CBS News found that kids as young as 5 in Ghana pick cocoa for the candy company Mars.
It was very welll produced by Patta, Sarah Carter,Javier Guzman and Kerry Breen. It aired on
CBS News, November 29, 2023, 7:58 p.m. EST but you can watch here.
CBS News saw kids as young as 5 years old in Ghana picking cocoa beans with machetes that were almost as big as the kids themselves. Really. These beans are used to make some of America's favorite, and least favorite, candies. Their team went to rural cocoa belts in Ghana to see small farms that make food for the American chocolate company Mars, which makes candies like M&Ms and Snickers.
Even though the company said it would have tools in place to get rid of child labor in its supply chain by 2025, we found kids working on all of them. It's now been pushed to 2030. 7 hilarious years of suffering, because, they are 100% GASLIGHTING you! Our society is at the whim of narcissistic corporations that have no mentality other than to make profits ant any human cost. There I have, as an author, written words that have really helped me personally. I hope it helps you to know, our current Silent Depression we are in is worse than in the early '30's. No one is telling you and they are then subsequently, manipulating you into thinking things are going to improve in cocoa . Thats' been the deception, not a misconception, this whole time. This issue has been suppressed as much as any conspiracy in US history. Do people even believe it? Do black lives even concern anyone? I know my audience is welcoming. Im trying to build as an inclusive environment as possible in the comments section. An environment where trafficked children black in this case, matter. As, I've said before, "Chocolate history is black history". And South American obvi...
Mars has also said that it has saved thousands of children and that these children are the beneficiaries of what the planet calls a "strong monitoring system" that is meant to keep kids off of cocoa farms and in schools. It hasn't got a name. At least when Tony's Chocolonely is trying to pull the wool over your eyes they call it, something...Granted.."CLMRS" is not a name but a spelling trick. Sure it stands for something but it is not an actual organization. Its just something the farmers are taught and they inspectors. are taught to ignore. Calling the day ahead of inspection, doesn't help...It always happens. Though.
CBS News got pictures of these lists from a source who didn't want to be named. They were able to confirm that some of the children on the lists were still working in the fields. They are specifically not supposed to be doing that. Bad. Good job CBS though!
One of those kids is Munira, who is 15 years old. Since she was five years old, she has worked in the cocoa fields. Her school is an hour's walk away, and it costs a lot to get there. So, education is a privilege. Her family only got one bag of good cocoa from the trees last year. It only costs about $115 for a 140-pound bag of the item. Island Sharks pays $1900 for that much Hawaiian cocoa. You are NOT an economy major, but you can see that $1900 is more than $115. Every harvest (which is 2 weeks) makes about 300 pounds and some folks will pay $18 a pound. Its a lot to be slave-free! Not a lost of money, a lot of competition thats been destroyed by slavery. Of children.
Kids use machetes to gather cocoa.
Mars hired field managers to go to Munira last year. There was a sign on her backpack that said, "I am a child, I play, I go to school." The family told CBS News that no one had checked to see if Munira was actually in school in the 18 months since the first visit.
"I'm sad. "I want to be a doctor or something," Munira said. "But my family doesn't have money for school."
Gafalo, her 12-year-old brother, also works in the fields, but he wants to be in school with his friends.
Someone in charge of cocoa fields who spoke to CBS News on the condition of anonymity said that "almost every data" used to make the lists "is cooked... or is not accurate." They also said that they had "made up lists before." That'd be the 1.56 million childaren enslaved in cocoa you've been looking for. Talking about. Eating the product of. Giving your children the product of. When we, me and my friends make slave free chocolate already -- curious to the writter -- whats the issue? Are we not good enough to work or make chocolate for you? Why do millions of people buy slave chocolate instead of buying Island Sharks Slave-Free Chocolate? I am willing to do the work of child slaves. I am beggin you please stop buying slave- to bar chocolate, you don't even have to replace it with my chocolate. There are a lot of other great brands out there. Not are all CERTIFIED slve free like us though.
He and other supervisors told CBS News that they were pushed to come up with names, sometimes with only 24 hours' warning. He also said that the companies never checked the information. Fake. News. Mars. Do all the bigger companies make slave chocolate and fabricate data to bar?
"Nobody has come back to check as to whether it's true or not," he stated. The villagers, don't know if its true or not. They don't check. or stop it. This is what us advocates mean when we say, 1.) they have almost zero people in the USA trying to help them and 2.) "child-slavery is normal in some areas. They themselves don't keep track if the children are in school, working other crops illegally or even being bought or sold. Silence on this issue is violence as you will see in this blog.
CBS News talked to a lot of kids whose names were on those lists. None of them were in school, and none of them had been checked on often to make sure they were going.
Are there crickets in Africa because all I can hear is this kids un heard cries for help. Its so , loud. The national silence on this issue is deafening. Its been 120 years America. Your time to have this information communicated to you in a way that complies with white fragility is over.
One child told them, "No one ever came here." This is why Senator Harkin and Engel are failed politicians. Was that child 5, or did they not keep track of all the kids ages either.
