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There are potential new farming methods that could improve efficiency and lessen the need for deforestation. The company Mars is working on innovating cocoa trees that produce more fruit and could be more resilient to climate change. The company Barry Callebaut, which is involved in 22% of global chocolate production, works with the World Wildlife Fund and has several sustainability goals including eliminating child labor and deforestation from their suppliers, replanting cocoa trees, switching to sustainable ingredients, and helping hundreds of thousands of producers to escape from poverty.
Most chocolate companies have plans to have their cocoa supply 100% certified, but according to Green America, these commitments are not going to truly fix the deep rooted issues in the industry. Their most common approach to get certified cocoa is to purchase it from third party groups, but not all of these groups enforce their claims as much as desired. In many cases, the investigators associated with these groups only have to inspect 10% of cocoa farms.
Over the past 20 years, the chocolate industry began efforts to boost the practice of cocoa farming. They did this through providing seeds, fertilizers, and instruction to workers. They also constructed schools and contributed other community benefits. However, a scholar from the Center of African Studies at the University of Cambridge, Michael Odijie, suggests that the community contributions are more for superficial purposes. He explains that these programs may not have a direct link to decreasing poverty in the long term. The increased cocoa production and market surpluses have increased deforestation and decreased the farmer’s profits, respectively. Over the years there have been no real repercussions dealt to companies for failing to meet their goals. Without threats of fines or prison, there is not a great push for the companies besides customer approval.
The industry standard is for cocoa farmers to not take much notice of the quality of their crop. Chocolate is not seen as a luxury in the same way products like wine are, when there are the same factors to consider crowing cocoa as there are to growing grapes or any other plant. The quantity over quality attitude of the chocolate industry removes the identity and standards of cocoa production. By educating growers about analyzing cocoa quality and connecting them with people involved in the other steps of chocolate production, cocoa farmers can gain more power in their industry. The downside of this approach is that it will likely only contribute to the luxury chocolate sector which is just a small portion of the market. This approach can likely only make a small dent in the overall issue of child labor and environmental damage, but it can still provide empowerment to a portion of cocoa farmers and allow them to connect more with other parts of the industry. There are also possibilities for increased success for cocoa farmers through strategies of creating “flavor strains” of cocoa which involve richer or unique flavors and sometimes organic growing methods.
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According to industry officials, the changes need to be enforced by West African governments as well as labor organizations, not just chocolate companies. Child labor practices and the extremely low pay are not legal in the Ivory Coast. However, the issues seem to persist because of the lack of funding and enforcement. A new prevention system is being developed which will hopefully assist farmers by hiring them to check other farms rather than having inspectors.
Other potential solutions involve increasing the pay farmers receive. By upping the earnings of farmers by just 3%, they would be able to employ adults rather than use child labor. In order to truly solve child labor issues, structural and social issues would also have to be addressed, including funding for education and expanded women’s rights. The Fairtrade International program is one effort working to improve the circumstances of cocoa farming, but it still falls short in some ways, such as farmers often needing to pay to be certified and minimum Fairtrade prices still not being high enough to help them escape from poverty. It seems solutions to chocolate issues will provide great challenges and require a holistic approach. In order to create change, it is important to prioritize the cocoa growers and listen to them.
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