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Industrialization and Child Labor: The Case of Cocoa in West Africa
Every year in November, thousands of American children expect to collect many candies during Halloween, but something the might not know is that almost all of the chocolate they receive has been harvested by children just like them. The cocoa production has been exposed as one of the agricultural products that make a great use of child labor. At the heart of the problem are the companies that use cocoa in their products, the producers of the beans, the consumers and non-profit organizations, all acting on their best interests. Because cocoa is produced in developing countries but is used in industrialized nations, all of the actors mentioned above interact in the international market. Therefore, the involvement of children in the harvest of cocoa, the international trade and the growing inclination for Fair Trade, present aspects that can be analyzed trough components of International Political Economy.
The consequences of child employment are negative not only for children themselves, they also have an impact on the long term economy, thus different international protections have taken place to safeguard the working young population. Child labor’s definition has changed over time, but it was not until 1919, the same year that the International Labour Organization was founded, that the first convention regarding child labor took place. (ILO) Most recently, other conventions have been agreed to set 15 years as the minimum age for a minor to work. In addition, Article 32 of the Convention of the Rights of a Child institutes protection against economic exploitation and establishes that children should not participate in “any work that is likely to be hazardous or...
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...(n.d.). Growing Cocoa. Retrieved March 14, 2014, from http://www.icco.org/about-cocoa/growing-cocoa.html
Kenzie, D., & Swails, B. (2013, January 19). Child slavery and chocolate: All too easy to find. The CNN Freedom Project Ending ModernDay Slavery RSS. Retrieved March 12, 2014, from http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/19/child-slavery-and-chocolate-all-too-easy-to-find/
Linton, A. (2012). Fair trade from the ground up: new markets for social justice. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Mapp, S. C. (2011). Global child welfare and well-being. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Percival, M., & Jones contributed to this article.. (2014, February 14). Cocoa-nomics: Why chocolate really doesn't grow on trees. CNN. Retrieved February 14, 2014, from http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/13/world/africa/cocoa-nomics-does-chocolate-grow-on-trees/index.html?hpt=wo_mid
Unfortunately, not everyone involved in the production of this popular sweet benefits. Today, over 70 percent of the world’s chocolate is exported from Africa (“Who consumes the most chocolate,” 2012, para 10). While chocolate industry flourishes under international demand, the situation in Côte d’Ivoire in particular illustrates dependency theory and highlights the need for the promotion of Fair Trade. Chocolate has had a considerable impact on the country’s economic structure and labor practices.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
During the time frame of 1450-1750, the Columbian Exchange was at its height of power and influence. Many products were introduced from foreign lands, like animals such as cattle, chickens, and horse, and agriculture such as potatoes, bananas, and avocados. Diseases also became widespread and persisted to distant lands where it wreaked devastation upon the non-immunized people. One such influential product during this time period was the cacao, or more commonly known as chocolate. First discovered and used in the Americas, cacao beans quickly traveled to and became a popular treat in European lands. It was valuable in the New World and even used as a currency by the Aztecs. Only the rich and privileged were allowed to purchase the valuable item in the beginning. Cacao was even used in religious ceremonies by the native people. When it moved to Europe and other lands, it also created a lot of stir. The cacao plant had quite a large impact upon the Columbian Exchange.
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.
Before looking into the chemical and psychological effects of chocolate, it is important to go back in time and see where chocolate originated. Even from the very beginning chocolate was viewed as a powerful food. The idea of chocolate first began in 1500 BC when the Pre-Olmecs and Mokaya peoples found that the beans that grew on the cacao trees could be used as food (Semenak, "Chocolate in History"). Moving forward to 600, the Mayan and Aztec civilizations used the chocolate beans in a more meaningful way. The Mayans created a drink from the beans and drank it during weddings and other important ceremonies. Only those of the highest class could indulge in what the Mayans referred to as the “God Food” ("Food: The History of Chocolate"). Similarly, the Aztecs created a drink out of the cacao beans, and according to Susan Semenak’s 2012 newspaper article, “Chocolate in History,” the Aztecs used it as a “love potion.” Pretty soon, the beans became so c...
Cocoa production is predicted of getting shortage of supply in 2020 (Nelson, 2017). The famous chocolate drink that Malaysian drink daily, Milo contains cocoa. Other than Milo, Koko Krunch, Nestle Crunch Wafer, KitKat are also mainly made from cocoa. Nestle as a company which largely depends on cocoa bean for its products, will become one of the victim of this cocoa supply risk. The biggest cocoa producer in the world, Ivory Coast, is facing the problem of diseases infected in cocoa plant, frequent rain, and buyers forcing producers to sell cocoa at very low price (The Guardian, 2014). In Malaysia and Indonesia, cocoa plantations are threatened by a tiny moth named as cocoa pod borer which eat the seed (Nelson, 2017).. These pests has cost cocoa
So I believe that the issue of child labour is not simple. As Unicef’s 1997 State of the World’s Children Report argued, children’s work needs to be seen as having two extremes. On one hand, there is the destructive or exploitative work and, on the other hand, there is beneficial work - promoting or enhancing children’s development without interfering with their schooling, recreation and rest. ‘And between these two poles are vast areas of work that need not negatively affect a child’s development.’ My firm belief is that there is a difference between child labour and child work and that in both cases the issue is whether or not the child is deliberately being exploited.
What if there was a way to consume and use everyday products while knowing the people who put the hard work into growing and harvesting them are being treated as fairly as possible? Fortunately, there is a way for the consumer to have full confidence in this while purchasing their products. What the buyer should look out for is if the product is marked “Fair Trade” or not. Fair Trade is a type of business in which it is established that the producer is paid a fair price for the goods they provide. Whereas some producers get ripped off and paid only a small portion of what they should be, Fair Trade ensures that this does not happen and gives the producers the full benefit of their work. Some may ask, “is it really worth it to invest in something that will only put a label on a product?” The answer is yes. In this day and age, every humane person should have the decency to pay a little bit extra to warrant the fair treatment of the producers. Fair Trade is quite a simple social movement to operate with rules that can be easily enforced and the range of products is large yielding it to have its strengths and weaknesses, as does every operation of this scale.
2013). There were 33 percent of sex trafficking cases and 20 percent of labor trafficking cases reported. People are aware of trafficking, however a lot of people do not do anything about it. In the documentary “Dark Side of Chocolate”, a man said, he knows child labor is going on, but he does not do anything about to stop it. When asked is child labor illegal he said, no it is nothing wrong with what they are doing. These children are six to 13 years of age, are being paid the lowest amount possible for hard working labor. 13 year old Maria Elena said, she could make ten times as much money waiting tables in the United States than she could in her small village in Mexico doing labor. Hilson Wrote, “In one small carpet factory in Asia, children as young as five were found to work from 6 in the morning until 7 at night for less than 20 cents a day. In another, they sat alongside adults for 12 to 14
Since the definition varies drastically in different parts of the world it is hard to decide what is child labour and what is labour. For example the minimum work age in Egypt is 12, this would therefore constitute the 12 year old as an adult in the workforce and therefore would not be put in the child labour category.16 However the basic minimum age recommended by the International Labour Organization is 15.17 The Convention on the Rights of the Child defines child as any person under the age of 18 therefore constituting the full time employment of 12 year olds as child labour.18 While the definition of child may be disputed, I still firmly believe that the full time work of persons under the age of 18, which puts them in harms way and distracts from education, and life outside of work constitutes as a human rights violation.