Radio Times

"We need to be permanently concerned with where cocoa comes from, the impact of cocoa on the environment and how the workers are treated," said Larry Graham, president of the Chocolate Manufactures Association (CMA), the American industry trade group. What specific actions, if any in your opinion, is the CMA taking to stop child slavery and trafficking?

Comments

[Kristofer Rivers]

I have not listen to it yet I just wanted to beat Brent on this post.

[REKRAP GERG]

gOOD oNE kRIS rIGHT BEHIND JUST ABOUT TO WATCH THE VIDOE

[Zach Auteri 6C]

Hey Greg I hope you know you have caps lock on and your name is spelled backwards...

[Bryan Holzer]

Yeah, i was just about to say to keep his caps lock on and i was wondering why his name was spelled backwards.

[ERnst & Parker]

I m 5 min into the video it’s stuff I’ve all ready heard but for those who have not the kids our being manipulated half of them don’t know what chocolate is…

They keep slaves in warehouses before they sell them, or they use it as a waiting period

they tell them nothing so they don’t get nervous..

They get across borders by making the kids call them aunt and uncle

For an average slave it is usually $20-30 it’s a once and done payment

There over 200,000 slaves that our in Africa

Over 15,000 our between 12-16 working on cotton and cocoa

A slave went into a store and was amazed by how many products that people benefit from them

They called chocolate companies asking about the if they new about slavery it took over 3 months for them to call back and they gave no sufficient answer

Now that the companies know they our trying all they can not to order chocolate from slave holders

Companies our trying to teach the slave holders a lesson

American’s didn’t really care about the chocolate facts because they were getting chocolate who cares who makes it…while she was a American chocolate meeting

People like ourselves our finally finding about Slavery along with Ivory Coasts government
Over 20 min...
Economic factors our playing a MAJOR roll

HOw to stop the companies:

Boycott, might hurt the slavery and force more though

Survey the Farms, so they can check living conditions

Stoped at 33 min

We'll keep you updated

Companies that do make tainted chocolate:

[Zach Auteri 6C]

I haven't finished the radio show yet but from what I did hear it is pretty much the same thing that we've been hearing and learning about, with the children being tricked, abusedc and beaten into working for no pay, and so on. Futher posts on this topic as it unfolds...

[Anisha Polsinelli]

I listened to radio thing or the radio times and I have to say I think the chocolate manufaturers should be ashamed of them selves they arent doing enough to stop the slavery they started. I heard on the Radio Times that the Ivry Coast chocolate manufacturers were working with the U.S.A. international to develope more stable working conditions or well a more sufficent stop to slavery. I believe that a lot more should be done I mean look at what these people did and they can live and sleep at night perfectly even knowing that they took someones rights away they violated their rights and for that they should be ashamed.

[Rachel Scott]

well, they're not doing that much at this point i dont think, but they say that they are trying to raise the price of cocoa beans so that the farmers arent so desparate for money that they have to hire slaves. i think this is a really good solution but i think it will take quite a while to take effect.

also they are tryin 2 get american government to work together witht the governments of the Ivory Coast and other African nations that are having similar problems.

[Brent Hoffert (Vic) '7A']

I'm listening to it as I type (I'm 44 minutes through, probably later by the time I finish this post) and so far it's been pretty much exactly (and I mean exactly..As in the exact same examples) as what we've been learning and reading about.

Despite what they say, I can't really see that the CMA is taking and steps to stop slavery. Alright, maybe there's a search party or two per year, but as for actual action they've done very, VERY little (as far as I can tell).

As Rachel said they're working on raising the price of the cocoa beans. As I may have implied before, I don't think that this will be the best solution, but only time will tell.

~Vic

[chris wagner]

whoa, i would have gone crazy if that went on any longer, but these people have this under control they had more soulotions than the school combined keep it up radio times :)

[Owen Bruen]

Before I start to write I just want to say that I may kill myself of bordom.

Well back to buisness. I realy must argee with Brent on this that the CMA arn't really doing anything. They go on these triips to the Ivry Coast and come back with these stories. I think that they are hopless and that they should actually buy as many slaves as they can. All these people are doing is reporting the facts.

Also I don't think that I'm the only one on this blog that thinks that raising the prices of the coco beans is a good idea because all they'll do is get more slaves to do the work.

Personally I have know idea what to do. I'm not an expert and don't want to be one. Even though I sound critical I think that these people are awsome and that they are really good people.

[Owen Bruen]

Sorry about the bad spelling!

