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FACTS

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BOUT CHILD LABOR

THE WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR

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60%oftheIvoryCoastsexportrevenuecomes
fromitscocoa

SLAVERY

investigators have discovered children trafficked

into Western African cocoa farms and coerced to
work without pay
IS SLAVE-FREE CHOCOLATE POSSIBLE?

Within their $60-billion industry,[27] chocolate

companies have the power to end the use of child
labor and slave labor by paying cocoa farmers a
living wage for their product.
RE THE LABELS ON CHOCOLATE
MEANINGFUL?
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In 2009, the founders of the fair trade certification

process had to suspend several of their Western
African suppliers due to evidence that they were
using child labor

The FDA attempted to pass a law back in 2001 that

would enforce slave free labeling on candy
wrappers, but the powerful chocolate companies
( namely Hershey , Mars , and Nestle ) shut down the
legislation with big corporate dollars by promising
self-regulation.
Americans consume 2 . 8 billion pounds of
chocolate each year, or over 11 pounds per person.
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To make matters worse, the number of kids

working in the chocolate slave trade has only
continued to increase. It shot up by a staggering 51
percent from 2009 to 2014 alone.
The terrible reality is that these children, 11 to 16
years old but sometimes younger, are forced to do
hard manual labor 80 to 100 hours a week.
child slave labor according to an article posted by
U.S. Uncut that has now been shared over 1 million
times:
Though the chocolate company controversy
has been widely circulated over the years,
many people are still unaware that they are
funding child slaves in West Africa by buying
from most of the major brands