Date of publication: February 14, 2007
Source: Scotsman (UK)
Author: Marcy Nicholson
Excerpt from article:
"Consumers associate chocolate with pleasure and indulgence, and that stands in very stark contrast to situations facing workers and the children who are harvesting that cocoa that they are enjoying," said Tim Newman of the International Labor Rights Fund
Cocoa is chocolate's key ingredient, and Newman said consumers' heightened awareness of child labor in the West African cocoa belt in the past few years has played a vital role in the establishment of company programs designed to improve working conditions there.
The U.S.-based organization has been pressuring chocolate companies to stop trafficked child labor, which keeps children out of school and has been termed as no better than slavery, in cocoa-growing countries since 2001....