Where's your box of chocolates from?

With Valentine’s Day approaching the International Labor Rights Fund is bringing attention to the cocoa industry of West Africa:

People around the world share a love of chocolate, one of the most delicious and pleasurable foods on earth. Thousands of children in West Africa are forced to labor in the production of cocoa, chocolate’s primary ingredient. The West African nation of Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) is the leading supplier of cocoa, accounting for more than 40% of global production. Low cocoa prices and thus the need for lower labor costs drive farmers to employ children as a means to survive. 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.

From the ILRF’s rankings:

THE BITTER – Hershey’s, M&M’s/Mars, NESTLE
THE SEMI-SWEET – Godiva, Ghiradelli/Lindt, Starbucks, Dagoba
THE SWEETEST – Sweet Earth Chocolates, Equal Exchange, Divine Chocolate