Public Policy on Child Labor in the Cocoa Industry

663 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Child labour around the world

Ecuador is the biggest fine or flavor cocoa exporter of the world. Since chocolate is a billion dollar industry, one would think cocoa farmers would be benefit fairly. However, when the production chain is analyzed, one can find large differences between the working conditions of cocoa farmers and the chocolate factory employees. Still in the 21stcentury there exists a large amount of child labor in cocoa producing countries. Meanwhile in the chocolate factories (which are mainly located in developed countries), the transnational corporations boast about their compromise with ethics, particularly human rights and environmental protection. This reality is a reflection of the income distribution inequality in the production and marketing of cocoa-based products. It is estimated that 70% of the final price of the product is received by transnational companies, while farmers receive only 5% of the final price . This 5% often does not help the farmers to cover the costs of production. This means that the market structure leaves the producers with little ability to make decisions and makes them unlikely to pursue active participation in the definition of international economic rules. Moreover, this forces the farmers to produce at the lowest possible cost, which affects the working conditions of farmers. Currently, children between the ages of 5-14 are actively employed in the cocoa industry. I have first hand knowledge of this due to not just having networked with representatives from African countries at the International Cocoa Organization, but also by being the descendant of cocoa farmers myself. This problem is not exclusive to Ecuador, Africa, and their relation to cocoa but to multiples industries in underdeveloped countries al... ... middle of paper ... ... use education as an empowerment tool through which people can improve their quality of life. It is necessary to show farmers and society examples of their children’s potential and how this potential is wasted by forcing them to work versus going to school. Society also has to be encouraged to report cases of child labor exploitation and most importantly we need to educate children about their rights so they can identify themselves when these rights are violated. Governments, international agencies and the civil societies of each country need to commit to not let education and other development drivers fail. Goals such as fair income distribution in the cocoa production chain and the elimination of child labor can become realistic goals if all stakeholders take responsibility in their policy-making efforts, law enforcement, budgetary measures, and developmental aid.

Show More
Related

  • Brazilian Government Intervention: Acai Berry

    997 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Brazilian acai berry has been a food staple for low income families for years and a cultural symbol for generations. This berry is vital in Brazil, where it is farmed and, until recently had a relatively small market. However, after an Oprah interview the demand for acai has become an international affair. The rising demand has created a free market; however the once inexpensive food staple has become too expensive for the low income families. This report will analyse the current markets advantages and disadvantages, followed by two possible government intervention models. The examined interventions will be export tariff and price ceiling.

    Read More

  • Banana Trade Case Study

    836 Words  | 2 Pages

    In view of the fact that low prices are paid to suppliers by supermarkets, this has caused many of the larger companies to relocate their plantations to West Africa as companies search for lower labour costs and weaker legislation. Employers usually sub-contract labour so plantation work is increasingly casual. The work involves long shifts, in typically hazardous conditions and many workers fail to earn enough to cover their basic needs. Child labour, gender discrimination and other problems accompany this drive for lower consumer

    Read More

  • Child Labor in Mexico

    3748 Words  | 8 Pages

    Child labor has become an ongoing global concern for many years. The practice sweatshops in places such as South America and Asia are responsible for much of the manufactured goods people own today. While hundreds of organized unions and corporations look for answers to this unheal...

    Read More

  • Sweat Shops

    522 Words  | 2 Pages

    All of my life I have considered myself as a person who loves children. I enjoy playing with them, helping them, and just being around them. So when I first agreed with corporations who use child labor I shocked myself completely. After examining two articles; one “The Case for Sweatshops”, by David R. Henderson, and two “Sweatshops or a Shot at a Better Life”, by Cathy Young, I came to the conclusion that in some cases when young children work under proper conditions it can keep them out of the streets and be helpful to them and their families.

    Read More

  • Hybrid Cocoa Essay

    907 Words  | 2 Pages

    The cocoa industry is made up of small scale family farms with low economic standings and a few large scale plantations which control the cocoa market. Due to large scale cocoa plantations small scale farms are struggling economically which has resulted in a fragile unsustainable society. The use of hybrid cocoa crops has made it easy for large scale plantation to control the market and remove negotiating leverage from small family farms. Family farms have grown accustomed to the use of child labor, and as a result have negatively influenced the education of many children in major cocoa producing countries. Family small scale farms have had to compete with better yielding crops and little wealth, in response they have grown accustomed to child

    Read More

  • Child Labor

    1721 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout time children have worked myriad hours in hazardous workplaces in order to make a few cents to a few dollars. This is known as child labor, where children are risking their lives daily for money. Today child labor continues to exist all over the world and even in the United States where children pick fruits and vegetables in difficult conditions. According to the article, “What is Child Labor”; it states that roughly 215 million children around the world are working between the ages of 5 and 17 in harmful workplaces. Child labor continues to exist because many families live in poverty and with more working hands there is an increase in income. Other families take their children to work in the fields because they have no access to childcare and extra money is beneficial to buy basic needs. Although there are laws and regulations that protect children from child labor, stronger enforcement is required because child labor not only exploits children but also has detrimental effects on a child’s health, education, and the people of the nation.

    Read More

  • Government Restrictions on Child Labor

    796 Words  | 2 Pages

    What if your young son or daughter was working in a big factory, breathing in bad chemicals, and losing fingers in the machinery? Would you be okay with that? I highly doubt you would be. The conditions of factories can be terrible, unsafe, and unhealthy for children to work in for extended periods of time. These children can get respiratory problems, diseases, and many other conditions, just because they are working there. These things would be happening if the government never stepped in and made rules. I therefore believe the government should be allowed to restrict child labor, including the hours, the pay, education requirements,

    Read More

  • Child Labor Essay

    893 Words  | 2 Pages

    With a population of over 1.2 billion India is sadly at the top of the chain with the largest number of child laborers in the world. India has a poverty rate of twenty five percent with fifty percent of the population being under the age of twenty five years old (Graham). In India agriculture is the norm for working. The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that seventy percent of child labor in India is in agriculture or related acti...

