Chocolate and Slavery: Child Slave Labor Practices on the Cocoa Farms - Essay Example

Chocolate Chocolate: Discovering if the knowledge of child slave labor practices on the farms of West Africa would change consumption in the U.K. Client’s Name Name of University Chocolate 2 Abstract Chocolate is a favorite treat for most people. However, the dark mostly unknown or unacknowledged secret that taints the delight of this confection is that approximately two thirds of the cocoa beans that are grown come from West Africa where the use of child slave labor is prevalent. Exact figures are undetermined, but the use of this product constitutes support of some of the most abusive violations of human rights known across the world. Children are subjected to beatings and whippings that leave scars in their flesh along with a lack of nutrition and an education, leaving them underdeveloped and unprepared for life. The nature of this study is to find out if having an understanding of the real life horrors of the cocoa farms would have an affect on the buying public in the U.K. Using a questionnaire and by determining statistical relevancies, this study will attempt to show that knowing about these horrors would change the buying habits of consumers. In addition, public awareness might show a movement that would stop the growers from being economically supported if they were discovered for using child labor. As the statistics are analyzed the results will reveal if public awareness promotes ethical behavior or if the consumer appetite for chocolate outweighs any moral outrage this subject might create. Chocolate 3 Chocolate: Discovering if the knowledge of child slave labor practices on the farms of West Africa would change consumption in the U.K. Introduction Cocoa has mysterious beginnings with romantic connotations that rival the delicate sweet of the resulting confection. Cocoa is seen from the earliest times in Meso America where the Aztecs left behind jars that have inscriptions that suggest its use and residue that is identified as chocolate. The artifacts date back to 500 to 800 C.E (Grivetti & Shapiro 2009: xxvii). Chocolate was mixed into drinks and gruels, and even still is used in certain sauces for main dishes in the traditions of Mexican cooking. The bean is now used in a variety of ways to enhance and create confections and deserts that illicit the fires of passion and ignite feelings of indulgence and decadence. During the time of Easter, Britons will consume some 86 million chocolate eggs (Slave Free Chocolate 2010). U. K. consumers buying chocolate saw a steady increase between 2002 and 2007 of approximately 2.7% each year (Report Linker 2010). David Lester, in 1991, published a report that showed a correlation between the consumption of chocolate and the suicide rate in various European studies. While dated, the information does show that there is a .63 ratio for chocolate, but only a .12 ratio for sugar. However the other interesting chemical association that can be made to chocolate is that it helps encourage the hormones that secrete during the feelings of love, simulating that emotion (Malakh-Pines 2005: 151). Eating chocolate is more complicated than just the enjoyment of the confection. However, chocolate has a nasty underbelly within the story of its contemporary production. Unfortunately, this human rights travesty has only marginally improved while Chocolate 4 chocolate has not been universally rejected because of the nature of its modern origins. A great portion of the chocolate that is consumed comes from West Africa where boys are used for slave labor, trafficked as merchandise and poorly abused during their time working on the farms. Research Questions 1. What percentage of the population is aware of the use of child slave labor in the farming of cocoa beans? 2. How many consumers boycott chocolate in protest of the use of child slave laborer in the farming of cocoa beans? 3. How many consumers would change their chocolate buying habits when the condition of child slave labor was revealed in regard to the farming of cocoa beans? 4.What is the general opinion on child slave labor? 5. Having been aware of the child slave labor involved in farming cocoa beans, would the consumer change his or her buying habits? In order to understand the way in which ethical considerations are valued by the chocolate buying public, an initial secondary research of the relevant literature will help to create a picture of the topic. Before any primary research is accomplished, a thorough understanding of the background of the problem will provide a foundation on which to assess the relevant information found in the study. Chocolate 5 Hypotheses Null Hypothesis: When consumers in the UK come to understand the plight of children used as slave labor on the cocoa farms their consumption of chocolate will change and become a boycott to promote change. Alternative Hypothesis: When consumers in the UK come to understand the plight of children used as slave labor on the cocoa farms of West Africa their consumption of chocolate will not change and there will not be a boycott to promote change. Literature Review Introduction In order to properly conduct this study, it is first important to create an understanding of the relevant literature to the topic. In studying the affect of the knowledge of West African child slave labor usage on the consumer, one must first understand the history of the crops. Then it must be discovered what the context of the child slave labor trade is within West Africa and what steps have been made to stop its continuation. Finally, understanding the way in which ethics plays a role in consumer activity will have an affect on the way in which the outcome of the primary research of the study can be put into relative context. History of cocoa farms in West Africa One of the most important industries for West Africa is that of growing and exporting cocoa beans. As an agricultural phenomenon, the growth of cocoa beans as a commodity is relatively new. With a start in 1858, by 1911 the cocoa bean was a major source of income for the West African region. The first export was a mere 80 pounds of beans in 1891, which rose to 88.9 million by 1911. In the span of just over twenty years, this crop became a major part of the Chocolate 6 West African export business. By 1951 the amount sold rose to 300,000 tons and created one third of the export income of the region (Shillington 2005: 570). Child labor The issue of child labor has an unsettling affect on the world. However, the use of consumer goods