Visit our cocoa homepage to find out how you can help end child slavery in the cocoa fields.

The BBC’s 2010 Panorama documentary, Chocolate — The Bitter Truth, contains stunning and disturbing evidence that the worst forms of child labor are still widespread in Ghana and Ivory Coast. Most chilling is the pervasiveness of children who are missing from their homes in Burkina Faso, because they have been trafficked into the cocoa fields.

The film also documents the success of the Fair Trade system in identifying and resolving cases of abusive child labor in the cocoa industry.

In the sourcing of cocoa, there are several basic characteristics that all must be fulfilled in order to eliminate abusive child labor from the cocoa supply chain. Some of the foremost examples are:

  1. Paying farmers a high enough price for their cocoa that (a) the price covers that full costs of production (including adult hired labor) and (b) farmers can afford their families’ basic human needs, including food, shelter, health care, and education for their children
  2. An inspection and enforcement system that identifies and remedies cases of illegal child labor, including (1) assistance to affected children, such as the provision of educational opportunities for children who have been working and family reunification for trafficked children, and (2) consequences for farmers using child labor
  3. Traceability of cocoa to the farm level, so that farmers who use child labor, and the chocolate companies that source their cocoa from child labor farms, can be identified and held accountable

Systems to address abusive child labor will fail without all three of these characteristics.

Global Exchange sees the Fair Trade system as the best answer to abusive child labor because its certification infrastructure includes all three of these characteristics, unlike other institutions in the cocoa trade.

The video can be viewed here.



Fair Trade Smores Newsflashes:

  1. We need your help. Celebrate Labor Day with Fair Trade Smores, and help end abusive child labor in the cocoa fields.
  2. Just released! Watch the 2009 We Want More from Our Smores video (see below.)
  3. Remember to send in your We Want More from Our Smores petitions.

At your Labor Day barbeque, campfire, or bonfire (or at home w/a microwave), please join us in sending a message to Hershey by making Fair Trade S’mores!

Just thinking of S’mores fills you with fond summer memories of your childhood, doesn’t it? It’s time to relive the magic and make s’mores this summer with Fair Trade certified chocolate! Every time you purchase Fair Trade certified chocolate, you help make the magic of childhood possible for children in cocoa farming communities! Just imagine how much you’ll enjoy the oozy, gooey, chocolaty, marshmallowy goodness.

Members of Global Exchange, International Labor Rights Forum, Green America, Oasis/Stop the Traffik and other organizations have teamed up to make 1,500 S’mores nationwide this summer, from July 4 through Labor Day, in order to send a message to Hershey.


The numbers are still coming in, but so far Global Exchange alone has tallied 705 Smores!

700+ S’mores nationwide is a LOT of Smores!

We CAN reach 1,500 S’mores…but we need help from every one of you to reach the S’mores Challenge by the end of Labor Day weekend! Participants at a single barbeque event of 20 or so people usually make up to 50 Smores! Your barbeque or campfire can make the difference! (So can those of you participating with just a few people using your microwave at home!)

Details on how to participate are at www.globalexchange.org/cocoa.

You’ll help END unjust prices, poverty, and abusive child labor in the cocoa fields!

Smores Video!

Check out this 2009 Smores video to see how much fun we had at the We Want More from Our Smores event in San Francisco! Watch it here:

This video is also available online.



Remember to register your S’mores online and mail your petitions no later than September 14!

Once we receive all your petitions, we’ll mail them altogether to Hershey’s, asking Hershey to GO FAIR TRADE! Find petitions and more info here.


O.k. so this is big news, folks. Possibly one of the biggest Fair Trade news developments in years!
Basically, an Interpol-led operation conducted by the Cote d’Ivoire police resulted in the rescue of more than 50 children and the arrest of at least eight individuals for the illegal recruitment of children.

