Is the chocolate you are about to eat keeping children in slavery?

Do you know what goes into the making of your favorite chocolate treat? 

Hundreds of thousands of children work in West Africa to produce cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate. The US Department of State reported that more than 100,000 children work under the “worst forms of child labor” in the Ivory Coast. And 10,000 of those are victims of human trafficking or slavery. Add to that, these children work incredibly long hours, use dangerous tools and are exposed to toxic pesticides. And we haven't even touched on the fact that because these children work long hours they are denied access to an education. 

Clearly, we would never allow this to happen to children in America. So should we stop eating chocolate? How can we help end this injustice? It's a daunting task to do all the research on our own to find out which companies perpetuate this abuse and which do not. Well, I have great news. Someone has done all the work for us. Check out Free2Work.org. Select the industry you want to find out about in the drop-down menu. Voila - you'll discover a list of brands with a grade assigned assessing their practice and impact.  

One of my favorite guilty pleasures? Dove chocolate. I discovered they received a "D" rating. Looks like I need to find out where I can purchase Divine Chocolate or Sweet Earth Chocolates instead of Dove.

Let me know what you discover!

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