Some of the names (and of course ages) on the lists were completely made up. CBS News went to a farm where a list showed that one of the children was no longer working in the cocoa fields. There is no such person as the daughter of the farmer who was named on the list. The person, did not exist. Am I the only one with red flags going up on this problem? Shouldn't three be an immediate national intervention, if not a global one to let all the millions of children stuck in the worst global supply chain issue of all time, out?
CBS News visited a school with 300 registered students, but only a third of them actually showed up to class. Each and every kid said they picked cocoa before or after school. Maybe it really is 2.4 million children enslaved in cocoa. And this is how Tony's makes their money? They are profiting off illegal child-labor and not actually ending it. You have to ask yourself, "does that really qualify as 'great marketing', as so take no so suit with, as if its mind control, or is it terrible marketing -- that washes the brand of all reality of who is really farming their cocoa by representing them as little blue people? I'm not kidding you. They are not trying to put themselves out of business. Tony's is not the slave chocolate by which all other slave chocolate should be judged...No effing way. As I say in my article about Tony's, here..they never claim anywhere ever to be child-slave free. Because they are not.
CBS News also went to a warehouse in Ghana that stores cocoa for Mars. Child labor is "an offense" in the country, according to a warehouse worker who did not want to be named by CBS News. However, the worker could not promise that all the cocoa handled at the facility was made without it. Its not. IMHO.
It was, "I can't say 100%," he said. It was. IMHO. By "My", I mean me this author.
There is a planned class-action lawsuit against American chocolate companies, including Mars, by Terry Collingsworth, a human rights lawyer in the U.S. He has collected comments from Ghanaian kids who work for Mars suppliers, like little boys who do hard work in the fields. Also us, as consumers have all been victims of their fraud, so I hope everyone sees some recompense for all the child slavery they've given to their kids and treat themselves with.
One child was cutting open cocoa pods with a machete blade, and CBS News saw him almost lose a finger. This was not in the video.
"They're telling the public that we're rehabilitating this kid, and then they're cynically coming here and just checking a box and the kid is back working the next day," Collingsworth said to CBS News. Gross. We all have some of this slave chocolate in our houses, cars, offices and purses right now. We've un knowingly been made accomplices for commiting the worst forms on child labor out of any industry. That means on Earth.
A representative for Mars told CBS News in a message:
"We are against putting kids to work."
Even though Mars asked them to, CBS did not give Mars specifics about their investigation ahead of time so that we could look into claims of wrongdoing at the time this story was written. "We take very carefully any claims of wrongdoing in our supply chain. Once we have all the facts, we will do a full investigation and take the right steps," he foolishly ended despite us knowing he knows we know its been going for, ever.
"Our cocoa suppliers in Ghana have agreed to follow our strict Supplier Code of Conduct." The guy covers up by saying to much here and blatanly lies to the camera, thought he was done talking when he first started lyin'. On site, CB also made it clear that by 2025, they must have a Child Labor and Remediation System (CLMRS) in place that meets the highest level set by the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI). More than 65% of the cocoa we buy in West Africa is already certified by CLMRS. But that doesn't mean it is child-slave free, sooo....what are they doing. Our suppliers use it on the ground, and certification groups check it as part of the requirements for Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade certification. You see those groups don't certify for child-slave labor either. Maybe that was the end of his lies.
"We do not agree with the use of child labor. It has no place in our supply chain, and we want to help get rid of it. That's why we have a strong Protecting Children Action Plan that is backed by a big financial investment. Also, we are honest when we say that we know more needs to be done, and we will continue to work hard with everyone in the cocoa industry to help protect human rights in the cocoa supply chain." The CEO or any share holder or even employee answered any more of their questions. Do you have more questions??? I am sure that CBS did. I wonder what they were / are though. But, lets be honest, did you really just want to keep reading lies, and watching this camera crew to being nastily tricked over and over?
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That was the end of the piece. It was really well written and amazing to see the staff in person in Ghana doing the work to heal our global supply chain. I watched that multiple times because I as a non-ai content creator, I want you all to see how authentic, and true to story my posts are. I haven't put any spin on this article. It's exactly as they portray that because child slavery is evil, IMHO.
As your favorite and only known Hawaii resident focusing on the subject, I thank you for reading my work. Please keep saying so because we're making a difference in the world. You don't need to watch CBS. You don't need to watch last week tonight. Stay here for all the latest breakdowns on what's happening with the issue in West Africa. You can, they are just not as in depth as my articles here. In the meantime, we will be making delicious & to-die-for slave-free Hawaiian chocolate -- that is basically brand new. With all new cocoa, butter, and new sugar, we've basically reinvented our entire brand and every single thing we make. Try it! It's more exciting than ever to swim these chocolatey seas with you these days. Looking forward to eating and tasting slave free chocolate with the phenomenal readers of this humble online craft chocolate shop. Shoots, we even have beverages now! Now, to end this thing on a good note; you can drink chocolate fruit! And Cheers! To the future-end, of child-slavery in cocoa. Thanks for reading!
Thank you for making an honest label. Thank you for sharing this labor of love.