Valentine's Day, Part II

Chances are, the first word that comes to mind when you hear "Valentine's Day" is... chocolate.

Unfortunately, one of the first words that is now coming to mind when you hear "chocolate" is... slavery.

This blog generally looks at issues of child sexual exploitation, but it's important to remember that there are many ways children are forced into slavery around the world.  And it pains me that one of my favorite things in the world is often brought to my local stores through the blood, sweat, and tears of child labor.

Free2Work has put together a site where you can investigate how certain companies are faring in the use of slave labor.  The fact that we can now educate ourselves about the best place to put our money is the good news.

The bad news is... most of our chocolate producers are getting C's and D's in the slave labor grading system.  (This system is based on what Free2Work can gather via publicly available information/lack of action.)

Want to see why the likes of Godiva, MARS and Hershey are receiving D's?  Check out Free2Work's list and reasoning here: http://www.free2work.org/products?cat=21.  An overview of how the major companies scored (as of V-Day 2009) can also be viewed here:
http://www.laborrights.org/sites/default/files/publications-and-resources/ChocolateScorecard09.pdf.

Eating chocolate may never be guilt-free... but by looking for ways to buy slave-free chocolate, it can be much less so.

Image by ulterior epicure