munch, crunch, munch, munch, crunch, gulp.
They ate and ate and ate and ate and ate and ate and ate and ate and ate and ate and ate and ate
until all the popcorn was gone.
Later that night, Mama and Papa Bear came home.
“Wake up!” they said. “We brought you a present.”
“What is it?” asked Sam.
“Popcorn,” they replied.
from Popcorn
written and illustrated by Frank Asch
Parents Magazine Press, 1979
Everyone who knows me knows Halloween is not my favorite holiday. I mentioned costumes a little bit last week. I didn’t make my kids’ costumes, but I’m not a Scrooge, so to speak! I used to buy candy. Of course, I bought the kind I liked best, chocolate, what else? But I’d get in Weight Watcher trouble with all the leftovers. Seemed a shame to toss something so delicious, but I didn’t want to wreak havoc with my daughters’ dental health (or my weight).
So I took the candy to work.
Leftovers became a perpetual problem until I thought outside the chocolate box.
One year I gave the trick-or-treaters pencils, unsharpened of course, for safety’s sake. As you probably guessed, that was not my greatest idea ever.
The next year I gave the kids those tiny cans of Play-Doh. That was better, but some of the leftovers dried out before my girls finished playing with them.
Then I thought the kids might like something longer lasting than a Twix or Laffy-Taffy, or even Play-Doh. I went to the bank and turned a ten-dollar bill into a couple of rolls of nickels.
The kids were happy and for once, I liked the leftovers. I increased the “treats” gradually until this year, I gave my trick-or-treaters each a one-dollar bill. Full disclosure, I usually only get a few kids. The number was three this year, so even though the seventeen dollar bills are bulky in my wallet, I don’t mind.
I solved my problem, but still think (dream) about the chocolate.
Cocoa prices are in extreme fluctuation right now largely due to the effects of the current El Niño weather pattern. A recent report by Luker Chocolate notes “[t]he high temperatures and low humidity are especially negatively impacting Ivory Coast and Ghana, which together supply about 70% of the world’s cocoa supply.”
Luker Chocolate is a Fair Trade company. They strive to support their growers by compensating them equitably. They are proud of their sustainability. The company works with farmers and community members to raise awareness about their own environment. Their action involves direct intervention to prevent deforestation, protect water sources, and promote agroforestry designs.
But in most of the chocolate industry, child labor is heavily exploited. According to Deutsche Welle, a German-owned public international broadcaster, “child labor remains a problem in cocoa farming.” Despite decades of promises to curtail child labor, a new study shows it has actually increased.
In Ivory Coast and Ghana about 1,600,000 children work in the industry. “On every second cocoa farm there, children as young as five have to pitch in instead of going to school.” Because they are small and can get to hard-to-reach areas, children are used for the most dangerous work, weeding and harvesting with machetes.
Mars, Nestle, and many other chocolatiers worldwide, have been promising for over 20 years to end the worst forms of child labor.
They keep missing their goals.
A revised target in 2010 announced a reduction of child labor by 70% by 2020. Missed again. Richard Scobey, president of the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) and industry spokesman, claims the goal was too ambitious.
The same DW article states, “Cocoa fetches a little over $2,000.00 per pound, which is half the price it fetched in 1970.”
For each $1.09 spent on chocolate, about 14 cents goes to the farmers. Chocolate manufacturers receive 42 cents, and retailers (including the taxes they collect) garner 51 cents.
In 2023, Ghana and Ivory Coast got together and required buyers to pay a premium of about $400/ton. Scoby said, “[t]his [increase] will generate $1.2 billion in additional revenue for cocoa farmers.”
Whether the farmers actually realize a living wage remains to be seen. Today, the average cocoa farmer in Ivory Coast earns 78 cents/day. The living wage is $2.51.
To help alleviate the problem, try clicking on the good trade. It’s a list of 11 Fair Trade chocolate companies with their links. Endangered Species Chocolate is sold at Target.
I solved my trick-or-treat leftovers problem with some leftover dollar bills. At least in the short term, my problem is solved.
Chocolate is a different story. Fair Trade chocolate is more expensive. That’s a given. But it is better for the environment and hopefully better for children and the farmers. It might be better for my waistline, too. After all, if it needs to cost more, which it does, I’ll need to buy less.
Maybe I’ll eat less, too.
I’m reading Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (Random House, 2008). This winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is a loosely connected group of short stories revolving around a retired schoolteacher in a fictional town in Maine. Olive appears, but not always as the main character, in each chapter’s vignette. Altogether, it’s a sad story of the mundane yet simple joys and sorrows everyone experiences, the lyrical language sings brightly in beautiful contrast.
