4 ms·

Just curious, how to identify the companies, that use child slavery? Is there a logo on the packaging? How does it look like?

by okr 2y ago

Vinnl 2y ago
It's fairly hard to do, but the ones that make an effort will generally at least have the Fair Trade logo. (UTZ is an weak industry-initiated alternative that does not cut it, as I understand it.)
not_math 2y ago
There's a John Oliver episode about the chocolate industry, you can check it out on YouTube. Of course there's no logo saying the chocolate is made with child slavery, I hope you didn't mean to be snarky here. There are initiatives to try to alleviate the problem, the only example I have in mind right now is Tony's Chocolonely (which explains the problem and their solution on their website) but I'm sure others could come up with other initiatives. The trends from top companies of chocolate is that they try to do as little as possible to alleviate the problem of child slavery in chocolate production.
- Biganon 2y ago
  > Of course there's no logo saying the chocolate is made with child slavery, I hope you didn't mean to be snarky here. ...? Quality labels are a thing, why couldn't an independent NGO overwatch the production?
  - cogman10 2y ago
    It's expensive, easy to bypass, and has little enforcement teeth. Expensive because you need to pay an inspector (ideally multiple to avoid corruption) to visit these farms. Easy to bypass because the kids aren't working the fields all the time and there's plenty of warning an inspector is coming. And the enforcement mechanism is you don't get the label... But like there's plenty of buyers for slave chocolate so that mostly means a minor hit on income. NGO inspectors are better than nothing, but we should be clear eyed in how much they can solve. The only way to significantly reduce slave labor is harsh penalties on companies that trade in slave goods. That was pretty much the only thing that collapsed the ivory market.
  - systemtest 2y ago
    You could buy a large plot of land in Ghana or Nigeria. Start a large cacao plantation. Hire locals to do the labour intensive work for you. And then fly in management from Western European countries to oversee the operation and to make sure that no children set foot on the plantation.
- ScoobleDoodle 2y ago
  I assumed the logo would be on the ones without child slavery. Similar to the organic logo.
tomComb 2y ago
Yes, looking for fair trade labelled products is important, and I also believe it is important to look for the International Fairtrade Certification Mark ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Fairtrade_Certification_Mark https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Fairtrade_Certif... As with any such program, if it is implementing effectively then some companies will chafe at the requirements and try to develop their own fair trade program more to their liking.
yourusername 2y ago
It's all of them. Tony Chocolonely's whole image is to be as fairtrade as possible and even they admit that they can not guarantee no forced labour was used in their production chain.
- systemtest 2y ago
  They could easily insource their entire operation in order to guarantee slave free chocolate, but you would end up with very expensive chocolate. That is probably why they dropped their "100 percent slave free" slogan. They still need to make a profit and at the moment you can only do that with slave labour.
jgeada 2y ago
The logo for "child labor was used in the manufacture of this chocolate" looks exactly like the Nestle logo

Just curious, how to identify the companies, that use child slavery? Is there a logo on the packaging? How does it look like?

by okr 2y ago

Just curious, how to identify the companies, that use child slavery? Is there a logo on the packaging? How does it look like?

Vinnl 2y ago

It's fairly hard to do, but the ones that make an effort will generally at least have the Fair Trade logo. (UTZ is an weak industry-initiated alternative that does not cut it, as I understand it.)

not_math 2y ago

There's a John Oliver episode about the chocolate industry, you can check it out on YouTube. Of course there's no logo saying the chocolate is made with child slavery, I hope you didn't mean to be snarky here. There are initiatives to try to alleviate the problem, the only example I have in mind right now is Tony's Chocolonely (which explains the problem and their solution on their website) but I'm sure others could come up with other initiatives. The trends from top companies of chocolate is that they try to do as little as possible to alleviate the problem of child slavery in chocolate production.

Biganon 2y ago
> Of course there's no logo saying the chocolate is made with child slavery, I hope you didn't mean to be snarky here. ...? Quality labels are a thing, why couldn't an independent NGO overwatch the production?
- cogman10 2y ago
  It's expensive, easy to bypass, and has little enforcement teeth. Expensive because you need to pay an inspector (ideally multiple to avoid corruption) to visit these farms. Easy to bypass because the kids aren't working the fields all the time and there's plenty of warning an inspector is coming. And the enforcement mechanism is you don't get the label... But like there's plenty of buyers for slave chocolate so that mostly means a minor hit on income. NGO inspectors are better than nothing, but we should be clear eyed in how much they can solve. The only way to significantly reduce slave labor is harsh penalties on companies that trade in slave goods. That was pretty much the only thing that collapsed the ivory market.
- systemtest 2y ago
  You could buy a large plot of land in Ghana or Nigeria. Start a large cacao plantation. Hire locals to do the labour intensive work for you. And then fly in management from Western European countries to oversee the operation and to make sure that no children set foot on the plantation.
ScoobleDoodle 2y ago
I assumed the logo would be on the ones without child slavery. Similar to the organic logo.

tomComb 2y ago

Yes, looking for fair trade labelled products is important, and I also believe it is important to look for the International Fairtrade Certification Mark ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Fairtrade_Certification_Mark https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Fairtrade_Certif... As with any such program, if it is implementing effectively then some companies will chafe at the requirements and try to develop their own fair trade program more to their liking.

yourusername 2y ago

It's all of them. Tony Chocolonely's whole image is to be as fairtrade as possible and even they admit that they can not guarantee no forced labour was used in their production chain.

systemtest 2y ago
They could easily insource their entire operation in order to guarantee slave free chocolate, but you would end up with very expensive chocolate. That is probably why they dropped their "100 percent slave free" slogan. They still need to make a profit and at the moment you can only do that with slave labour.

jgeada 2y ago

The logo for "child labor was used in the manufacture of this chocolate" looks exactly like the Nestle logo