What does this have to do with Fair Trade? The children had been bought by cocoa (and palm) plantation owners looking for cheap (and illegal) labor to harvest the cocoa. As our friends at ILRF point out: The US Department of State estimates that more than 109,000 children in Cote d’Ivoire’s cocoa industry work under “the worst forms of child labor,” and that some 10,000 are victims of human trafficking or enslavement.

This operation codenamed “BIA” (after the river separating Ghana from Cote d’Ivoire) clearly demonstrates the existence of child trafficking and forced labor within the region. Hopefully this rescue is the first of many more actions to come, and will demonstrate that illegally hiring and forcing children to do the cocoa industry’s dirty work will not be tolerated.

Calling all Bay Area Fair Traders/Chocolate Lovers.

This Wednesday, Global Exchange is throwing our second annual Fair Trade S’mores (Kid Friendly) Happy Hour.

Many cocoa farmers live in grinding poverty. Help cocoa farming communities gain access to education, health care and humane working conditions by eating Fair Trade s’mores!

Quick Details:
Date:  Wednesday, July 29th
Time:  6:00 –8:00 PM
Location:  Speedway Meadow at Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
  • Bring Your Own: Graham crackers, marshmallows, something to roast marshmallows on (ie sticks, wire hangers), Fair Trade chocolate (which you can find at stores like Global Exchange, Bi-rite, Rainbow, etc)*
  •     Arrive early and get your Fair Trade chocolate free!
  •     Free chocolate tasting provided by Alter Eco!
  •     Piñata and other fun activities!
  •     Children and acoustic musical instruments welcome!!!
  •     Note:  Alcohol prohibited by park

Join other members of Global Exchange and organizations nationwide in making Fair Trade S’mores as part of our campaign to convince Hershey’s and the rest of the cocoa industry to use Fair Trade cocoa. Please help us reach our goal of making 1,500 Fair Trade s’mores nationwide and registering them online!

All of the information can be found on our Fair Trade cocoa page and or on the Facebook event page. Hope to see you there around the s’mores grill while you join in on the most delicious political action you might ever take!


Most people observe the Easter and Passover seasons by giving something up such as leavened foods for Passover or a particular vice for Lent.  Well, instead of giving something up, we’re deciding to give something out to you. When you go Fair Trade for Easter and Passover, we’re giving away a free jumbo Fair Trade chocolate bar on purchases above $25. All you have to do is enter ” free chocolate” in the customer comment field during checkout. So simple.

So, go ahead and show your love for Fair Trade and get some love back in the form of a free chocolate bar. 

The outpouring of support for Cadbury’s commitment to switch to Fair Trade in the UK by the end of this summer has been great. Now that the UK’s leading chocolate bar producer has gone Fair Trade, we’re looking toward the leading chocolate companies in the US to follow Cadbury’s lead and follow through on their commitment to go Fair Trade.

Cadbury has announced plans to begin using Fair Trade certified cocoa in the summer of 2009 for England’s leading chocolate bar, Cadbury Dairy Milk. The significance of this fantastic news is that Cadbury is the first major chocolate brand to go Fair Trade certified with one of its main product lines, one of the goals Global Exchange and other organizations have been striving towards. Cadbury’s announcement proves what Global Exchange has been saying for years: it is viable for a major chocolate bar to go Fair Trade without passing a significant cost increase to consumers. Congratulations on this important victory to all of you who have taken action by buying a Fair Trade certified chocolate bar or writing a letter to bring us to this moment!

As we all know, it is critical to write companies to pressure them to improve their performance on human rights and the environment. But it is just as important to thank companies when they make a change for the better, so that company executives can bring an outpouring of positive feedback to their boards, shareholders, and employees to sustain their new, responsible practices and promote more change.

That is why we want to urge every one of you to participate in our thank you action to Cadbury at this critical moment in time!
Please join Global Exchange and fellow members of our partner Fair Trade advocacy organizations nationwide and around the world in generating as many letters as possible to:
  • congratulate Cadbury on the Fair Trade certification of their Dairy Milk bar in the UK.

