It was interesting watching the Panorama programme on BBC last night about the cocoa industry. As much as I love cocoa, this is one industry which has so many different pieces of jigsaws which do not fit to form the right picture.
Being a native of the second largest cocoa producer in the world [Ghana] as well as being a descendant of a cocoa farmer and a daughter of a teacher, I just sat in silence watching this programme.
I like transparency and believe that the #1 bitter truth about tackling child labour in the cocoa industry is to EDUCATE the farmers.
The #2 bitter truth is to make schools/education freely available for children from such poor farming communities. It should be the norm that the cocoa industry trades fairly from farm to end use. The cocoa industry is a very wealthy one but .................
Being a native of the second largest cocoa producer in the world [Ghana] as well as being a descendant of a cocoa farmer and a daughter of a teacher, I just sat in silence watching this programme.
I like transparency and believe that the #1 bitter truth about tackling child labour in the cocoa industry is to EDUCATE the farmers.
The #2 bitter truth is to make schools/education freely available for children from such poor farming communities. It should be the norm that the cocoa industry trades fairly from farm to end use. The cocoa industry is a very wealthy one but .................
It was mind boggling indeed. My quarrel with the likes of Fairtrade, nestle etc, is that their labels do not tell such stories as told by panorama, which is rather misleading.
ReplyDeleteIf they are going to pass on a product as being ethically produced then i think they ought to invest more time in ensuring that the product is what it says on the tin.
Programmes to educate the locals that it is wrong to sue children in this way would be a good start
I totally agree. this programme blew my mind...though there's always an incline as to what is actually going on at the back of my mind. Even so, the Fair Trade ruling needs to be set in stone so us shoppers know what we're buying, who produced it etc.
ReplyDeleteIt's a crying shame.