Americans consume chocolate every day, we love it. It gives us a little morsel of happiness when we consume it. But what effects does it have on others when we consume it? Do other Americans know what went into making that fun size Snickers Bar? Most people don’t, in Africa children are kidnapped and smuggled across the continent to work as slaves on coca plantations. The children smuggled for slave work are as young as seven years old. Daily hundreds of children are trafficked to the Ivory Coast, which is a renowned area where most chocolate plantations are. It is sickening that children are taken away from their home to work on farms as slaves. Not living a fun and educated childhood, they are worked in unsafe and unethical environments. …show more content…
We are blinded by the pleasure we receive from eating the product. American chocolate consumers don’t know what goes into making that candy bar. The pain and suffering that went into that candy bar is awful. African children are worked to death, only to provide the huge companies profit from their free work. American consumers can put a stop to these acts by buying chocolate that is from Fair Trade companies like Kallari (Alter), a chocolate company that doesn’t have children slaving in plantations, and not support the Free trade organizations (Robbins). Using act utilitarianism we can find several options like, write letters to our newspapers, and to big chocolate companies, and support the anti-slavery movement and Fair Trade campaign (Robbins, Fair Trade Resource Network). But to put a huge stop to this crime, and to show this problem to the public, we need to place Fair Trade chocolate on the shelves of big stores in America like Walmart, Publix, and Win-Dixie (Robbins). That would create the maximum amount of happiness out of all solutions, and show the world that famous chocolate is being produced inhumanly. This would hurt the huge companies like Mars, M & M’s, and Nestlé, but the struggle they would face would not add up to the happiness enslaved children would receive from being unshackled from the chains of
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).
It is something that had nearly plagued parts of the world. Slavery had a negative impact on indigenous people and Africans earlier. Most of them were captured because of their racial origins. They were forced to work in terrible work conditions,and were paid less than a dollar. Child labour was one of the many horrible things children went through, because it was it put them at risk. Although slavery had been abolished by the Emancipation Act 1834, it still continues in many countries. Society has not responded enough to slavery because child labour is used to fulfill consumers with products by some companies today. For example, Joe fresh’s clothing is manufactured by poor paid workers at Bangladesh factories.Another example is Hershey, in West Africa , there are child labourers who harvest cocoa to produce these chocolates. Companies should not being using slavery as a method to increase their riches for less.Furthermore,it is not fair to pay less or none to innocent people for the wealth of companies. Another way to reconcile slavery is to provide these children with their basic
Growing up in the United States, many Americans have come to learn that the slave trade often started on the West African coast, but after reading Olaudah Equiano’s narrative and Reversing Sail written by Michael Gomez, we can see that the slave trade was already transpiring way before the trans-Atlantic trade. Before the European trade even occurred, there were systems of slavery that were happening already within different provinces or districts. Based on Equiano’s narrative, he observed “that their subjection to the king of Benin was little more than nominal; for every transaction of the government was conducted by chiefs or elders of the place” (Equiano 5). Based on that, we can see that there were designated chiefs, kings, and judges in
The Columbian Exchange was a critical episode in history that created the first truly global network between the Old and New Worlds (Green). Many goods were recognized for their value instantaneously while the potential profits that other assets could offer were overlooked (Mcneill). Modest in appearance, the cacao bean would eventually develop into one of the most delectable, sought-after beverages by the elite of Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, and eventually France and England. Nonetheless, the history of the cacao bean is a very bittersweet one. Its prominence among Europeans can ultimately be traced to the inhumane labor imposed on Native American captives and African slaves to cultivate cocoa beans as demand in Western Europe augmented by exponential numbers.
Slavery can be found from the beginning of time, and the history of slavery in Africa clearly shows this. It started with Indigenous slavery and then Islamic slavery followed. These two were less harsh than the slavery that surfaced around the 15th century. This new and brutal slavery was never seen before in Africa and it disrupted the society greatly. Humans were thrown into triangular trade like they were nothing more than an animal or piece of property. Many people question why slavery ended, and economical reasons and the morals are the two main causes. It is more pleasing to suggest that it has been ended due to morals, but there is evidence it was ended for economical reasons.
