• Food and beverages

    • Your choice of what to eat and drink has global consequences. Here is a brief introduction to some of the things that are going on 'behind the scenes'.

    • Food_and_beverages

  • Chocolate

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  • tons eaten
  • globally, this year

    • Chocolate is big business

    Globally, chocolate is a 80 billion US dollars market. This is the size of the economies of the 21 poorest countries in Africa. Only 6 to 8 percent of the chocolate revenues make it back to the cocoa farmers.

    It's delicious but dirty

    Child labor and slavery have been found in many of the plantations that supply cocoa to major chocolate brands.

    ...and dangerous

    One of the most common pesticides used on cocoa in West Africa is lindane, a toxic organochlorine cousin of DDT. Not exactly healthy for the farmers, and not healthy for you either if there are pesticide residues in the harvest.

    The good news

    Organic fair trade chocolate is widely available! No pesticides, and often with a richer taste. Look for these when you shop for chocolate.

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