Cocoa has a problem of poverty. You can help by eating more dark chocolate

Business

These challenges were exacerbated by a devastating drop in prices of basic cocoa between September 2016 and February 2017, when farmers saw their income drop by 37% from one season to the next. It was caused by a confluence of forces that included predictions by badysts that China and India would develop a fierce appetite for chocolate (the markets rose, but not as much as expected) , a relatively stable demand in established and favorable markets. time that resulted in abundant harvests. In short, the demand has not satisfied the surplus. Due to oversupply, the market price of a ton of cocoa has risen from over $ 3,000 to a low of $ 1,900 in 10 years, over just a few months. (The actual farm price paid to farmers is lower than the price of the commodity and, of course, also dropped.) The market recovered but the historical decline revealed the vulnerability of the chocolate founders. price fluctuations – and helps to explain why the social and environmental challenges that should have been mitigated persist.

"The challenges we face in cocoa are not very technical," says Antonie Fountain, founder of the network VOICE Network an badociation of non-governmental organizations and unions working on the sustainable development of cocoa. "If you put a group of scientists in a room, you could find solutions, of course, it will take time, but it's not that we do not know how to do it, technically speaking."

referring to is the reduction of poverty. Poverty breeds a host of other problems, including child labor and widespread deforestation. "I was talking to child labor experts," says Fountain. "They said to me," Look, help us solve this problem of poverty; otherwise, we will never be able to solve the problem of child labor. That's why, despite global awareness and industry commitments, child labor is still very prevalent.

In 2001, companies like Mars, Ferrero, Hershey Company, Kraft Foods and Nestle expressed their collective commitment to fighting child labor in cocoa growing communities in West Africa by supporting the Protocol. Harkin-Engel [19659003] an international agreement to reduce the worst forms of child labor in the cocoa sector in Côte d 'Ivoire and Ghana by 70% by 2020.

Although there has been a slight relative decline in child labor, study conducted by Tulane University, the number of children involved in child labor in the United States. Cocoa industry grew between 2008 and 2009 and again between 2013 and 2014 due to the expansion of production. The most disturbing was a 46% increase in children doing hazardous work such as clearing, carrying heavy loads and working long hours or nights. In 2013 and 2014, more than 2 million children were engaged in this type of work in both countries combined

In April this year, the VOICE Network, with a worldwide consortium of organizations from the civil society, published 2018 a biennial evaluation of the state of the industry $ 100 billion. With regard to child labor, the report states that "not a single enterprise or government has achieved the sectoral goal of eliminating child labor [sic] and not even their commitment to reduce child labor by 70 per cent [sic] Although the monitoring and sanitation systems of child labor that the International Cocoa Initiative implemented with the partners of the World Food Program. are useful, they currently affect less than 20% of the more than 2 million children affected.] 19659076] The graphs above reflect the extent to which child labor and poverty problems have been reduced [19659006] "Consumers are deeply concerned about child labor," says Fountain. "But unless you do something about structural poverty, child labor will always be an endemic part of cocoa. The same goes for deforestation. I often say – and the most ardent ecologists jump and applaud when I say it – The biggest environmental problem of cocoa is poverty. Because if you have to choose between feeding your family or not cutting down a tree, it's not a problem.

Over the past year, the Washington DC-based non-profit organization Mighty Earth has uncovered evidence of large-scale deforestation in coastal cocoa growing regions. Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia, Ecuador, Cameroon and Peru. The environmental organization states in its report on the West Africa, Chocolate & # 39; s Dark Secret that an important part of the national parks and protected areas of Ivory Coast has been cleared and replaced by cocoa plantations. Satellite mapping and other data collected between 1990 and 2015 show that Ivory Coast lost 85% of its forests and that Ghana is following a similar trajectory. "Without action," says the report, "Ghana is likely to lose all remaining forests outside its national parks over the next decade." Chimpanzees, elephants, and other wild populations have been decimated by the conversion of the two countries' forests into cocoa, in Ivory Coast, there remain only 200 to 400 elephants of an original population of hundreds of thousands. "

as part of Cocoa and Forests Initiative . On July 4, Ghana launched its national implementation process, and Ivory Coast is committed to starting reforestation but recovery of what has been lost will take time. Mighty Earth's Field Director, Etelle Higonnet points out that replanting must be extended: "Forty percent in shadow, about 70 trees per hectare. A little ecological painting at 10 or 20 trees per hectare. This will save neither Ghana nor Cote d'Ivoire an environmental cataclysm in 20 years. Higonnet says these problems are not limited to a handful of countries and are not farmers' fault, but are emblematic of a system backed by inequity and corruption.