Every year, more and more money is donated to Africa to promote democracy in order to get rid of the powerful coups in many countries through out the continent. While the coups are declining and democratic governments are being established, the economic growth and development of Africa is not anywhere it should be considering the abundant natural resources and coastline that the continent possesses. Even though countries, like the United States of America, donate millions of dollars they are a large reason why Africa is underdeveloped economically. The Trans-Atlantic Slave trade is the most devastating event in the history of the world. Nearly 14,000,000 men, women, and children were displaced, sold into slavery, and killed by the trade routes.(
A lot of movies today are not only created for the cause of enjoyment, however frequently bring a solid lesson the director wishes to carry. In the movie Chocolat (directed by Lasse Hallstorm), Vianne defy the idea that the way of life, repute and their related ethical values do no longer make a person morally right. From the beginning of the film chocolate becomes chocolate transforms into an image of enticement and something prohibited. Vienne enters town during the Lent and within the beginning people are afraid to flavor her chocolate because it is prohibited with the aid of their faith. Comte de Reynaud, a religious mayor of the metropolis, begins a campaign against Vienne and her shop. He states that Vienne’s affect is dangerous and that
In Wendell Berry’s “The Pleasures of Eating,” this farmer tells eaters how their separation from food production has turned them into “passive consumers” who know nothing about the food they eat, or their part in the agricultural process (3). They are blindsided by a food industry that does not help them understand. Berry argues that the average consumer buys available food without any questions. He states consumers that think they are distanced from agriculture because they can easily buy food, making them ignorant of cruel conditions it went through to get on the shelf. Humans have become controlled by the food industry, and regard eating as just something required for their survival. Berry wants this to change as people realize they should get an enjoyment from eating that can only come from becoming responsible for their food choices and learning more about what they eat. While describing the average consumer’s ignorance and the food industry’s deceit, he effectively uses appeals to emotion, logic, and values to persuade people to take charge, and change how they think about eating.
According to E.B. Skinner, author of A WORLD Enslaved, 2008, “There are now more slaves on the planet than at any time in human history. True abolition will elude us until we admit the massive scope of the problem, attack it in all its forms, and empower slaves to help free themselves,” (Pg. 62). Approximately 250,000 restavecs work in Haiti today; most were born into extreme poverty. A restavec is a young, child slave. Poverty in Haiti provides few options for young people and results in greater vulnerability of children. The lack of health care, increase in unemployment, and the continuous cultural stereotypes of Haiti all contribute to the consistency of child slavery in Haiti.
The middle passage was a sea journey by slave ships from West Africa to the West Indies and Americas from 1601-1857 (University). The first successful African author, Olaudah Equiano (Donaldson) portrays the vivid details and personalizes these destructive forces of slave trading during the middle passage. In his narrative, Equiano influenced British abolitionists, as well as European slave masters, and convicted them of their wrongdoing. Slave trading during the middle passage was the most destructive thing to happen within the African culture because of the harsh physical and psychological effects, inhumane treatment, and dehumanization of slaves.
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?
West Africa was greatly impacted by the Atlantic Slave Trade. Though there were countless negative effects, some short-term positive effects did occur. First off, the slave trade directly correlated with the number of wars in Africa. As demand for slaves increased, so did the quantity of wars to capture them. African kingdoms would wage war and go on raids in order to supply prisoners of war to sell. This was a start of a domino effect, in which kingdoms and tribes would capture slaves, trade them for guns to become more powerful, and then use said power to enslave even more people. A vicious cycle was created in Africa as a result of the slave trade. In spite of these negative effects, it is arguable that it was slightly beneficial for a
The aim of this report is to explore food culture base on the the Food Safari Field Trip in week 3, through looking at the evolution of a dish and its history to the three periods of change using sources from the Gastronomy lecture, relevant website and field trip personal experience.
This means that each party can make choices. However in chocolate manufacturing one of the parties is often a large multi million dollar corporation and the other is a small farming company. Concern about the impact of this on small primary producers in developing countries lead to the Fairtrade agreement which Cadburys is a part of. By signing up to the Fairtrade agreement Cadburys agree to buy cocoa at a certain value. Last year Cadburys sold over 7 million chocolate products made with Fair Trade cocoa and this supported 65,000 jobs in