Equal Exchange Blog ... "Who Grows Your Chocolate? An Update"

Equal Exchange's mission is to build long-term trade partnerships that are economically just and environmentally sound, to foster mutually beneficial relationships between farmers and consumers and to demonstrate, through our success, the contribution of worker co-operatives and Fair Trade to a more equitable, democratic and sustainable world.

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Who Grows Your Chocolate? An Update

You probably already know that cacao is the crop from which cocoa and chocolate are made. An estimated 5.5 million farmers grow cacao in over 50 countries. The vast majority of cacao, over 70%, is now grown in West African countries like Ghana and Côte d’Ivôire, with smaller but still significant amounts grown in Central and South America and Asia. Starting around 2000, labor abuses in the cocoa industry began to get international attention. You may have heard about poverty wages, unsafe working conditions, the worst forms of child labor and even modern-day slavery. You may have heard that farming practices that damage the environment were common, too.

But what’s going on with that now? Have things gotten any better? Let’s take a look at the current state of affairs in the chocolate industry, and what you can do to help ....

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We need consumer participation in our organization to build a deeply democratic trade system made up of farmers and their democratic organizations, workers and their democratic organization, and citizen-consumers who now have a democratic space in Equal Exchange as well as their own network. Join us in changing trade, together!

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Local Equal Exchange partners include Grace Presbyterian Chuch, Midland, TX.