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Candy company Mars uses cocoa harvested by kids in Ghana, CBS News investigation finds
(www.cbsnews.com)
this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2023
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And, according to John Oliver, even the chocolate companies that try to only source their product from child labor-free sources, they say they can't guarantee it. That's how much and how often children are used on these farms.
After seeing that John Oliver report, I'm never eating chocolate again. All I would be able to do would be to think of those kids.
And yes, I realize that other products I have are made from child labor, but chocolate is a pretty easy one to give up.
If you think chocolate is bad, sugar is worse.
What I've learned in the last few years is that every part of modern life has exploitation in it.
There are very few parts that aren't.
how people fail to grasp the meaning of this expression, beautiful in its simplicity, still amuses me to this day.
Because capitalists have had an effective propaganda campaign to make them think "made in the USA" is good. It don't mean shit. We need the union label back.
if rules are in the way of profit it is not profit that is going to lose. this was, is and will always be the core problem of capitalism. it is profitable to break the rules.
Or more to the point, the people in charge of making and enforcing the rules ensure that the rules are either not enforced at all, or that the penalty for breaking them is small enough to be seen as just a cost of doing business.
My shorthand definition of capitalism is when everything is for sale, and that includes laws.
Can we grow sugar? Just curious
The US? We do grow sugar. But many farms in America hire child laborers. This isn't solely a problem with imported agricultural goods.
we applied a system, in which breaking the rules means winning, to the globe. most people are asleep, dreaming of coca cola and luis vitton. others are wide awake, profiting from the system or fighting it in any way they can. people better start wake the fuck up, we are running out of time and no matter what billionaires tell you there is no planet b.
True enough, but there is still more and less ethical consumption. For example buying a refurbished smartphone instead of a brand new iPhone may still indirectly support unethical mining and working conditions, but it is the less evil option.
I just don't want people thinking they have zero power, so they may as well wallow in iniquity.
My thoughts exactly. The statement is certainly true but I have seen it used as an argument against protest by refusing to support morally bankrupt businesses.
It's a really good thing to think about your consumer habits but I think it's also important not to internalize the guilt on an individual basis and get in to this "how do I cleanse myself" mode of existing as a capitalist subject. The power we have is held in opposing capitalism not by accepting the moral conditions it poses to us, but instead rejecting that "original sin" it forces us in to and not taking it personally. Every internalized guilt inherent in being a capitalist subject is similar to being an abused spouse who blames themselves for their partner's behavior, the partner here are capitalist institutions and private entities who constantly gaslight us they're just doing whatever they can to be good.
Absolutely true. But under what system is there significantly less exploitation? Too many people are selfish, cruel or both.
That's why "I'm not buying [specific product] again" is worse than ineffective, it's validating to the illusion of a capitalist subject's ability to morally absolve themselves of the system that sustains their economic status, or even the notion that it's important to internalize this guilt and morally absolve yourself from it. This mechanism is internal to capitalism and works in the manner a religious ritual would to cleanse yourself of sin, the civil religion of capitalism addressing the original sin you inherit as a capitalist subject.
It's also liberating because it means it not about you, and you aren't obligated to accept this guilt and "original sin" and the absolving rituals as prescribed by the capitalist system. The capitalists want you to feel guilty if it means we aren't directing our anger at them for forcing this economic arrangement on us. It's like they are an abusive spouse gaslighting us in to thinking we're the problem.
Spoiler: Except that girl that ended up in the middle place
Sugar trade is so profitable you might just accidentally do slavery.
There's others sources of sugar that are much less problematic though, like beet and others. There's not much alternative to cocoa.
Yeah except that the sugar lobby does a lot to artificially keep sugar prices down. The sugar lobby also fights tooth and nail to make sure that sugar sin taxes don't get passed or if they do, they target all sweeteners.
Blows my mind the laborers producing chocolate have never tasted it
Yeah, that was incredible too. I wonder how many other agricultural products are made by people who never had an opportunity to consume them? Are there coffee growers who have never had a cup of coffee?
Vanilla bean is one. A lot of the people who produce it don't really understand why we want it.
in portugal we produce weed for the foreign markets. a single person can't plant though, its a crime.
Sounds like an anachronistic law that can be overturned by voting for the right party come next election!
Making chocolate from cacao pods is a lot more complicated than making coffee from raw beans. Because of that, I assume most coffee growers have access to brewed coffee.
It really shouldn't. Most people working jobs don't get paid enough to benefit from the services or products they provide.
People building Ferraris usually don't have one in their garage
That’s a silly comparison. Chocolate is ubiquitous in Western society. Ferraris are not.
It's an hyperbole. You underestimate the luxury of chocolate.
The organizations fighting child labor in Ghana pretty much focus on getting the kids into school at all. It's a success story to enable a kid to go to school 5 days and only work on the cocoa farms 1 day a week. Completely eradicating it is impossible as long as families depend on that to make a living.
Chocolate gives me the runs so I avoid it. I figure the diarrhea is from my allergy to child labor. Same thing happened when I ate an iPhone
Are you by any chance a dog?
If they were a dog, I suspect they'd have mentioned periodically vomiting the chocolate up so they could eat it again.
Willie Mae has opinions
This would be a great skit.
Skit?
A skit is a short piece of humor or satire. Like a comedy sketch, but skits can also be in a written form.