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The effects of slavery
The effects of slavery
The effects of slavery
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Chocolate is everywhere in daily American life; it’s in our desserts, entire aisles are devoted to it in grocery stores, stores dedicated to its selling, even our holidays are highly associated with chocolate. Due to the abundance of chocolate products; on average, Americans will eat a chocolate product on a weekly basis (Qureshi). A majority of cocoa beans, the key ingredient of chocolate, comes from Western Africa, where child labor and often slavery runs rampant. The laborers and slaves, who cultivate the cocoa, work with dangerous weapons and chemicals in an inhospitable environment. The children, who are being forcibly worked, on the cocoa farms tend to be from the ages 12 to 16 to as young as 5 years old; these young ages are when …show more content…
Multiple times the terms PTSD, self-doubt, and self-control disorders were mentioned or were a common outcome. PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, is commonly faced by victims of abuse, due to the traumatic events experienced. PTSD can result from beaten for not reaching the daily quota of cocoa beans or from accidentally maiming their arm during the cocoa bean’s harvest. Both of those examples are quite common within the industry. PTSD can inhibit the suffers, as they do not want to be exposed to anything similar to what their PTSD may stems from, which can affect their day to day lives. The self-esteem or self-doubt disorders can lead to lack of, as the name suggests, self esteem; it can also lead to a lack of trusting and meaningful relationships in the suffers’ life. A self-control disorder can involve a victim to attempt to control the small parts of their lives, due to them feeling as if their life is completely out of their control; an example would be an eating disorder. Working a full time job, during childhood, hinders cognitive development, as they can’t attend school. Children who have part-time job score 12% lower than children who have no job, which gives them more time for school and studying. Not only does child labor affect cognitive abilities, but it also affects social development. Children who work twenty hours or more are more likely to turn towards improper behaviors such as drug abuse. These behaviors often affect their already poor education, sometimes leading them to score badly or quit their schooling altogether. The studies that prove this can be applied to the slave laborers in the chocolate industry. The children laboring have little to no access to education, which as the previously shown studies prove, leads to cognitive impairment and further negative effects. Children learn how to interact with other people and how to bond
During Valentine’s week alone, millions of pounds of chocolate candies alone are sold (“Who consumes the most chocolate,” 2012, para 8). This naturally creates a demand for product, which in turns causes a need for ingredients. The main component in chocolate, of course, is cocoa. Since Côte d’Ivoire provides 40 percent of the world’s supply of this crucial ingredient (Losch, 2002, p. 206), it merits investigation i...
The videos provided for this subject builds a great understanding on what happens behind the scenes and how the production cycle of chocolates turns deadly for few. The chocolate industry is being accused having legit involvement in human trafficking. The dark side of chocolate is all about big industries getting their coco from South America and Africa industries. However, it is an indirect involvement of Hersheys and all other gigantic brands in trafficking (Child Slavery and the Chocolate Factory, 2007).
Chocolate: A bittersweet saga of dark and light. New York: North Point P, 2005. McNeill, J. R. "The Columbian Exchange. " The Columbian Exchange.
Some people think it is impossible for someone to become productive if they had an abusive or neglected childhood. There are many people that recovered from an abusive childhood. One person that you will read about later on in my essay is, Oprah Winfrey. She used to be sexually abused when in her childhood. Look at her now, she is one of the highest paid women. Not only that, she is an African American woman. People believed women were not capable of being better than a man and/or working harder than a man. Especially African American women, we were the lowest of the lows. Oprah proved many people wrong.
Child labor is very different in the industrial revolution compared to the chocolate industry, however there are some similarities. This issue occurred back then but is still around now, especially through different aspects of child labor; such as how these children are treated, which is not very friendly. Even the political role plays a major part in this situation. On the other hand there are some benefits from it, but it is still a terrible and unfortunate thing to happen to the children.
