Did you know that most chocolate companies get their cocoa from slave plantations in Africa? Well, now you know. They do. Huge amounts of child labor.

There's genocide going on in the Sudan. That, there's not a lot we can do about, other than educate people, raise hell until it's stopped. (Check it out as soon as you get a chance, though-- Google "Darfur Genocide.") The AIDS emergency is sweeping the continent of Africa, killing hundreds of thousands of women and children. Malaria kills huge amounts of people on its own; famine is another huge problem.

All of these, Americans can honestly say we are not actively contributing to. (English, Aussies, Germans, etc. I mean first-world countries in general; as an American, it's easier for me to talk about my country, and my countrymen, and I also feel like less of a hypocrite getting on a soapbox.) I mean, besides supporting China, which is funding the Darfur genocide... but that's neither here nor there. We didn't create civil war, or famine, or malaria, or AIDS, and other than support the organisations doing something and pray, what can we do? (there are things. but most people don't really want to be that involved, or don't care enough, or don't have the resources. but anyway.)

But there's something more. On the Western Coast of Africa (mostly Ghana and Cote d'Voire), there are slave plantations. And a lot of child labor. And I honestly mean slave labor. Not wage-slaves, not sweatshop-labor, (though both of those are also deplorable), but honest-to-goodness forced labor without pay in horrible living conditions, underfed, abused. And this is where most of the world's chocolate comes from.

Which means, in the end, that almost every chocolate bar you've ever had (there may be exceptions, but not a lot of them) has been produced by partly slave labor. It's impossible to tell whether or not a particular bar was produced by a plantation-- by the time the cocoa beans make it to the processing factory, it's impossible to trace them back.

What can you do?

1) DON'T BUY IT. Refuse to buy, or eat, chocolate from companies that use slave labor.
1A) Chocolate is not a necessity, whatever marketing has led you to believe. You will survive without M&Ms.
1B) If you refuse to pay for chocolate that has been produced by slave labor, you are sending the message that this is wrong, and you will not support it.
1C) There are other ways! Fair Trade chocolate is always bought from farmers at a fair price, meaning that their workers have fair conditions and they still make an actual profit.

2) Write to those who have influence! The companies themselves, whatever politicians you have influence (as a constituent) over, the upper-leaning officials of the company, the shareholders... whatever it takes.

3) SPREAD THE WORD. This is the most important thing you can do. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your teachers, acquaintances, coworkers, tell everyone. Because, it may be idealistic of me, but I refuse to believe that more people than not would eat chocolate still if they knew where it came from.

Also, there's a facebook group here.
The list of fair-trade companies is here.