Category: cocoa

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The Gates Foundation Discovers Cocoa Farmers

With much fanfare, many news outlets announced the decision by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to donate $23 million to the World Cocoa Foundation. The usual supporters of the WCF have pledged to chip in a similar amount in the form of cash and in-kind contributions bringing the total up to $40 million. That’s a lot of money and more than has been spent on cocoa in West Africa by the industry since the Harkin-Engel protocol was signed in 2001.

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ILRF Begins a New Chocolate Campaign

The International Labor Rights Fund began a new letter writing campaign to protest the use of child labor in the cocoa sector. The letters ask the CEOs of Hershey, Mars and Nestlé about their concrete efforts to limit the use of child labor on cocoa farms in West Africa. The campaign aims to end the aura of secrecy and the lack of accountability surrounding the manner in which the Harkin-Engel Protocol has been implemented. Go to the website and send a letter yourself.

And just in time for Valentine’s Day, the ILRF produced a new scorecard to help you understand your choices when it comes to buying chocolate. The scorecard rates companies as either bitter, semi-sweet and sweet depending on their record regarding labor issues. There are few surprises. As I pointed out, buying fair-trade chocolate is the surest way to ensure that child labor was not used during the production of cocoa. But the semi-sweet group shows that it is possible for conventional companies to do some things right.

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Ivorian Farmers Block Cocoa Deliveries Again

I reported last fall that Ivorian farmers, upset over the fact that traders were not paying them the indicative price set by the Cocoa Management Committee, had blocked cocoa deliveries to ports.

Now they are threatening a blockade again, this time to protest the fact that they have not received the funding to buy fertilizer.  According to Bloomsberg, Christophe Gbe, president of the Ivorian Federation of Coffee and Cocoa Producers, threatened to stop all cocoa deliveries and to expand the action to all producer delivered to ports should the Cocoa Management Committee not accede to the farmer’s demands.

Farmers on the ground, however, seem less concerned with the blockade. Some growers have announced support for the action but likely will not participate in the blockades. Others have yet to get ready for any action. No word yet how this will affect cocoa prices for the next months.

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Make it a Fair Trade Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is around the corner and it’s the day (though by no means the only one) to buy chocolate and flowers for your sweetie. How about making it a fair trade Valentine’s Day. It’s easy and you know that you will be supporting farmers who have organized to escape the relentless onslaught of the “free” market.

Transfair USA, the fair trade certifier for the U.S., has created a handy website that provides links to places where you can order fair trade chocolate, fair trade flowers and fair trade wine.

Global Exchange, the education and action resource center for an alternative globalization, goes a bit farther. They have organized the National Valentine’s Day of Action to reach out to educators so that they can introduce their students to the concept of fair trade. There’s even a lesson plan for k-6th grade teachers. But if you just want to get some fair trade chocolate, they also offer a variety of fair trade chocolates including my favorite, Divine.

Finally, there are the friends at Equal Exchange who distribute fair trade chocolate as well.

But in the interest of shopping local, why not got to your local store and ask them to stock fair trade items. That way, you save postage and have your fix nearby. Happy Valentine’s Day.

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Ancient Cocoa Traces Found at Chaco Canyon, NM

Theobromine, the key component of cocoa that gives us that little boost when we eat our favorite chocolate, also stays around a while. A long while, to be exact. So when ancient peoples didn’t wash their dishes well, some traces  of theobromine stayed behind and, thousands of years later, we can detect those traces and link them to specific dates. Well, at least specific date ranges.

Last July, I wrote about the oldest trace of cocoa found in Soconusco, now Chiapas, Mexico. That find was important because it dated cocoa consumption to some time in 1900 BCE. But the location as such was no surprise because Soconusco was a know cultivation area of cocoa throughout the times of the Olmec, Maya and Aztecs.

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