Halloween Candy No Treat for African Kids Harvesting Cocoa (1)
Posted October 31, 2019
By Teaganne Finn
Self-regulation isn’t stopping African cocoa growers from exploiting child labor to produce some of the chocolate that will end up in the goody bags of American trick-or-treaters tonight, say human-rights groups that are pressing Congress to step in.
Major chocolate companies including Mars Inc., Nestlé SA, and Hershey Co. committed under an international agreement in 2001 to eradicate child labor from their supply chains and develop standards of public certification by 2005.
“It’s all been forgotten about,” said Ayn Riggs, founder of the non-profit Slave Free Chocolate.