Hi everyone! Last week, when I was working on a school project I stumbled across some facts about chocolate that surprised me! When I told my dad about it, we found a documentary about it, and it was very enlightening. So naturally I'm here to share my thought on chocolate. 

    Chocolate. It's the love food right? Gooey, sticky, hard, cold, it comes in many different forms and every one loves it. Except me. I can already hear your gasps, "You don't like CHOCOLATE?!" I've never liked chocolate, I don't know why. The taste and smell always turned me off.  

    Chococolate is grown in Africa, and a little bit in south america now. They grow on cacao trees, as cocoa beans. Roughly 2/3s of cocoa is grown in Africa.

It is grown on plantations, which are like giant cocoa jungles! So where exactly does it come from in Africa? Well here's what wikipedia says, "with 43% sourced from Ivory Coast,[34] where child labor is a common practice to obtain the product."

   This surprised me, even I had known before that there was child labor involved in making it. You see, it says child labor is a COMMON practice. Wikipedia also says, "It is estimated that more than 1.8 million children in West Africa are involved in growing cocoa." 

    Well what is the work like? Maybe it's not so bad. I found out it is very dangerous work using machetes, pestisides, and Save the Children Fund saw "young children carrying 6 kilograms (13 lb) of cocoa sacks so heavy that they have wounds all over their shoulders."Some of the companys that use child labor are Nestle, and Hershey among many others. 

    Now when I recommend that you watch the documentary 'The Dark Side of Chocolate' if you want to learn more about this. You can find it on youtube for free, and it isn't very long.

       

   So all I'm asking of you is that next time you're in the store looking at the chocolate, remember these children who are out there working, trafficked from their homes. What would you do if they were your children, nephews or nieces, siblings? 

    

   Sincerely, Rachel