  • ask Cadbury, Hershey (Cadbury’s US manufacturer) and Green and Black’s Organic (owned by Cadbury) to expand their commitment to Fair Trade in the United States by introducing more Fair Trade Certified products.

So head over to >the Global Exchange action page and Thank Cadbury for their commitment and ask them and other large chocolate companies to commit to Fair Trade throughout their whole supply chain.


A few weeks ago, Cadbury announced their plans to use Fair Trade Certified cocoa in the summer of 2009 for their Cadbury Dairy Milk, which is the leading chocolate bar in the United Kingdom. This announcement is a significant victory for the Fair Trade movement as Cadbury is the first major chocolate company to certify one of their main products as Fair Trade. Various Fair Trade advocates, such as Global Exchange along with consumers like you have been working very hard to encourage major chocolate companies to take positive steps to respect human rights and environmental sustainability throughout their supply chains.

In hearing the announcment, Global Exchange along with the International Labor Rights Forum offered their congratulations to the chocolate company and encouraged major US chocolate companies to follow Cadbury’s lead. Global Exchange’s Fair Trade Campaign Director, Adrienne Fitch-Frankel said,

Cadbury’s Fair Trade announcement is an important victory for cocoa farmers, chocolate lovers, and grassroots Fair Trade advocates in the UK and around the world. We hope that Cadbury will extend its commitment to Fair Trade to all of its cocoa products sold in the UK and worldwide. After the remarkable leadership of 100% Fair Trade certified chocolate companies like Equal Exchange, Divine, and Alter Eco, Cadbury has proven that embracing Fair Trade is also both feasible and profitable for the major international chocolate brands. Cadbury’s is the first domino in the domino effect of major chocolate companies going Fair Trade. The tens of thousands of grassroots Fair Trade activists we work with, from young children to grandparents, are eagerly awaiting the day that we will savor our first Fair Trade certified Hershey’s bar, package of M&Ms, or World’s Finest Chocolate bar.

So, we congratulate Cadbury in their efforts to make positive changes and encourage them to expand their Fair Trade commitment to more of their chocolate lines in other countries including the United States.

It’s Halloween time, and there are lots of ways to get involved in making sure that the cocoa industry is less scary and more fair for cocoa farmers worldwide. Here are two good ways to get involved:

Fair Trade Trick or Treat Action Kits:

Find everything you need for Halloween this year, all in one place. Give more than candy this year…give knowledge about the importance of Fair Trade! First launched in 2005, the Fair Trade Trick or Treat Action Kit in 2007 includes chocolate candy to hand out to Trick or Treaters, a large stack of festive Halloween postcards for you to hand out, traditional Papel Picado Mexican party streamer, and a Trick or Treat Bag.

Reverse Trick or Treating:

This Halloween, it is kids who will be giving treats to adults! On Halloween night, 2007, schoolchildren, high school and college students across the US and Canada will unite to end poverty among cocoa farmers and forced/abusive child labor in the cocoa industry, and promote Fair Trade, by distributing information about these social justic issues in the cocoa industry, while Trick-or-Treating door-to-door in their communities. For information, please visit the Global Exchange Fair Trade Campaign page.

Pictured above is our Fair Trade Valentine Action Kit.

HUNGRY FOR CHOCOLATE FACTS?

*According to the International Labor Organization, more than 284,000 children work on West African cocoa plantations in “the worst forms of child labor.” *60% of these children are under the age of 14 It is estimated that Fair Trade chocolate represents less than 1% of the world’s roughly $60 billion chocolate market. *According to the Chocolate Manufacturers Association and National Confectioners Association, in 2005 more than 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate were sold for Valentine’s Day.

FAIR TRADE VALENTINE ACTION KITS

Each Fair Trade Action Kit includes a stack of retro-inspired Valentines to hand out, a heart box of Fair Trade chocolates, and more! Everything you need to start spreading the word about Fair Trade chocolate to those you care about this Valentine’s Day.

If you would like to learn more about Fair Trade chocolate, visit our fair trade campaign page