[Kristofer Rivers 6C]

I agree with Zach. A lot of the things that were mentioned on the radio clip have been mentioned a lot of other times. The same things are being dicussed. About the question. The CMA, sorry right now I forget what it stands for but I do know it has to do with the buisnesses, I feel are doing things to help stop slavery. The thing is, they are doing it in a different way that we and other people think to do it and also they have very different attitudes about the owners which effect how they are going to stop slavery. Unlike just about everyone of us, they are taking into acount the owners perspective. Most of us just think that these owners are horrible people who know what they are doing and are money thirsty. Well, a couple of those things are true. They do want money, so they can live, and they do treat children horribly, but they don't always know that they are doing bad. I can say that I would probably help the owners who don't really know that they are doing something wrong and are willing to change with help more then I would with the owners who know they are doing wrong and are doing it to make lots of money. The owners have a life too. They have even found that some owners don't understand that they are doing something so wrong. I think we should try to stop slavery the way the CMA is trying. We shouldn't go out arresting every owner with slaves we can find. We should find the owners with slaves and inform them of what they are doing and try to help them change, if they go against us then we can throw them in jail. This is what the CMA is doing to help. They are trying to go to farmers and inform and help them. They feel that some farmers are not criminals, they are just people trying to survive and that we should try not to harm the good farmers who are willing to change. Some other things that they are doing are, they are tring to make farmers diversify from cocoa becuase cocoa can't be harvested all year round so if they have another plant to harvest in the off seasons of cocoa they can make more money and will be able to pay workers. They only way that workers are going to get paid is if the farmer has enough money for his own family. By helping the farmers increase their income they can then pay workers.

One big issue brought up throught the whole clip was the issue about boycotting chocolate. Although it might sound like a good idea they brought up some points that say that boycotting could increase slavery instead of decrease it. The one point was that if you boycott it the supply will be greater then the demand and the price of chocolate will go down so the farmers get paid less forcing them to use more slaves. They did however say that boycotting has worked in the past on another different issue in Africa I think. Boycotting can go either way. I agree with what they said, its up to the person to decide what they want to do.

Not only the CMA is trying to stop slavery. There are many other organizations who were mentioned in the radio clip who were doing things to stop slavery. Each organization is doing its own things to stop slavery. Their ideas and feelings are all different. Which one will work is still a good question. We will just have to wait to find out which one works in the end. Who knows, maybe one of us will come up with ideas that may work. Wouldn't that be cool.

[Kristofer Rivers 6C]

Whoops. About the CMA. I didn't realize that mr fullerton said what it was at the top of this blog. I was partially correct.

[Travis Benner]

Well i think that what they are doing is great. Since the ivory coast government doesnt care about the slaves and the U.S. government doesnt care about the slaves somebody has to. These are the people that are. They truley do care about these kids. I think that in the end it will they will get some things accomplished. I think that they may get the prices of coco products to go up so that the farmers would be able to pay their workers. I dont think they will be able to track the coco because as they said it gets all mixed up and stuff. I think that what they are doing is great.

[Trevor]

I am listening to the radio program as i type. The man who she is interviewing is talking about a little boy who said that some of the bags where bigger than me and it took to people to to put the bag on my head and if I didn't work fast enough i would get whipped and beaten. The man being interviewed says younger kids are used because the little kids are easier to manipulate. A lot of the cocoa goes to the Pennsylvania area. That is interesting i did not know that. They mix a bunch of different kind of cocoa beans that get mixed in before they go to Hershey or Mars or any other place so you cannot know if your chocolate is tainted by slavery. This is a good sick way of cover it up.

[Brock Harton]

I agree with what most people are saying. I don't think the CMA is making enough of an evert to eliminate slavery. They do a few small things here and there, but not really anything big enough to make a dent.

[Katherine David]

While I was listening to the radio program i thought it was good how the CMA was concerned about the slaves that are harvesting the cocoa beans. But it didn't seem like they are to into helping them out. If they are so concerned why aren't there that many farmers that have been caught of slavery, and why aren't the slaves set free? It seems like they are taking the farmers side. When the man in the radio program said that him and a couple peopole were interviewing the slaves, and the farmers..the slaves said that he was mean, and would beat them if they did anything wrong. But when they talked to the farmer, he said he never would hurt his workers, and he claimed that he took good care of them. If we know that's not true, why dont they do something about that? I dont think they are doing much at this point
Also in the radio program, they said about raising the price of chocolate. I don't know if that is such a good solution to the problem because like owen said, they might get more slaves to do the work. And if that happens it will be harder to free them if there is more. But it might work like other people were sayin how they might pay the workers. but i doubt that will happen. I hope the CMA will have better ideas to help child slavery for chocolate