that are the result of child labor is more prevalent than the average consumer likes to contemplate. There are about 186 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 working in the world which is about 15.5 percent of the children of the world (Kris-Katos 2006: 20). The reason that children are put to work is most often related to the poverty of the family. However, in some cases, children are kidnapped and trafficked for labor (Bales & Soodalter 2009: 152). Child labor in the cocoa farms of West Africa is a problem with some of the worst stories of abuse imaginable. According to Bales and Soodalter (2009) an HBO special revealed that children on these farms suffer from deplorable conditions and some of the worst ill-treatment. There are pictures of the backs of children who have deep scars from being whipped. Some of the children who were freed were in a mal-nourished state with afflictions that severely stunted growth and development (152). The labor that is used in West Africa is most often that of child slave labor as a result of human trafficking (Chanthavong 2002). Ethics in consumerism Complying with the need to end child slave labor by ending the use of products that result from this human rights atrocity is more difficult than originally considered. It sounds simple to end the use of that labor by boycotting the use of the cocoa beans, but this would devastate the economy of West Africa, causing more issues. Just as difficult is defining which beans come from farms with poor labor practices since the beans are not purchased directly, but purchased by Chocolate 7 the government who then turns and sells them to the companies who will use them. This practice means that the beans cannot be identified for their specific farm origin (Bales & Sooderalter 2009: 151). The solution was to create a treaty that suggested that this sort of activity would not be tolerated. The Ivory Coast does not condone or allow the practice of slavery . However, to decide to not tolerate an act is far different than making changes in the practice. The Harkin-Engel Protocol was designed to set standards by which the chocolate industry would eliminate the use of farms that use child labor by 2005. According to Slave Free Chocolate 2010, an organization designed to promote the end to child slave labor in West Africa, these standards were not met and were extended until 2008, from which that deadline was also not met. The issue has yet to be resolved and the child slave labor continues to plague the industry. However, this does not mean that all avenues have been unsuccessfully traveled. Cadbury announced that its most popular product would attain Fairtrade certification by the end of the summer of 2009 (Slave Free Chocolate 2009). This means that the Milk Chocolate bar would no longer be created using beans from farms known to have slave labor. However, according to Slave Free Chocolate (2009), little progress has been made in putting an end to the child slave labor in West Africa. These small victories have the effect of marketing the issue, but do not end the slavery itself. Awareness and Action According to Harrison (2005), every time you purchase an item you are placing a vote for that item and for the ways in which it has reached the shelves (50). In 2001, the ECRA (Ethical Consumer Research Association) published Manifesto for Change which focused on the governmental responsibilities in purchasing, taxing, and promoting ethical responsibilities in Chocolate 8 manufacturing (Hilton 2003: 321) . It is the consumer, however, that has the greatest power. No matter how much the government makes it difficult for a product to reach the market, the consumer ultimately has the choice whether or not to purchase the product. According to Norton, it is the consumer who has the ultimate power when it comes to providing companies with real incentives to change ethical choices. Using the information that the ECRA provides for the background of each company allows the consumer to be informed without having to use detective work to discover which companies have ethical practices and which do not have ethical practices (207). The ECRA has launched a website magazine that has reports that are relevant to issues of ethical consumerism. According to a 2006 article about the ethics of chocolate consumption in association to child labor, the most promising brand of chocolate to buy is Vegan Organica Chocolate with a rating of 15.5 on the ethics scale of 20 devised by the association. Divine and Dubble, and Vegan Organica have the overall highest ratings for ethical production and distribution (Scott 2006). Examples of information that is available allow for the ethical consumer to be aware of the practices that different companies have concerning chocolate and to make informed decisions. According to a December 2009 report on chocolate in Ethics Consumer, Nestle remains on the bottom of the ethical product list of chocolate manufacturers. With the announcement that Kit Kat bars will carry the Fairtrade label after January of 2010 (Ethics Consumer 2009), there is some speculation that perhaps that part of the Nestle brand will have some possibility of conforming to more ethical practices. However, the article states that there is some doubt that the bar will have an effective change since it does not contain much in the way Chocolate 9 of chocolate. There is continuing encouragement to boycott all Nestle products. Another example of the way in which the website spreads information on ethical product production and distribution is in reporting current issues that will affect the current ethical rating of a product. According to a January 2010 article in the online magazine, Kraft is attempting to purchase Cadbury, a U.K. company that has effectively put into practice some more ethical standards that have resulted in tentative seals of approval for some of its products. As previously stated, Cadbury announced that it had achieved Fairtrade certification for its most popular chocolate bar (Slave Free Chocolate 2009), however, should Kraft take over the Cadbury company the score of the Cadbury bar would automatically drop from 5 to 3.5, giving it an even lower ethical rating. This type of current reporting allows consumers to purchase according to current events as well as standard assumed information. Methodology and Methods In order to conduct a viable study on the attitudes of consumers and how those attitudes would change should the realities of the child slave labor usage for the growth of cocoa beans be revealed, a questionnaire will