an NGO classifies brands that are ethically to be banned

Ethical Consumer compared the different brands of chocolate, according to several criteria, from respect for human rights to respect for the environment. The NGO calls on consumers to be responsible.

The British NGO Ethical Consumer publishes a study on which chocolate brands to favor and which to ban. Among those classified “mediocre”, the organization cites in particular the Ferrero brand. Cadbury and Mars are also part of it and are “to avoid”. According to the NGO, only 17 brands out of 82 use chocolate to guarantee a sufficient living wage for farmers, so that parents have the means to provide for their family’s needs.

As the British newspaper recalls The Guardian, already three years ago, a report published by a research center at the University of Chicago revealed that 43% of children living in cocoa growing areas in Ghana and Ivory Coast were subjected to child labor. dangerous, more than a million and a half children. However, chocolate manufacturers committed to eradicating child labor on cocoa farms in 2001.

The Guardian notes that the agri-food giants all now have their so-called “sustainable development” programs and are defending themselves by highlighting them. Ferrero explains that it has “paid all farmers a cash bonus on top of the commercial price” and Mars claims to have “launched a Cocoa strategy that addresses farmers’ income and well-being in a multidimensional way”because it would be, according to the company, “proved that salary alone is not the solution.”

Farmers earn less than one euro per day

A point of view not really shared by the NGOs who have been repeating for years what looks like a great, ordinarily simple truth, according to which there will be no sustainable chocolate until the living income of those who produce it is not insured. However, according to the French Development Agency, if manufacturers sell 100 billion dollars of chocolate each year, farmers earn less than one per day.

As Christmas approaches, the NGO Ethical Consumer invites consumers to favor companies that put human rights at the heart of their commercial strategy: “Most of the world’s chocolate is grown in West Africa, where working conditions for farmers are generally terrible. But it is European and British consumers who consume most of it. So we have power and a huge responsibility for living conditions” of these workers”, points out the NGO. It is therefore up to consumers to ensure that the chocolate bar is less unfair.