Category: Resources

A Sustainable Future for Chocolate

Good morning. I’m your host Poppy, and you’re listening to The Poppy Podcast. We are pleased to have Jack Sullivan with us today. He’s an environmentalist who’s been working with cacao farmers in West Africa. Tell us why you’re there, Jack.  

A Sustainable Future for Chocolate

Transcript

Poppy:

Good morning. I’m your host Poppy, and you’re listening to The Poppy Podcast. We are pleased to have Jack Sullivan with us today. He’s an environmentalist who’s been working with cacao farmers in West Africa. Tell us why you’re there, Jack.  

Jack:

Well, there have been lots of scary predictions that chocolate is going to disappear off the face of the Earth in 30 years. I’ve been helping local cacao farmers and chocolate companies to make sure that that doesn’t happen.

Poppy:

What do you tell them? 

Jack:

That cutting down the rainforest to make way for cacao farms is not the answer. Cacao trees are small and need shade. They can be planted in the rainforest. 

Poppy:

I understand that farmers who grow only cacao are taking a risk.

Jack:

Yes. I teach farmers to practice biodiversity. They need to plant something else between their rows of cacao trees.

Poppy:

What’s good to plant?

Jack:

Banana and cassava trees work well. The additional crop keeps weeds down, so cacao farmers are more likely to stop using pesticides and use organic compost instead of chemical fertilizers. Those chemicals end up polluting the land as well as the freshwater supply.  

Poppy:

Should cacao farms be organic?

Jack:

Oh yes! We teach organic farming methods. For example, instead of using fertilizer, we show farmers how to grind up the bean pods as mulch. The recycled pods are spread around the trees. This is a natural way to improve the fertility and health of the soil. It keeps weeds down, too.

Poppy:

What about that white sticky stuff around the beans? What happens to it?

Jack:

You mean the pulp? While some of it is necessary to ferment the beans, the unused pulp is often thrown out and wasted. I show farmers how this pulp can be sold for jams, sweets, and drinks.

Poppy:

What is your advice for the chocolate companies? 

Jack:

Well…They need to replant trees and bring back the rainforest. Did you know that Ivory Coast has lost 80% of its forests since 1960? And that chimpanzees are in great danger because this is their habitat? that chimpanzees are in great danger because this is their habitat?

Poppy:

But through all of this you still have hope?

Jack:

For sure. It is in the interest of chocolate companies to work hard to stop deforestation so that cacao has a sustainable future.  

Is Child Labor in Your Chocolate?

Chocolate is a thriving business, and big companies make a lot of money selling it. The chocolate industry is worth a whopping 135 billion dollars, and it continues to grow. However, as these big companies continue to gain bigger market shares and higher profits, millions of cacao farmers bear the costs.

Chocolate is a thriving business, and big companies make a lot of money selling it. The chocolate industry is worth a whopping 135 billion dollars, and it continues to grow. However, as these big companies continue to gain bigger market shares and higher profits, millions of cacao farmers bear the costs––earning less and less each year, well below the international poverty line. 

Cacao doesn’t grow just anywhere. The trees need hot, humid climates. That’s one reason that nearly 70% cacao trees are grown in West African countries. However, most of the money is earned after the beans leave the farmers and only when they reach the Global North, where the beans are processed and made into chocolate as we know it.  

Back on the cacao farms, farmers and their workers scrape by with an average income of less than $1.25 a day. The disparity is shocking. Cacao farmers in Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and Ghana alone make 60% of the world’s cocoa but earn only 3-6% of its retail value. 

On this amount, they cannot afford the basic necessities. They have little food, water or shelter. They cannot afford to send their children to school and are often forced to send them to work on cacao farms for another source of income. They work to survive, and their families depend on it.  

Unfortunately, the industry takes advantage of the situation. Much of the cacao harvested for mass-produced chocolate from major companies is often done by young teens and children. In fact, as many as 1.56 million children are estimated to be working on cacao farms in West African countries.  

Cacao farming is a challenging labor-intensive process. The fruit is cut straight from the branch with a sharp blade. Then it is cracked open with a machete or a wooden mallet so that the cacao beans can be scooped out. Imagine a child doing such dangerous work! On top of that, they are exposed to chemicals daily. 

Even if conditions were safe, child labor exploits children. They can’t attend school, and they are subject to abuse, injury, malnutrition, and exhaustion as farm workers.  

We should never tolerate child labor so that the rest of the world can have cheap chocolate. But what can we do to hold the chocolate industry accountable? We can start by paying a little more for a bar of chocolate.