I cocoa children continue to fuel the 'supply chain' of the chocolate for other children. Colonialism has only changed form, from chains to bars.
Child exploitation in agriculture
World day against child labor, June 12, essentially serves to update the data. According to FAO the exploitation of minors is growing and today at least 152 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are engaged in work, indeed daily slavery. Of these three out of four, no less than 108 million, are exploited in the agricultural sector.
The numbers of child labor, which are confirmed in the studies of ILO (International Labor Organization), continue to grow. Especially among populations living in conditions of poverty. And they nevertheless fuel global supply chains, in palm oil production and especially cocoa.
The map of the phenomenon, if ever needed, once again confirms the worsening of inequalities between the South and the North of the planet. Where Africa and Asia are the continents with the highest percentage of children working in the fields, America and Europe benefit from it.
According to ILO data, over 74 million children are exposed to the serious risks associated with exposure to agrotoxic and pesticides (as confirmed by recent UNICEF study). As well as in the mines. From the caves of Cambodia to tea plantations in Zimbabwe, passing through palm and cocoa monocultures. Minors deport you to plantations with the sadly vain hope of a better life.
The cocoa children
Ivor Coastio and Ghana are the first producers of cocoa worldwide, 60% of global production. And it is the countries where the trafficking of minors takes place - arriving from various West African countries - that are destined for the harvest of cocoa beans.
The multinational giants they govern the supply chain, including through their subsidiaries. Barry Callebaut and Cargill rthey make 50% of the semi-finished product (cocoa mass) globally, to supply Nestlé, Mars, Mondelez, Ferrero, Hershey, ADM, Meiji. The operations that make it possible to purchase the raw material at costs incompatible with a fair remuneration of the workers, of course, are entrusted to intermediaries.
Big food thus grinds the profits in the clear, without getting your hands dirty with the exploitation that is purposely outsourced. It declines all responsibility for serious violations of the human rights fundamental, providing if anything to impress the public with some small 'facade' operation. After all, the international agencies are limited to collecting the data and the consumer associations themselves remain harmless.
Prices of raw materials they are set every year by the governments of the (former?) French and British colonies, which pay the farmers the difference between these prices and the quotation recognized by the market. But they must not remain frugal, to avoid the reprimands of the International Monetary Fund which monitors the solvency of their debts towards the banks of the North of the world. So this year Abidjan cut the price by 30% compared to the previous year (in anticipation of an 18% increase in yields).
On a global market of cocoa and derivatives which is worth 124 billion dollars only 9 billion (that is to say, 7,3%) go to those who produce the raw material, 28 to the producers of semi-finished products (cocoa paste), 87 to those who make finished products . This explains why only one 'world day' is dedicated to child labor, which also falls at the heart of the annual cocoa campaign. No party for the little bean pickers.
Child exploitation in our spending
How much does our food expenditure affect? on child exploitation, as well as on the abuse of workers' rights in more general terms? More than we unsuspecting consumers could imagine, he warns Oxfam in its recent report ''Repeat for change',' Ripe for Change'.
The label does not tell anything about these abuses, and it is therefore essential to rely on those brands that can offer effective guarantees. Such as certifications, such as SA 8000 e Fair trade. Or even the self-certifications of industrial groups that can be trusted, as they are able to demonstrate concrete and consistent information with the indispensable guarantee of respect for the inviolable rights of minors.
'Let me play just for fun, with nothing else, just for fun. Without understanding, without learning, without the need to socialize. Only one child with other children. Without the adults always close by, without a project, without judgment with an end but without the beginning, with a tail but without the head just for pretense, only for a party. Only by flame that burns by fire. Just let me play for the game'. (Dorothy Law Nolte)
Big food vice versa he relies on greenwashing, a 'green tint' dictated by marketing for commercial purposes only but without any substance. As long as the consumers will allow it. Until?
Dario Dongo and Jessica Trombin
Footnotes
(1) It seems that two of the eight sustainable development goals escape the aforementioned giants. The elimination of poverty and the achievement of universal primary education, among others
(2) 2015 data. Source Bloomberg Business Forum, NYC, September 2017
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
