What’s better than snacking on a piece of chocolate? July 7 is all about sweet temptations, because it’s International Chocolate Day. But it is still not a happy day for most cocoa farmers, because if we pay for a bar of chocolate in the supermarket today, less than 7% of it ends up with the cocoa farmers. The Dutch chocolate manufacturer Tony’s Chocolonely rightly calls for more justice on Chocolate Day.
Consisting mainly of cocoa beans, sugar, cocoa butter and milk products, it is one of the most popular candies in the world and, according to scientific studies, even makes you happy: we are talking about the chocolate that makes World Chocolate Day the sweetest day of the year for those with a sweet tooth.
Invented by two entrepreneurs from Dresden
For a long time, it was thought that whole milk chocolate was invented by a Swiss in 1875. Two Dresdeners produced the world’s first milk chocolate 30 years earlier. In 1839 the two businessmen Gottfried Heinrich Christoph Jordan and August Friedrich Timaeus marketed their milk chocolate. It consisted of 60 percent cocoa, 30 percent sugar and 10 percent donkey’s milk. At the time, it was much more common than cow’s milk. Because donkeys only give milk at certain times of the year, cow’s milk was later used. At that time, cocoa mass was ground much coarser than it is today and milk powder had not yet been invented.
Exploitation and child labor remain the order of the day
Today, chocolate is more popular than ever and can be found in countless variations and flavors. An Austrian eats an average of eight kilos of chocolate per year. But many people with a sweet tooth are still unaware that getting chocolate on our shelves involves exploitation and children being used for dangerous work, especially in West Africa, the largest cocoa bean growing region.
Even today, more than 1.56 million children are forced to work on cocoa farms and according to statistics, there are at least 30,000 victims of modern slavery related to chocolate production – contrary to many promises made by chocolate manufacturers. Mainly established large chocolate manufacturers in the market benefit from this, in this country politicians from the Greens and the SPÖ also criticized the conditions in the past.
Fairly produced organic chocolate is scarce
An assortment comparison by Greenpeace at the beginning of the year also had a less pleasant result: you have to look for organic and fairly produced chocolate on the shelves of local supermarket chains. In total, only six percent of the chocolate bars offered meet these criteria. In terms of social norms, Greenpeace looked for the “Fairtrade” seal, meaning a guaranteed minimum price for cocoa and the use of child labour, or at least “Rainforest Alliance”. Global brand Milka, on the other hand, advertises sustainably grown cocoa from its own sustainability program Cocoa Life.
Consumers are an important part of the change
To free chocolate worldwide from slavery and child labour, any chocolate. wants the chocolate company Tony’s. The Dutch chocolate producer is considered a pioneer in the entire industry. As a TV journalist, company founder Teun van de Keuken did his own research in 2004 into the catastrophic practices in cocoa cultivation, and in 2005 he founded Tony’s Chocolonely. On the occasion of World Chocolate Day, the call in the fight against exploitation: There is another way! Easily make the right chocolate choice on the supermarket shelf and be part of the change towards more justice!
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