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay: The Legalization Of Child Labor

    580 Words  | 2 Pages

    Apparently, child slave labor has been out of hand in the chocolate industry for over fifteen years. In West Africa, children are forced to work on farms harvesting cocoa under inhumane conditions. They would be routinely beaten and would be given insufficient amounts of food. These children are stripped of their human rights. In July 2015, a report from Tulane University found a fifty-one percent increase in the number of children working in the cocoa industry from 2008/09 to 2013/14. In response to child slavery in West Africa, Hershey and other companies in the chocolate industry will invest $400 million by 2020 to increase the supply of certified cocoa and decrease questionable labor practices. They will educate farmers and their families of the dangers of child labor (“Lawsuit: Your Candy Bar Was Made By Child

    Read More

  • Poverty In Africa Essay

    1353 Words  | 3 Pages

    Over one billion people are living in poverty, lacking safe water, housing, food, and the ability to read. There is a high concentration of communities in poverty in Africa; particularly Central Africa. States that are considered in Central Africa are the following: Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Republic of Africa, Chad, Equatorial Guinea and the Congo. The majority of these Central African states’ economies are dependent on agriculture. As a result of this dependency, natural disasters, droughts and wars can displace subsistence farmer from their land resulting in poverty becoming even more prevalent and harder to come back from. Also with a history of dependency on farming there tends to be the trend of education not being a primary focus for the youth which is another factor into the stagnant poverty trend in Central Africa.

    Read More

  • Child Labor

    2143 Words  | 5 Pages

    Child Labor is not an isolated problem. The phenomenon of child labor is an effect of economic discrimination. In different parts of the world, at different stages of histories, laboring of child has been a part of economic life. More than 200 million children worldwide, some are as young as 4 and 5 years old, are slaves to the production line. These unfortunate children manufacture shoes, matches, clothing, rugs and countless other products that are flooding the American market and driving hard-working Americans out of jobs. These children worked long hours, were frequently beaten, and were paid a pittance. In 1979, a study shows more than 50 million children below the age of 16 were considered child labor (United Nation labors agency data). In 1998, according to the Campaign for Labor rights that is a NGO and United Nation Labor Agency, 250 million children around the world are working in farms, factories, and household. Some human rights experts indicate that there are as many as 400 million children under the age of 15 are performing forced labor either part or full-time under unsafe work environment. Based upon the needs of the situation, there are specific areas of the world where the practice of child labor is taking place. According to the journal written by Basu, Ashagrie gat...

    Read More

  • Coffee In Colombia

    1166 Words  | 3 Pages

    In efforts to encourage the cultivation of coffee, FNC has been giving the farmers subsidies in response to changes in the international coffee markets. More so, FNC provides the farmers social services and other infrastructure in areas where coffee is grown in large scale. These services are provided after the farmers are taxed proportionally upon the international prices reaching the ceiling. There are about 600,000 coffee farms across Colombia, and they play significant role rural development because Colombia is regarded as the second largest coffee producing country across the globe. Through coffee production, the road, rail, and ports, along with other infrastructure have been developed. These have contributed to economic development because of increased mobility of factors of production. Foreign exchanged earned from coffee exports is back rolled to fund the building of hospitals, rural clinics, referral hospitals, and dispensaries (Thurston, Morris & Steiman, 2013). More so, the revenue is used in the development of other industries. Unlike other Latin America economies where there is coffee, sugarcane, and banana plantation farming, small-scale farmers mainly practice coffee farming in Colombia (Skidmore, Smith & Green, 2014). Socio-cultural development is evident through the foundation of numerous cooperative societies where farmers form unions to enhance their bargaining

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Child Labor

    925 Words  | 2 Pages

    Child labor is a pervasive problem throughout the global economy, especially in the markets of developing countries. With over 90% of the total child labor market employed in the rural areas of India and Africa, largely due to lack of enforcement. It is argued that something has to be done. Although the majority of people are ethically appalled by child labor, and against the exploitation of children. Is the worldwide eradication of the worst forms of child labor really a feasible alternative? To answer this question people have to take into account a variety of factors involving both the economic and social costs, as well as have a firm understanding of the situations people are faced with in these underdeveloped countries.

    Read More

  • Child Labour: NOT Always Wrong

    1299 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to UNICEF, there are an estimated one hundred and fifty eight million children aged five to fourteen in child labour worldwide. Millions of children are engaged in dangerous situations or conditions, such as working in mines, working with chemicals and pesticides in agriculture or working with dangerous machinery. They are everywhere but invisible, working as domestic servants in homes, labouring behind the walls of workshops, hidden from view in plantations. If there is nothing wrong with child labour, then why is the exploitation so secret? Do you ever wonder when you go into certain shops how a handmade t-shirt can be so cheap? Or on the other hand, products which are sold to us at extremely high prices and we assume...

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Child Labour

    1020 Words  | 3 Pages

    Without education children are unable to succeed and break the cycle of poverty therefore being unable to provide for there own family and forcing there own children into the workforce like generations before.6 Child labour often continues the cycle of poverty because children are overworked and economically exploited because they are paid at the lowest rates.7Child labor violates the basic right to a primary education and economically exploits children therefore promoting the cycle of

    Read More

More about Public Policy on Child Labor in the Cocoa Industry

Open Document