Chocolate and Human Trafficking

I created my first blog back in 2011 after seeing a website that was campaigning for Nestle to use traffick-free chocolate in their kit-kat bars. It shocked the knickers off of me, so I called Nestle in Japan (because I was living in Tokyo at the time) and asked if it was true.

Long story short - their CSR manager told me that human trafficking was a problem in other countries and not Japan, so their CSR program was more concerned with picking up litter in the neighbourhood around their office. I'm not kidding; he actually said that!

GMO Chocolate

I just read an article on the World Economic Forum with the title Chocolate is on track to go extinct in 40 years. The idea is that climate change is going to make conditions unfavourable for cacao trees, which is why scientists are trying to create genetically modified trees to save humanity from a chocolate ice-cream-less future.

Naturally, the first thing that popped into my head was "what impact will this have on human trafficking?"

Unless the trees also grow money, it may not make any difference. Saving a crop which is grown by people who are exploited doesn't change the conditions where exploitation exists. If anything, it would enable it to persist.

Actually, the scientists are teaming up with Mars, so the second thing that popped into my head was "hang on, Mars use actual chocolate in their chocolate bars?" Perhaps I would have known that before if they'd made the effort to use Fair Trade chocolate.