Poverty does not exist in the void The challenges of chocolate date back to its beginnings More specifically, the transatlantic trade which transported between 10 and 12 million African slaves in the United States. Atlantic Ocean to the Americas between the 16th and 19th century allowed the expansion of cocoa and sugar plantations.Describing the economic conditions of the time, Joseph Roach professor at the University from Tulane, writes: "The most revolutionary commodity … was human flesh." According to him, slave labor does not only produce large amounts of addictive substances. "but" transformed the world economy and financed the industrial Revolution.

<img clbad = "aligncenter" src = "https://abagond.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/african-slave-trade-11.jpg" alt = "World Chocolate Day requires reflection on how chocolate was heading west: forced labor [19659101] Today, the chocolate economy is plagued by more modern inequality issues, but no less troubling. "While many current cocoa programs focus on technical solutions to improve farming practices," write the authors of the Cocoa Barometer, "the underlying problems at the root are related to power and the economy. the market defines the prices, the lack of bargaining power of the farmers, the concentration of the multinationals market, and the lack of transparency and accountability of governments and companies. "And they have real consequences for the market. the future of the industry., it will take decades – if ever – before human rights are respected and environmental protection will be the basis of sustainability in the cocoa sector . "

poverty they do not receive a reasonable price for their cocoa at the farm level and receive the support they need to live sustainably. This begins with changes in the way farmers are compensated (they currently receive between 3 and 6 percent of the retail price of the chocolate bar). Here is what math looks like: The average price of a chocolate bar in 2017 was about $ 3.49. Even at the upper end of the compensation scale – 6% – a farmer would receive just over $ 0.20 for the ongoing, laborious work of growing and harvesting the cocoa beans that form the basis of this bar. but an example of the global inequality that we see, especially in agriculture, "explains Shawn Askinosie founder of the award-winning chocolate factory in Springfield, Missouri, Askinosie Chocolate. He insists that the price of cocoa beans should increase and that costs and prices should be more transparent. "A big company could do that, a small business could do it, nonprofit organizations can do it.This is not complicated, but it can be painful."

Although companies have expressed their Concern over antitrust laws and perceptions of collusion, there are ways to create funds or support mechanisms that can improve farmers' livelihoods. The difficulty, says Fountain, is not so much logistics as what he calls "socio-political elements." He asks, "Do we have the will to change? Do we have the will and ability to devote some of our power, some of our possessions, some of our wealth distribution to solve this problem? The graph above shows that despite the rise in chocolate sales over time, compensation for farmers has essentially stagnated . It is also important for Frimpong Kwaku the Ghanaian coordinator of the Farmgate Cocoa Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to the professionalization of cocoa for small farmers. He declared at the World Cocoa Conference convened by the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) at the end of April, that farmers "should be considered as partners equal, not only as the group most in need of help, but as decision-makers, as important as anyone who makes chocolate possible. " (See additional comments in Declaration of Berlin .)

And here is where Lawrence Pipitone, former director of the economy at the ICCO, explains that chocolate lovers come here. We can better support cocoa farmers in our purchases, he says, by eating more dark chocolate.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires that a bar contain at least 10 percent mbad of cocoa to be called chocolate, but the percentages can go much higher. "The darker the chocolate is," says Pipitone, "the higher the cocoa content – and this has a beneficial effect on the supply and demand factors." In other words, if consumers demand more cocoa, more crop could be sold and more money could potentially go back to a farmer or an agricultural cooperative.

The Specialty Market Handcrafted Chocolate is another great way to show our support. The market is small and loosely defined since there are no clear parameters around which constitutes craftsmanship . But these small American manufacturers have helped transform the way consumers understand chocolate both from the point of view of flavor and price. Their efforts to source directly from farmers, agricultural cooperatives and small bean traders – and pay a high price for better quality cocoa – could be another way to increase value for farmers .

And our work does not stop there. "When we're outside the store, we're all citizens," says Fountain. And as citizens, we should look for information, says Askinosie. "We must become [better] educated about the things we buy.The more people have education, the more influence they will have on their purchasing decisions."

Eaters can even go further and engage with chocolate companies and local governments. "Write to your representative," says Fountain. "Ask," Why do not you do anything about the endemic work of children in our products? "We need to have laws that not only ensure businesses that want to make a change, but also companies that do not want to make a change must comply." Or write to companies and ask them, "What are you doing to solve the problem of structural poverty, why do not you pay enough for your farmers, and why do you not ask for more legislation so that everyone is measured according to the same standard? "

He acknowledges that these efforts may seem modest, but he says, "If we gather enough people, changes occur.The reason I know it is that, historically speaking, it's exactly what's changing things."