The Dark Side of Chocolate by Angelina Aybar

The Dark Side of Chocolate

By Angelina Aybar

   Dear Reader,

      

            Did you know that child labor has been going on for years? People have done so many things to stop it, but they just keep on. That’s why I want to do something about it. These kids from West Africa harvest cocoa. They are taken away from their family and go and work cultivating cocoa. Farmers need to stop telling kids to work, so that they can go to school and stay with their family. This need to stop NOW!                 

           “ One of the concerns we’ve  seen is that some of the activities children are involved in are inappropriate to their age : carrying heavy loads, using machetes on farms,” said Bill Guyton, president of the world cocoa foundation, a developer of several industry-supported training sessions in cocoa- growing regions of Africa , southeast Asia , and the Americans. “Through farmer, we explain to parents why activities are dangerous to young people.” Everything he said is right. I don’t like how kids have to work at ages 5-12. These kids should be in school, not working. These kids get hurt working. These people need to stop making kids doing this. These kids are in danger.

 

          Some courses of action can be in the holidays like Halloween and valentines when they give out more chocolate for kids. In Halloween the kids go trick or treating. We can support reverse trick or treating because according to the article Reverse Trick or Treaters Deliver Fair Trade Chocolate by Ben Block, “the exchange students from India, Indonesia, Mozambique, and Switzerland joined trick or treaters in the suburbs of Washington DC, to deliver Fair Trade Chocolate. Dressed in masks and outfits reminiscent of the film The Matrix, a group of foreign exchange students celebrated their first Halloween in proper fashion on Saturday in the suburbs of Washington DC. But the classmates turned the US tradition on its head. In addition to accepting candy, the students handed back their own fair trade-certified, organic dark chocolate.”

       

   “Little Chocolate hands leads to small chocolate faces eyes filled with the hope of more than just $1 dollar a day.” From the poem Cocoa beans By Frieda Dennis Cooper is a reminder to all of us of the dark side of chocolate. How long will this darkness continue?