favor with a gift of Fair Trade chocolate and the flier.

Or, on the other hand, adults can obtain the candy bars and fliers, and hand them out as Halloween treats instead of other chocolates that might be tainted with child slavery.

The human rights advocacy group Global Exchange reported that more than 250,000 chocolates and cards have been distributed to trick-or-treaters this year, the third year of the program.

The Fair Trade chocolate bars can be purchased at the church for 20 cents apiece Monday through Thursday during the hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and on Sunday.