when Tony’s Chocolonely started up based on slave free, the financial journals were doing headlines like “will they be able to survive this bold new direction?”
They eventually found the cocoa market to be almost impossible to separate from slavery. They still do their best, which is a lot more than most, but they don't make any guarantees
They have some argument for doing business with one of the largest processors who’s not the worst but not provably ethical. Discouraging.
At Tony’s, we exist so make all chocolate 100% slave-free, not just our own. That means climbing into the lion’s den and tackling change from within. It means getting to the root of the problem and paving the way for others by proving the scalability of our solutions.
Surprised that the processor, Barry Callebaut, is down for Tony to publish such blunt criticism of them. It’s like “don’t worry, Barry’s made a totally separate production line for us - only the Barry’s non-Tony production line contains the slave blood!”
The biggest problem with claiming to be slave free is that you need to own the farms to make sure, which means the locals don't get those profits either.
Whittaker's is slave free but they can't advertise it because they support the local economies ... which means they can't be reasonably sure slaves aren't used when they're not looking.
I'm parsing this, but here is their explanation:
https://tonyschocolonely.com/uk/en/why-we-still-wont-say-were-100-slave-free
why is it in quotes
Because slavery is so prevalent in cocoa farms that it's impossible to guarantee that no slave labor was used. Even if they make an effort use ethical sources they still can't make that guarantee.
Well, yeah, but also, if this is Nestlé, it's likely just too expensive to make sure.
Gotta have that unsustainable, permanent growth.
We are (big air quotes) "slave free".
ironically slave free …
It's the cartoon style. Notice the curve after "WE'RE" and above the c in "chocolate"
If I see quotes like that on packaging, I treat it as a verifiable lie
John Oliver covered this on Last Week Tonight. tl;dw Cocoa is almost exclusively grown in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire, two West African countries. Most of these farms are family run and there are millions of them. All the Cocoa they produce is purchased by a few companies who dictate price. Because they buy at such a low price, the only way these farms make money is if they force children in their families to work the farm for no compensation. Ie. Child slavery.
After watching that episode I started going out and buying, Tony Chocolonely. Gotta support good businesses.
Sadly I don't know how slave free Tony Chocolonely is, I was reading up about this the other day and they have been removed from the slave free chocolate list due to ties with big coco.
Article talking about it's removal - https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2021/02/16/Tony-s-Chocolonely-axed-from-Slave-Free-Chocolate-list-defends-ties-with-Barry-Callebaut
Slave free chocolate list - https://www.slavefreechocolate.org/ethical-chocolate-companies/
Hope this is helpful :)
Not just children in their family, even children from other regions are kidnapped and forced to work on the farms. It's genuine, old fashioned, slavery.
Y'all need to read about the chocolate wars and the trade of it if you're surprised about this. Now is also the one time in history where chocolate has been it's most ethical and least slavery driven. Chocolate has never been 100% ethical
Oh the printers always screw that up.
"We're Slavers. Free Chocolate!"
There, fixed.
Lionel Hutz
No it's "slave free tm." Wich is just a trademark not a declaration.
Now with 40% less slavery!
* Only applies to packaging.
*made by sustainable inmates
Sustainably sourced inmates is great and all, but are they carbon neutral?
Is that like gluten free? How many slaves are ground into a regular bar of chocolate?
It depends on how dark it is.
I like my chocolate like I like this joke. Dark.
Free Ghanian slaves! *
(*with purchase of regular-priced Ghanian slaves)
Wonder if it's like cagefree or free range chicken where the label is actually meaningless and could be actively misleading and still legal.
Yeah probably when they say "slave free," they mean
our slaves are free because we don't have to pay for them 💡 😁
"Free as in free beer, not free as in freedom"
They call them serfs now. Feudalism is back baby.
Feudalism is back in the menu boys!
If it's chocolate, definitely yes. If it's Nestle, also definitely yes.
And Mars, and Hershey
Wait til you learn where much of organic bat guano fertilizer is sourced.
Well shit
The bat cave?!
So other political and economic systems do not have a history of slaves too? Whenever I see things blaming capitalism for our issues I worry as it means we are no laser focused on the root cause of these sorts of issues…centralized powers getting too big and unchecked no matter their political flavour.
Most have a history, yes.
But the slavery with nestle is still going on.
Any social hierarchy requires centralized power. It just happens that capitalism is the dominant economic system in the world today that reinforces that hierarchy. The problem is social hierarchy. If only there was an economic system that seeks to abolish hierarchy. Oh well, guess we’ll keep looking…
