No Slavery

I read a book awhile back called Bitter Chocolate, and it talked about the chocolate industry in Cote d'Ivoire, which is in West Africa.  There are slave traders making a killing by kidnapping boys in Burkina Faso and Mali, then selling them to cocoa farmers in Cote d'Ivoire, a country that supplies about 40% of the world's cocoa. That's more than any other country in the world.

This is part of why I think it's so important to make sure you buy Fair Trade chocolate rather than Nestle or Cadbury or whatever else is on the shelves at Safeway. In my mind, it's wrong to eat chocolate that isn't traded fairly. Who knows where it comes from? Maybe slave labor farmed the cocoa in that chocolate bar. I think it's good to feel guilty about purchasing things if you think they might come from those types of sources. And, honestly, there is so much good Fair Trade chocolate to choose from, so why bother with the sketchy stuff? The Divine chocolate from Ghana? Best chocolate I've ever had.