World Vision Good Chocolate Guide Sweet and Fair
By Rita DeMontis
Published on February 11, 2014 in the Toronto Sun
CHOOSE RIGHT CHOCOLATE THIS VALENTINE’S DAY: There’s chocolate — and then there’s World Vision’s Good Chocolate Guide to helping Canadians shop ethically this Valentine’s Day.
Whether they’re on-line or in line, shoppers can use the mobile-friendly guide to find chocolate products that are ethically certified to be child-labour free.
According to the aid agency, child slavery and trafficking is an ongoing problem in the cocoa industry, particularly in West Africa.
The risks for children who work on cacao plantations include everything from injuries from machetes to clean land and cutdown cacao pods to exposure to chemicals, including pesticide, to exhaustion from working long hours in intense heat, abuse from employers and much more.
“Tackling child labour isn’t only up to companies that earn profits from chocolate but also consumers who get pleasure from it,” says Cheryl Hotchkiss, manager of World Vision’s No Child for Sale awareness campaign. “The Good Chocolate Guide will help Canadians indulge in their favourite treats while still being ethical and protecting children.”
According to an Ipsos Poll from last year, about half of Canadians didn’t know that “ethically certified chocolate” was available in Canada.
“Camino’s product portfolio includes over 75 products, primarily chocolate-based, all of which are Fair Trade and organic,” says Jeff Mains, CEO of Camino, a Canadian company featured in the Good Chocolate Guide. “Our direct relationships with our producer partners, along with the Fairtrade certification and logo, is the consumer’s assurance that every ingredient from bean to Camino Bar has been ethically sourced.”
Check out Good Chocolate Guide (Goodchocolateguide.ca).