This video is a strong reminder of how a global economy doesn’t mean everyone gets to enjoy the fruits of their labor, even when it comes to something as common as chocolate.
Cocoa farmers on the Ivory Coast earn their living growing the beans. It’s laborious work that’s extremely physically taxing and they earn very little money for their harvest.
Many of the laborers who work on the crops do not even know what the cocoa beans are used for. So when this journalist gives them chocolate for the first time, it’s a revelation. Watching their reactions, is a revelation to the viewer too and may give you pause. It certainly made me think more on how the chocolate bar at my grocery store ends up on the shelf. It also reinforces that purchasing fair trade chocolate is something to strongly consider.
Fair trade helps chocolate growers in places like the Ivory Coast guarantee minimum prices are paid to farmers. The benefits to the community are many, including farmers being able to support their families, and as result hospitals, housing and schools improve as well as local economies improve.
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