John Oliver covered this on Last Week Tonight. tl;dw Cocoa is almost exclusively grown in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, two West African countries. Most of these farms are family run and there are millions of them. All the Cocoa they produce is purchased by a few companies who dictate price. Because they buy at such a low price, the only way these farms make money is if they force children in their families to work the farm for no compensation. Ie. Child slavery.
The worst part is that the organizations that audit the farms in an effort to reduce slavery fail spectacularly. The Farms receive notice of the audit and what they hope not to find in advance, and then the audits only occur at most every 6 months but more likely every few years. A documentary team of students took a trip out to a few farms that receive these audits and found Child Slavery immediately.
John Oliver covered this on Last Week Tonight. tl;dw Cocoa is almost exclusively grown in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, two West African countries. Most of these farms are family run and there are millions of them. All the Cocoa they produce is purchased by a few companies who dictate price. Because they buy at such a low price, the only way these farms make money is if they force children in their families to work the farm for no compensation. Ie. Child slavery.
The worst part is that the organizations that audit the farms in an effort to reduce slavery fail spectacularly. The Farms receive notice of the audit and what they hope not to find in advance, and then the audits only occur at most every 6 months but more likely every few years. A documentary team of students took a trip out to a few farms that receive these audits and found Child Slavery immediately.