Ethical Chocolate

Here in the United States, we love chocolate. It makes consumers happy, can give a pick-me-up to someone having a bad day, and kids love it. But not everyone loves chocolate—particularly not the child laborers in West Africa who are forced to make it. Though it’s hard to get accurate figures on trafficking, the International Labor Organization concluded in 2002 that there were about 12,000 child laborers in the Ivory Coast who had been trafficked. Though that number has most likely fallen since then, trafficking and slave labor in the chocolate industry still happen. Ayn Riggs, the Director of Slave Free Chocolate, joins us today to talk about the chocolate industry, her organization, and how we as consumers can make more ethical choices when it comes to our chocolate. To learn more about what you can do to support ethical chocolate, visit www.slavefreechocolate.org.