REAL SIDE OF CHOCOLATE by Juana Almanzar

 Dear Chocolate lover:

        

              Umm….. Chocolate! Sounds good right? But do really know the process of making chocolate? Do you know the dark side of chocolate? Well get ready because the real side of chocolate is not that pretty.

              Children have to deal a lot with chocolates. Not only do they make chocolates but it is against their will. Children’s role on farms is they dried up beans and cut the cocoa beans and cut the cocoa pods with very dangerous machete, which could harm the children. Children get many injuries from working in cocoa fields. In the passage, “ Child slavery and chocolate: All too easy to find,” it says, “Scars crisscross Yacou’s legs from a machete. He can’t clear grass in the cocoa fields without cutting himself.” This shows how ruthless people can be giving little kids machetes.

              There many ways to stop child labor. One of them   is by not eating chocolate made from child labor or eat Fair Trade chocolate. Fair Trade chocolate is a program that guarantees farmers a minimum price for heir output. In the passage, “Reverse Trick-or-Treaters,” it says, “The world’s largest chocolate manufactures agreed in 2001 to ensure that their products are not grown and processed on farms where the “worst farms of child labor,” such as trafficking children are compulsory labor, persist.” This shows how they made an agreement but they're not following it.

              So how do you feel about chocolate now? Can you imagine these children making chocolate and not getting paid just for you to buy them?

Let’s continue to put the pressure on these companies and spread the word.