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Mary Luz Mejia is a freelance food and travel journalist who has trained at the International Institute of Chocolate and Cacao Tasting.
Unpopular opinion alert: I refuse to give out candy bars for Halloween.
But before you egg my house and brand me a killjoy, let me explain why.
Years ago, I started studying cacao in much the same way a sommelier might study wine. I completed all three levels of training at the International Institute of Chocolate and Cacao Tasting (I’m the first and, so far, only person in Canada with this accreditation). My courses involved learning about where and how cacao is grown, and by whom, as well as the complex process required to turn this agricultural product into what you and I call chocolate.
During my training, I learned that throughout the entire history of cacao farming, right up to the present day, child labour has played a role. In Brazil, this history goes all the way back to the 1600s, and even today, children as young as 10 (sometimes even younger) continue to work on cacao plantations. Many workers on Brazilian plantations are trapped by “debt bondage” schemes, wherein plantation owners confiscate their documents until the workers are able to pay exorbitant fees, or “debts,” to win back their freedom. The use of child labour to harvest cacao is also widespread in West Africa, where many children work on their families’ cacao farms, but impoverished children are also either trafficked by middlemen or willingly migrate to countries such as Ghana and Ivory Coast for promised room and board, plus a small wage for harvesting cacao. Most of these children find out they’ll work long days, live in huts and receive only enough food to survive. They also aren’t able to attend school, and without much (or any) training, they are given pesticides to spray on the cacao trees, and machetes to clear forests and cut down cacao pods at heights of up to 25 feet, all of which violate international labour laws and the UN‘s Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention.
In her 2007 book Bitter Chocolate: Investigating the Dark Side of the World’s Most Seductive Sweet, Canadian journalist Carol Off delved into the perilous work of many child cacao labourers in Ivory Coast. She found appalling conditions faced by children working on cacao farms, including those who were injured on the job. In 2019, The Washington Post reported that child labour in the cacao trade was still a prominent issue in Ivory Coast. Journalists observed children hacking at the dense brush with machetes and packing cacao pods into sacks that could weigh more than 100 pounds (sometimes more than they weighed themselves) before carrying them through the forest. It’s a bleak picture.
For the past two decades, large multinational producers of candy bars have signed on to fair-trade accords, set deadlines for the eradication of child labour from their supply chains, and made public commitments to ensuring that the production of the sweet treats consumed by their customers didn’t involve unsavoury business practices.
But research published this year by the U.S. Department of Labour found that there are still approximately 1.56 million children engaged in child labour in the cacao industry in Ivory Coast and Ghana alone. Around 43 per cent of these children participate in “hazardous activities,” including lifting heavy loads, being exposed to agro-chemicals, burning fields and using sharp tools. Since these two countries produce about 60 per cent of the world’s cacao each year, and the world’s largest chocolate-product manufacturers source cacao from these countries, there is a very strong chance that child labour is still very much a part of the chocolate consumed by the mass global market.
Why does this problem persist? In part: profit. Vancouver-based market-research firm Emergen recently valued the global chocolate industry at around US$116-billion. By 2032, that number is expected to balloon to US$162-billion. The world seems to have an insatiable sweet tooth, and a lot of people (myself included) love chocolate.
But not all hope is lost for those looking to consume chocolate more responsibly. If you’re wondering, “Well, what kind of chocolate do you eat?” the answer is that I like a well-made, bean-to-bar chocolate, ideally crafted in Canada by one of our dozens of award-winning chocolate makers. Bean-to-bar refers to a process by which chocolate is made with fermented, dried cacao, and in which artisanal chocolate makers guide every step of the process, from roasting the cacao beans to creating the final bar. Many Canadian chocolate makers deal directly with cacao farmers and pay them an above-fair-trade wage for their beans.
From west to east, this country is loaded with chocolate-making talent, which includes (and this is not an exhaustive list): Victoria’s Sirene Chocolate; Vancouver’s Kasama Chocolate; Alberta’s Jacek Chocolate Couture; Winnipeg’s Chocolatier Constance Popp; Toronto’s SOMA Chocolatemaker; DesBarres Chocolate in Uxbridge, Ont.; DWN Craft Chocolatier in Orillia, Ont.; Hummingbird Chocolate Maker in Almonte, Ont.; Montreal’s Qantu Cacao et Chocolat, Allo Simonne, Chocolat Avanaa or État de choc; and Newfoundland’s Jacobean Craft Chocolate. Prices can range from $5 for a small bar, to between $9 and $14 for a large 100-gram bar. Bars made with super-rare cacao beans can go for $20 to $40 (and up).
Remember, these bars are meant to be savoured, like a dram of single-malt Scotch whisky. As those trained in cacao tasting like to say, “melt, don’t munch,” when hosting chocolate tastings. The point is to let your chocolate dissolve so that you get the full evolution of flavours in your mouth; a piece that starts off with a note of well-pulled espresso might morph into the taste of dark berries or port wine. Trust me when I tell you that if you do this with a candy bar, you’ll at best taste icing sugar. On average, a mass-market candy bar is usually made up of only around 10 per cent cacao. The rest is sugar, with crunchy inclusions such as cookies, wafers, puffed rice, nuts and other sugary ingredients thrown in with preservatives and artificial colours and flavours.
Artisanal chocolate makers, by contrast, take the time to get quality beans from around the cacao-growing world, and use their own techniques to arrive at the best possible flavours. Sure, you could dole these out for Halloween, but most bean-to-bar creations aren’t going to suit most people’s budgets (mine included). And really, mixing in these bars with the typical, quick-to-be-consumed Halloween loot renders the point of bean-to-bar creations obsolete. Instead, they should be enjoyed like a fine wine.
So, what in the name of all things trick-or-treat do I give out to those who ring my doorbell on Halloween? Potato chips – kids like a salty snack to break up the sweet loot, and it’s easy to find chip brands that grow and process their potatoes right here in Canada. As the saying goes, you vote with your wallet every time you shop, and if my drop-in-the-ocean decision not to give out candy bars on Halloween makes even an iota of difference, then I’ve made the right call.