Cocoa plantations can be ugly sites: wages are notoriously low and forced child labor is commonplace among the Ivory Coast plantations that provide 40% of the world’s cacao.
The fairtrade label guarantees no child labor and nearly double the conventional price for the farming cooperatives, but not all chocolate manufacturers who buy fairtrade beans source exclusively from this ethical alternative.
In this video, Frederick Schilling of Ashland, Oregon’s Dagoba Chocolate explains why some of his chocolate bars carry the label and others don’t.
We also have a video where Frederick explains why he travels the world in support of organic chocolate.