Sustainable craft chocolate distribution, talks, and tastings by chocolate expert Valerie Beck.
Uplift Through Chocolate!
Ethical Chocolate
Over sixty percent of the world's chocolate comes from cocoa beans grown in West Africa, mainly from the Ivory Coast, where child labor and child slave labor are part of the supply chain. Such cocoa is also one of the crops most sprayed with pesticides, and often comes from disease-ridden cocoa trees.
What can we do to solve these problems, and how can we make sure our chocolate is from ethically sourced cocoa beans?
One thing we can do is read chocolate bar labels, and look for the origin of the cocoa beans. If no origin is listed, it's generally the case that West African cocoa has been used, as in the bulk of commercial chocolate bars on grocery store shelves.
US and worldwide craft chocolate or bean-to-bar chocolate makers are leading the way in creating delicious, healthy, ethical chocolate, made with cocoa beans from South America or elsewhere. Some of my favorite bean-to-bar brands are: Askinosie Chocolate, Dick Taylor, Letterpress, Marou, Raaka, Ritual, Sirene, Solstice, and Violet Sky Chocolate.
You can get details on ethical chocolate and the global chocolate industry from some of my blog posts.
You can also choose my Ethical Chocolate talk and have me as a "sweet speaker" at your next meeting, networking event, or conference. Click here for speaking engagement details.
Meanwhile, see below for video clips about where chocolate comes from, and what else we can do to help affected and at-risk children, and promote sustainability.
Here's to choosing ethical chocolate!
~ Valerie
~For details of my upcoming Chocolate Freedom Walk to raise awareness of child slave labor on cocoa farms and to highlight fair trade chocolate options, email me at chocolateuplift@gmail.com. Onward and upward! ~
Video links -
Fortune Magazine on Big Chocolate's Child Labor Problem:
http://fortune.com/big-chocolate-child-labor/
CNN Cocoa-nomics trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u4LFZ2TEIg
Child slaves interviewed:
Ivory Coast cocoa bean farmer tastes chocolate for first time:
http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/category/chocolates-child-slaves/
The Dark Side of Chocolate trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y882AajKo1s
How to help – International Cocoa Initiative aims to reach 1 million children:
http://www.cocoainitiative.org/en/news-media/videos
CREER children's rescue center:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgFaxwT6bRQ
Ethical cacao farm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8zsmfnkUZU