Be curious! (and trade fairly)
They ate and ate and ate and ate and ate and ate and ate and ate and ate and ate and ate and ate
until all the popcorn was gone.
Later that night, Mama and Papa Bear came home.
“Wake up!” they said. “We brought you a present.”
“What is it?” asked Sam.
“Popcorn,” they replied.
from Popcorn
written and illustrated by Frank Asch
Parents Magazine Press, 1979
Everyone who knows me knows Halloween is not my favorite holiday. I mentioned costumes a little bit last week. I didn’t make my kids’ costumes, but I’m not a Scrooge, so to speak! I used to buy candy. Of course, I bought the kind I liked best, chocolate, what else? But I’d get in Weight Watcher trouble with all the leftovers. Seemed a shame to toss something so delicious, but I didn’t want to wreak havoc with my daughters’ dental health (or my weight).
So I took the candy to work.
Leftovers became a perpetual problem until I thought outside the chocolate box.
One year I gave the trick-or-treaters pencils, unsharpened of course, for safety’s sake. As you probably guessed, that was not my greatest idea ever.
The next year I gave the kids those tiny cans of Play-Doh. That was better, but some of the leftovers dried out before my girls finished playing with them.
Then I thought the kids might like something longer lasting than a Twix or Laffy-Taffy, or even Play-Doh. I went to the bank and turned a ten-dollar bill into a couple of rolls of nickels.
The kids were happy and for once, I liked the leftovers. I increased the “treats” gradually until this year, I gave my trick-or-treaters each a one-dollar bill. Full disclosure, I usually only get a few kids. The number was three this year, so even though the seventeen dollar bills are bulky in my wallet, I don’t mind.
I solved my problem, but still think (dream) about the chocolate.
Cocoa prices are in extreme fluctuation right now largely due to the effects of the current El Niño weather pattern. A recent report by Luker Chocolate notes “[t]he high temperatures and low humidity are especially negatively impacting Ivory Coast and Ghana, which together supply about 70% of the world’s cocoa supply.”
Luker Chocolate is a Fair Trade company. They strive to support their growers by compensating them equitably. They are proud of their sustainability. The company works with farmers and community members to raise awareness about their own environment. Their action involves direct intervention to prevent deforestation, protect water sources, and promote agroforestry designs.
But in most of the chocolate industry, child labor is heavily exploited. According to Deutsche Welle, a German-owned public international broadcaster, “child labor remains a problem in cocoa farming.” Despite decades of promises to curtail child labor, a new study shows it has actually increased.
In Ivory Coast and Ghana about 1,600,000 children work in the industry. “On every second cocoa farm there, children as young as five have to pitch in instead of going to school.” Because they are small and can get to hard-to-reach areas, children are used for the most dangerous work, weeding and harvesting with machetes.
Mars, Nestle, and many other chocolatiers worldwide, have been promising for over 20 years to end the worst forms of child labor.
They keep missing their goals.
A revised target in 2010 announced a reduction of child labor by 70% by 2020. Missed again. Richard Scobey, president of the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) and industry spokesman, claims the goal was too ambitious.
The same DW article states, “Cocoa fetches a little over $2,000.00 per pound, which is half the price it fetched in 1970.”
For each $1.09 spent on chocolate, about 14 cents goes to the farmers. Chocolate manufacturers receive 42 cents, and retailers (including the taxes they collect) garner 51 cents.
In 2023, Ghana and Ivory Coast got together and required buyers to pay a premium of about $400/ton. Scoby said, “[t]his [increase] will generate $1.2 billion in additional revenue for cocoa farmers.”
Whether the farmers actually realize a living wage remains to be seen. Today, the average cocoa farmer in Ivory Coast earns 78 cents/day. The living wage is $2.51.
To help alleviate the problem, try clicking on the good trade. It’s a list of 11 Fair Trade chocolate companies with their links. Endangered Species Chocolate is sold at Target.
I solved my trick-or-treat leftovers problem with some leftover dollar bills. At least in the short term, my problem is solved.
Chocolate is a different story. Fair Trade chocolate is more expensive. That’s a given. But it is better for the environment and hopefully better for children and the farmers. It might be better for my waistline, too. After all, if it needs to cost more, which it does, I’ll need to buy less.
Maybe I’ll eat less, too.
I’m reading Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (Random House, 2008). This winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is a loosely connected group of short stories revolving around a retired schoolteacher in a fictional town in Maine. Olive appears, but not always as the main character, in each chapter’s vignette. Altogether, it’s a sad story of the mundane yet simple joys and sorrows everyone experiences, the lyrical language sings brightly in beautiful contrast.
Be curious! (and trade fairly)
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