[Trisha Vargo]

They are not doing much at this point. They are also trying to rais the price of the coco beans so it doesn't look like they are desperate to hire slave for the coco farm. I think that it is a very good idea i mean i give 100% to that but i just think that it will take a very long time for it to go into effect.
They are trying to get our american government involved with the Ivory Coast government and the african nation to help stop slavery at the coco plantation and other places that have the same type of problems. The Coco Plantation is making a lot of money with the coco product, it is in chocolate chips, cereal, ice cream, iceing, cake mix, and in a whole lot of other products and they where just a few. That is where they get all of their money form.
The slaves said that the farmer is mean. They also said that the farmer would hurt them if they did anything wrong and they don't have much freedom. When they talked to the farmer he said that he wold never hurt them at all. I hope that the CMA will have better ideas to help the slaves out.

[Sean Albertson]

After listening to the radio talk show. It seems like they talked about the exact same things as what we have been hearing for the last three weeks. The CMA doesn't really seem to be taking any specific actions to stop child labor or trafficking. They are trying to stop these issues, but they aren't taking specific actions. Like Kris said, there are other organizations trying to stop child slavery. Maybe if a lot of these groups were to come together, there would be a bigger impact on the issue.

[Kelly Lowry]

I didn't think that they were specifically trying to stop or come up with ideas to stop the issues.
When they interviewed the slaves, they said that the farmer beat them and wasn't nice. But typically as anyone would do, the farmer denied it. But if we know it's not true, the farmer should have got questioned about it. The CMA needs to take action, rather then just stating issues. Slaves have rights, too.

[Ben Favreau]

I am listening to the radio program now and as I listen I think it is very horrible how the children are treated (The boy getting beaten if he didn't carry the bags fast enough). But on the CMA I really don't think that they are doing the best job possible. I have one opinion though about one of their ideas of getting rid of slavery, about the idea of raising the prices of coccoa so the farmers make more money, Wouldn't they want more slaves? In my opinion if your giving them more money for coccoa that they got from slave labor, they would wan't more slaves so they can produce more coccoa, then they could make more money because the CMA has raised the prices on coccoa. That is just my opinion on that idea.

ben

[Ben Favreau]

woops sry want not wan't

[Jimmy quinn (6-B)]

I think the CMA is really doing absolutly nothing. If the slaves say the masters are beating them, and they have the scars to prove it, the CMA should do a lot of questioning. Instead they just state what they think they slave masters are doing to mistreat the slaves and the slave masters deny ever doing it. Well duh what do you think there going to say, Yes i beat my slaves, and yes I deal with slave trafficking. The CMA really has to do more stuff to stop slavery or slavery will never end.

[Amanda Moretz 6-c]

I feel that the Chocolate Manufacturer's Association is taking steps toward a promising outcome. The association claims to not have heard of the problem prior to a report written in April. I personaly find this hard to believe considering the problem has existed for a great deal of years, and chocolate maufacturers are on the scene of the cocoa industry day in and day out. Chocolate companies are not responsible for the farms on the Ivory Coast. Although they do not own them, the industries are still using the product.

The Chocolate Manufacturer's Association is in the process of devising a plan that may indeed help this enoormous problem. They are considering the issue of child slavery their number one priority at the moment. The association feels that they need to help the government of the Ivory Coast and the farms that are located in this region by creating tools to eliminate slavery. They want to help the farmers produce more quality cocoa that will sell for higher prices.

The C.M.A. also feels that if farmers divirsify from only cocoa production, there monitary status will increase. There are only certain seasons in which cocoa can be grown and harvested. Perhaps if the farmers plant other crops that can be harvested during other seasons, they will make enough money to pay their workers fair wages. The association would also like to make sure that nothing happens to the farms that are worked by family, and farms in which workers are paid. They have done nothing wrong and do not deserve to be shut down. Although the association is making a signifigant stab at trying to solve this problem, there are many other ways that could be proposed and some that already have been.

Borders along the Ivory Coast are left completely open. You are not required to have a visa or a passport to cross. Children must travel with realtives, but many traffickers trick the child slaves into calling them "aunt" or "uncle." The trade association is working with the United States to conduct a survey of various farms. They would like to develop programs to teach people not to use slaves as workers and would like to show them how they could raise the price of cocoa. Pilot programs are also in the process of formation, and will be used to moniter farms. Elliot Engle, democratic representative from Congress, suggests that we lable products as "slave free" when we are sure that no slave labor was used in the production process.