The children work in various conditions, suffering numerous injuries. In boot factories, children are forced to sit so close together that they poke each other with needles: “many have lost an eye in this way” (595). The children work “unreasonably long hours” (595). Chimney sweepers in particular work long hours, starting at about four a.m. and working for twelve hours. These chimney sweepers sleep in bags of soot, wrapping themselves in the bags and straw. They are subjected to suffocating steam, heat, flying hot metal, and the “unhealthiest kind of grinding known” (595). Those who are employed in mills endure lung problems, scrofula, mesenteric diseases and asthma.
Child labor has detrimental effects on kids physically, psychologically, and educationally. Physically, the manual labor that children have to go through everyday takes a toll on them. According to a study by the
Chocolate or cacao was first discovered by the Europeans as a New World plant, as the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. In Latin, Theobroma literally means: “food of the Gods” (Bugbee, Cacao and Chocolate: A Short History of Their Production and Use). Originally found and cultivated in Mexico, Central America and Northern South America, its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC. The majority of the Mesoamerican people made chocolate beverages, including the Aztecs, who made it into a beverage known as xocolātl, a Nahuatl word meaning “bitter water” (Grivetti; Howard-Yana, Chocolate: History, Culture, and Heritage). It was also a beverage in Mayan tradition that served a function as a ceremonial item. The cacao plant is g...
Chocolate companies changed from minimal production to massive manufacturing. Thus, targeting different market segments that weren’t possible to reach due to the high cost of the good. The market was able to shift because of the industrialization process that includes several innovations, such as van Houten’s process, this allowed a broad production and distribution of chocolate that spread around the globe.
In 2013, about 7.4 million tons of chocolate is expected to be consumed globally, totaling to nearly $110 billion (Pardomuan, Nicholson). I can honestly say that I will be one of the many people who contribute immensely to those massive quantities. Chocolate has always been one of my guilty pleasures, leading me to consider myself a “chocoholic.” After 20 years of eating chocolate, I learned there is more to chocolate than meets the eye. Many chemicals compose each delicious piece creating multiple psychological effects on the mind. With the knowledge of the chemical and psychological influences that chocolate has on the human mind and body and my own curiosity as to why I love it so much, this led me to ask: Why is chocolate considered such a pleasurable and craveable food?
The three C’s of child labor are its causes, consequences, and cures. Causes and cures receive the greatest focus, but the consequences of child labor are far-reaching and long lasting. Yesterday’s child laborers are today’s uneducated, non-productive adults.
While American children spend most of their time in school, children in developing countries are mandated to hard labor. Edmonds and Pavcnik state, “Child labor is a problem worldwide, but it particularly affects children in developing countries. The work often exerts undue physical, social, or psychological stress, hampers access to education, and may be detrimental to social and psychological development.”
Central Idea: Explain how cocoa beans are processed to produce the chocolate we all know and love
The market can be further divided according to gender because both men and women have different tastes (chocolate shapes, packaging, and type of liquor). It is known that women are already consuming chocolate. In fact, the numbers of women that consume chocolate far outnumber the numbers of men that consume chocolate. It follows that there is a ready market for the commodity in question. Nonetheless, the reality that introducing alcohol to make liquor-filled chocolates increases the market.
The Theobroma cacao tree is where it all started. Olmecs, Aztecs, and Mayans were the original consumers of cocoa: they would form it into a drink and ingest it for medicinal reasons (Allen Par. 7). The Spanish then brought it back to Europe and continued to treat a variety of ailments with it (Allen Par. 7). In the last 40 years people have started to question the health benefits of chocolate, but new research is starting to prove that the Olmecs, Aztecs, Mayans and Spaniards were not too far off. Now, the pods from the tree containing cocoa beans are collected, and the cocoa beans are taken out of the pod (Healing Foods Pyramid Par. 15). The beans are then fermented, dried, roasted, then ground to make cocoa liquor (Healing Foods Pyramid Par. 15). The cocoa liquor is then combined with sugar, vanilla, and cocoa butter to make what is now known as chocolate (Healing Foods Pyramid Par. 15). Controversy over the health benefits and detriments of chocolate is slowly subsiding, but there are many things that a lot of people still do not know about how chocolate can affect ones health. Chocolate is misunderstood.