Chocolate is an essential part of everyone’s Valentine’s Day experience, whether you’re single or taken. In fact, for many of us (especially as females) it is part of our everyday lives (Valentine’s Day or not). In the wake of post-Valentine’s Day sales, many of us will take the opportunity to stock up.
There is a dark side to chocolate, though, that few of us know about: much of it is produced through slavery and child labor. Chocolate farmers are exploited and paid very little for their labor, and a staggering 2 million children work long hours in the blistering sun – receiving only rags for clothing, some food and machete scars for their trouble.
Some of our favorite brands are guilty of receiving their cocoa from such sources, including Hershey’s, Nestle, Mars, Godiva and ADM Cocoa and more. It adds a whole new meaning to the phrase “guilty pleasure.”
Luckily, there are dozens of fair trade chocolate companies we can turn to in order to fulfill our cravings. Here are five companies whose cocoa is ethically sourced:
1. Trader Joe’s Chocolate is great. Their chocolate is organic and fair trade, and you can probably find one of their stores in your area.
2. Endangered Species Chocolate
This one is a triple threat: it’s organic, fair trade and some of the profits go toward helping conserve endangered species. In fact, Endangered Species Chocolate promises that 10% of their yearly net profits are donated to their partners, with each partner guaranteed a minimum of $10,000 a year. I’ve seen them carried at Kroger and you can buy them online, so they are readily available.
Divine Chocolate takes fair trade a step further: according to its website, it’s “co-owned by the 85,000 farmer members of Kuapa Kokoo” who provide the cocoa for the company’s chocolate. That means that the farmers get “a share in the profits, a say in the company, and a voice in the global marketplace”. It also funds investments in training and mentoring the community’s women.
This is another company that is worker-owned, empowering the farmers and allowing them to provide for themselves. The chocolate is also organic and produced using environmentally sustainable farming techniques.
Lake Champlain is another company that establishes direct relationships with cocoa farmers in Guatemala and other markets, and funds a World Cocoa Foundation scholarship to help empower women and educate young people in Ivory Coast, Africa, which is a large source of the world’s cocoa.
There are dozens of other fair trade chocolate companies that you can try out. You can find a comprehensive list here here.
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