help to focus the statistical context of the questions. Using quantitative methods, this study will show that one of two hypotheses are accurate in regard to the research. The following is a breakdown of the methodology that will be used for the study. Secondary Research Secondary research was conducted through searches of relevant databases and published books that have information that is relevant to the study. After a sufficient number of works were read and evaluated, they were assembled according to common themes and topics. The Chocolate 10 information that was found within the literature helps to support the main goal of this study. According to Babbie (2007), the concept of doing secondary research was developed in the 1960’s so that previously related research could be utilized (277). This study will use the relevant literature as a foundation for the hypotheses. Primary Research Primary research will be conducted through the approach of non-probability sampling in which a man-on-the-street approach will allow for a general perspective on the topic to be revealed. As the research will use the non-probability method of sampling, the researcher is acknowledging that research that is completely void of bias is difficult, if not impossible to attain (Trochim 2006). Therefore, the method will not be an attempt at avoiding all bias, but in learning to understand the existing biases and how they may be positively utilized within the community. In addition, while the report is not intended to eliminate bias, it does intend to create a foundation upon which a growth in awareness can take plaice. A pilot study will create a deeper understanding of any issues that the initially developed research might pose. A group of 10 people who consist of some personally interviewed respondents and some to test the internet survey will allow for the researcher to both judge the reactions of the participants to the questions and the feasibility of the internet as a resource for participants. Once the pilot study has been completed, the final questionnaire will be produced and the study will commence. Once the questionnaires are finalized, 500 people will be contacted and asked to fill out surveys that will eventually divulge the information about child slave labor that is being used in West Africa. The survey will begin with questions that have a general overview of the Chocolate 11 respondents chocolate consumption habits, then move to questions that are relevant to ethical consumerism habits, then finally reveal the issue of slave labor and test to see how they chocolate consumer habits will change or if they will change at all. The survey will be best conducted if it can be developed so that three pages of 5 questions each are answered sequentially without the opportunity to go back or to see ahead of the survey. The respondents will be gathered using internet resources in order to collect as many completed questionnaires as possible in the shortest amount of time. Several methods of distribution would be used to maximize the level of response. The first group of respondents would be gathered using internet forums for chocolate related products. The second group will be gathered through the use of www.facebook.com in order to find people who have no particularly personal connection to chocolate related topics. Other resources that are found during the activity of seeking out respondents on the internet will be used as needed to complete the research group of participants. Once the data is collected, the questionnaires will be used to fill in a SWOT analysis grid so that it can then be used to discover statistical ratios and percentages that are relevant to the research questions. From this analysis, answers to the research questions will find relevance to the study and prove one way or another the hypothesis. Conclusion In creating this study, care has been taken to understand the nature of the cause that will be supported during the research. Child slave labor is the type of thing that a society must make a decision upon and then act. When the horrific thing leads to a desired result, such as the Chocolate 12 proliferation of chocolate, consumers sometimes disassociate themselves from the action in order to continue purchasing their desired product. However, when faced with the facts, consumer behavior will hopefully be changed in order to support the changes that should occur within the world. The history of the cocoa industry in West Africa is almost miraculous because of the quick rise of the farming under difficult conditions. The economies of the various regions of West Africa are supported by this trade and much of their economic health would be affected by boycotting their product. However, this method of restricting their income would force them to change the way in which they work their fields. If this change never took place, the result would be the crash of their economies. When the use of child slave labor comes to light, the ethical consumer in the UK would have a hard time continuing to eat the chocolate that comes from their misery It is the intention of this study to provide a framework of proof that knowledge of this devastating situation would promote action. With questionnaires designed to test the knowledge, then inform the consumer, and then gauging their reaction to that knowledge, the research itself should provide action that will move past the theoretical applications of the statistics to the realities of the choices of the consumer. Upon knowing about the horrors of child slave labor, the reaction of the consumer will be driven by an ethical choice. Chocolate 13 References Babbie, E. (2007). The practice of social research. Belmont, CA, Thomson Wadsworth. Bales, K. (2007). Ending slavery: how we free todays slaves. Berkeley, University of California Press. Chanthavong, S. (2002). Chocolate and slavery: Child labor in Cote d’Ivoire. 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Beyond the boycott: labor rights, human rights, and transnational activism. New York, Russell Sage Foundation. Slave Free Chocolate. (2010). Slave free chocolate: coalition to end child slavery on West African cocoa farms. Retrieved from http://www.slavefreechocolate.org/index.html Sislin, J., & Murphy, K. (2009). Approaches to reducing the use of forced or child labor: summary of a workshop on assessing practice. Washington, DC, National Academies Press. Trochim, W. M. K. (2006) Probability sampling. Research Methods Knowledge Base. Retrieved from www.socialresearchmethods.ne t/kb/ sampprob.php Read More