Hershey's Chocolate Melts in Your Mouth... and Supports Slavery?????

[JohnCrichton]

Someone from my message board pointed this out...... is this true!?!?!?

:eek:


Author Comment
toranoko
Registered User
Posts: 77
(2/9/03 2:27:30 pm)
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Eat chocolate? Supporting slavery.
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I'm not sure if anyone has heard of this here or not, but I really think it deserves some attention. It was brought to my attention by one of my teachers, and I thought I should share with everyone.

http://www.globalexchange.org/cocoa/gxWinter2002.html

And if you don't want to read the whole thing, here is a quick summary:
Children are being enslaved on the Ivory Coast of Africa. They are working on cocoa plantations, you know, where chocolate comes from. Hershey's and M&M/Mars are the companies buying from these plantations, since the prices are cheaper. They do not deny the fact that they have known what has been happening on the plantations. The children are between the ages of 9 and 12, and work without pay from dawn to dusk. They are beaten, and fed only fried bananas. Now, Hershey's and M&M/Mars are saying that they will do something about the slavery issue in July 2004. So, in the mean time, the two companies will be supporting slavery, allowing the children to be beaten just to make /our/ chocolate.

I've heard many arguments, and the sad part is that many people say that they do not care because they love their chocolate. And I did not hear these comments from children, but from adults.
So what are we going to do about it? I, myself, won't be buying any chocolate from those two companies. Both have KNOWN about this, but still won't do anything about it since it is cheaper. The two companies make $13 billion and they cannot afford to pay the children? So, what do you all think, and what are you going to do?

Edited by: toranoko at: 2/9/03 2:28:12 pm

[Magwheel]

Highly interesting, but unfortunately, not surprising. Not that I had any idea Hershey's had any reported slave connection, but I know slavery still exists, especially child-slavery.

That link didn't work when you pasted it in there... could you post the whole unabridged link? :D Thanks!

[Pihlajamaa]

Everyone's got problems. Let this go, nothing much can be done anyway.

Unless you want to invade the Ivory Coast, though historically that's France's problem.

[The Landstander]

a lot of companies use child labor/slavery to make their products. this goes way beyond hershey's.

[JohnCrichton]

Wow, Phil.... I can't believe you just said that. "Everyone's got problems?"

Yeah.... I wish the weather in Wisconsin was better.... these kids are in slavery... everyone's got problems.

:rolleyes:

How do these people sleep at night??? :mad:

[jeffrey 228]

And I want better sunny weather to happen up here and all, and I do not have problems.

[Pihlajamaa]

Originally posted by JohnCrichton
Wow, Phil.... I can't believe you just said that. "Everyone's got problems?"

Yeah.... I wish the weather in Wisconsin was better.... these kids are in slavery... everyone's got problems.

:rolleyes:

How do these people sleep at night??? :mad:

Yes, everyone's got problems. What do you want to do about it? Because nothing short of a full-scale invasion of Ivory Coast is going to do anything. Even if Hershey stops buying from them, they'll just sell to someone else.

Unless you've got some sort of plan that can work and that you're willing to implement, this story means nothing. In fact, there's much worse going on in that continent every day that nobody bothers to report on. And those things have no solution as simple as "well, just boycott 'em!"

[Weatherman]

To the contrary phil. if Hershey and Nestle stopped buying from producers who use slave-labor, I'm fairly certain it would make a big difference as they are the two largest buyers on coca beans in the world. Maybe we should write a few letters to them about this.

[TimTwoFace]

Originally posted by Pihlajamaa
Yes, everyone's got problems. What do you want to do about it? Because nothing short of a full-scale invasion of Ivory Coast is going to do anything. Even if Hershey stops buying from them, they'll just sell to someone else.

Unless you've got some sort of plan that can work and that you're willing to implement, this story means nothing. In fact, there's much worse going on in that continent every day that nobody bothers to report on. And those things have no solution as simple as "well, just boycott 'em!"

The first step with this sort of issue is to get the message out to the public and let everyone know the situation. If people aren't informed, how are we to take action against such atrocities? To be honest, I'm not surprised this has/is still happening - whether chocolate giants like Hershey, Nestle, Effem (the M&M's and Mars company) deal with them or not is beside the point.

These issues take time to resolve, but getting the word out to the world is always the first step.

-Tim

[Jade_GL]

Unfortunately, many products that we use without thinking come from labor just like this. Clothes, diamonds, toys, shoes, the list goes on and on.

If we want to do something about it, boycotting will not work. People will buy chocolate any way they can, and in a lot of cases you won't know whether it comes from a place such as this. If Hershey's stopped buying from these plantations, another chocolate maker would buy it. This group wouldn't tell you where they get it, and then it's just perpetuated.

This is something that can only be fixed when people realize that almost everything they use comes from sources such as this and oes something on a much grander level. Of course, boycotting will create a personal feeling of good, but it won't do anything about the shoes you wear, clothes you wear, diamonds on your rings, or any other product or ingredient that comes from this type of begining.

It's sad, and should be stopped, but unfortuantely it won't be stopped on such a small scale, because most people don't care and won't care even if you tell them. It has to come through world governments.

I doubt writing letters will do any good in the end. I'm sure they have already gotten many letters on the subject and have already done their thinking on the matter. I'm sure these groups have already tried to inform the companies, and it seems the companies just don't care to go somewhere else.

But so long as global trade works the way it does, it will be perpetuated.

It's too bad that people become exploited, it really is, but until there is some kind of global government regulations imposed, I don't see a way this can be stopped through a simple grass roots campaign. I only say this because I know many people who just don't care where their products come from or what happens to get them to the US. They just use whatever they want and don't like to think about it. WHen they do, they feel bad, but I haven't seen people stop buying Nike sneakers because of unfair and horrible labor practices. It's just sad to me that getting the word out will only do a small amount of good, but won't change a lot of people's minds when it comes to their convenience.

[Fiona]

Unfortunately this doesn't suprise me. While it is true that most products origins and conceptions are not produced in a humane or legal way, that is no reason to say there is nothing to do to stop it, or that everyone has their problems. When children are forced into slave labor that is everyone's problem.

In this case, and in the many others like it, as the consumer we do have an incredible amount of power. We can boycott and we can write letters, we can also contact our representatives, and tell our friends. This can help this problem in the short term. For long term solutions we need to make tade fair. There is a great site out there that gives a lot of information about what we can do www.maketradefair.com (http://www.maketradefair.com) I suggest that anyone who is disturbed by this issue go there and find out more about what you can do to stop this kind of evil from continuing.

[Shnay]

Yes, I've known about this for awhile now. Big corporations are often villified, but this goes to show that some of these corporations really are that evil.

So, what to do about it? It's true that anything on a personal level isn't going to bring about change. However, if enough people care strongly enough about this cause, they will organize, and an organized movement certainly can change something like this. If there was large enough group of people organized against Hershey to gain significant media coverage, I'd imagine that would make Hershey quite nervous. And, if this organized group of people were to grow with increased exposure, then the amount of media coverage would continue to grow. And the family-friendly Hershey company would likely feel the pressure to change this awful business practice.

Or, regardless of whether or not Hershey would change, this would still get the word of concern out, and put pressure on world government's to take some sort of action.

This could all just be wishful thinking. But, well, I guess I'm just not cynical enough to write it off as "everyone's got problems." And I consider myself very cynical.