There's a more serious reason to protest Valentine's Day this year than the conspiracy between the American government and the greeting card-industry (i.e. being single). Conspiracies and kidding aside, there's a dark side to this holiday. Valentine's Day evokes images of arrow-wielding cupids, bright red hearts, happy couples and. child slave labor? Every box of chocolates exchanged by lovers today has a shady history beyond its shiny packaging.
The cocoa beans used by major chocolate manufacturers such as Pennsylvania's own Hershey's are sourced from multiple regions in South America and Africa. This means that in any one chocolate bar, you could be eating beans from Colombia, Ghana and the world's largest cocoa producer, the Ivory Coast. Child slave labor in West Africa has been a topic of concern for human rights activists in the last decade, leading to investigations publicized by the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2001.
And yet, seven years later, there has been little progress to eradicate forced child labor on many of the small cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast. While it is clearly impossible to ponder the origins of every morsel that enters our mouths, when it comes to decadent luxuries like chocolate, awareness is important. Although these human rights violations are no longer a hot topic buzzing in the media, that doesn't mean that the issue is resolved. Rather than boycotting chocolate all together, and further harming the feeble economy and government of the Ivory Coast, the most socially responsible choice is to buy fair trade chocolate. By supporting sustainable cooperatives of cocoa farmers rather than large conglomerates, we have the power to promote grass-roots growth and organization among West African farms.
While it may be a little late to order the Fair Trade Valentine's Day Action Kit (found at store.gxonlinestore.org) for your sweet this Valentine's Day, Fro Gro has a surprisingly large selection of fair trade and single source chocolates. In the candy aisle you can find Santander chocolate, made entirely from Colombian cocoa beans. Or look for the Valor packaging, which lists its origins as Ghana, Panama and Ecuador. Environmentally conscious candies are even making an appearance, with the Endangered Species brand, which dedicates 10% of its profits to this cause.
So this Valentine's Day, try and resist all the fluff and flair of the chocolate display at CVS. Protest this holiday by furthering a worthy cause and thinking about the injustice behind your indulgence.
