Research Paper on Dark Side of the Chocolate Industry: Child Slavery in West Africa

Introduction

Across the globe, the chocolate industry is one of the leading sectors that is significantly associated with unethical practices regarding child slavery on a significant scale. The chocolate products are inarguably some of the highly consumed foodstuffs in the Western world, whereby each of the products is mainly imported from the developing countries. Ideally, the chocolate production is chiefly based in the West Africa region with favorable climatic conditions for cocoa bean growth in countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, and Ivory Coast (Grisewood, Brand & Ruiz, 2008). In particular, about seventy percent of global cocoa production is done by small scale farmers in West Africa. Nonetheless, due to the low prices in the cocoa cultivation sector, the majority of the smallholder farmers cannot afford to hire the required labor to cultivate and harvest the crop and alternatively pull their children out of school for them to help on the plantation leading to the worst form of child labor. It is a well-known fact that approximately 80% of cocoa supply globally is from the two nations. Therefore, the entire communities are entirely dedicated to cultivating a crop that is worthwhile for governments and international trades.

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On the contrary, the farmers who produce it get below-poverty wages in return (Yusnaidi, 2019). As a result of the impoverished incomes, it becomes complicated for the farmers to acquire the required and adequate labor to grow and harvest the crop and this becomes the principal reason for the increased cases of child trafficking and child labor that have plagued the cocoa industry (Grisewood, Brand & Ruiz, 2008). One of the most prominent and oldest kinds of voluntary industry agreements in the farming sector, namely the Harkin-Engel Protocol that primarily focuses on addressing the devastating child labor practiced in the cocoa sectors. Recently, the private sector voluntary agreements specifically, this protocol has significantly assisted in achieving social change in developing countries. The term child labor is defined as the kind of activities that deprive the children of their childhood dignity and potential, and that also bears harmful to their physical and mental growth. In other words, it is the work that interferes with the children's healthy schooling life, requiring them to stop school prematurely and combine school attendance with heavy and excessive work (Yusnaidi, 2019).

As a consequence, this results in a couple of questions that go unanswered and often asked by the government and non-governmental organizations, the media, and the consumers. For example, what are the significant solutions to addressing such issues? And who is responsible? Nonetheless, despite many actions from the various responsible industries, there is no yet a working and a collective plan or a definitive solution to end these devastating and abusive child labor practices in the respective regions ultimately. Each of the industries hugely depends on the voluntary protocols and the code of conduct implemented by most producing countries, especially Western exporters, including the chocolate industry. As such, the present paper is commissioned at examining the growing concerns of child slave labor within the chocolate industry based on the case about "Cadbury" by Sumans and Jaan and another example on "Bitter Sweets: A Special on the ground report from West Africa" by Briand O'Keefe. It is primarily a work plan that focuses on deriving the significant ethical concerns regarding abusive labor practices and identifying the most excellent options available to address the issues. However, to accomplish the project's goal, one specific step would be to establish a joint group to collectively identify the most prevalent issues and their potential sources and suggest some practical solutions to the concerns. Typically, the chocolate industry globally has come out clear that both the child trafficking and child slave labor have become a norm in this field, which is unethical. Yet, they have refused to act upon an agreement that advocates for the end of abusive labor practices.

Key Issues identified From the Cases

Profit Interest

One of the goals of everyone involved in the Chocolate industry is to protect profits. The costly, firm gate charges and the price of the Cocoa from the farms are critical if the U.S. government's protocol can effectively be implemented. However, both the manufacturers and the exporters who have complete control over the gate charges continue to sell at a low price to decrease their products (Sumana & Jaan, 2007). The exploitative intermediaries are also a contributing factor to the unethical practices since they take more of the fair share, giving the farmers only half of the world price, which makes them look for cheap labor from the children.

Child Slave Labor

Despite the non-profit foundations, the government and the chocolate industry to end the abusive child labor, the practice is still prevalent in the developing nations. The children laborers often miss schools that are vulnerable to different forms of injuries (O'Keefe, 2016). AS it is evident from the Cadbury case, currently, it is difficult to identify if the children working in the farms are slave laborers or they belong to the families working in the farms, and this creates hindrance in eliminating the practice.

Work Plan

The Best Group to Accomplish the Ethical Goals of the Project

The issue of child slave labor is of growing concern and continuously continues to increase in Cocoa grown areas. However, the chocolate industry has, for an extended period, identified this practice as unethical, but they have strongly resisted implementing an effective protocol that supports the abolishment of this issue. Therefore, the best group to work with to accomplish the primary goal of the project is to identify the main reasons why the problem still exists even with the protocol would comprise some members from the labor rights foundation, the consumers, the media, and the cocoa farmers. To understand if the group has achieved its primary objectives, the members should first come up with the excellent solutions that will ensure every farmer obtains a fair price from the cocoa products, which has significantly been connected to the use of child labor, primarily because when the costs are extremely higher, the farmers will be forced to look for alternative ways to minimize the production expenses. They opt to rely on the cheap labor from the children.

Moreover, before commissioning to the group's principal goals, it is imperative to comprehend that cost-benefit analysis is key to decision-making by the industry. Many co-corporations have their interests, duties, and rights to serve their interests, including those of the shareholders and the financial interests provided they do not go against the law while working towards their benefit. Besides, from the ethical perspective, such actions are correct as it is substantially emphasized by the moral principle of economic efficiency, which states that, it is the primary goal of every corporate to increase profits that are subject to efficient production as well as legal and market constraints.

The Challenges the Group May Face and how to Address them

The various causes of child labor in the Cocoa growing farms are unique to every child, which contributes to considerable challenges in addressing the issue. The group members may encounter significant challenges on their mission to achieving success in combating child slave labor in the chocolate industry. Examples of such problems include cost, culture and tradition, political instability in developing nations, and conflicts. Limited educational infrastructure is also a great challenge since, after rescuing the children from abusive labor, there may be no education institutions to enroll them. In most West Africa regions or the prominent Cocoa growing regions such as Cote d'Ivoire are characterized by worse political instability and armed conflicts often associated with the tremendous civil conflicts that afflict the nation. Therefore, the challenges make it difficult for those committed and working tirelessly to end the use of child slave labor in chocolate production. Besides, the government in these countries has reportedly used millions of capitals to counter these challenges and expand the anti-child labor efforts. Ideally, most of the farm in West Africa is located in rural regions with minimal educational facilities or transport means to the schools that are virtually non-existence.

Additionally, child labor in the chocolate industry is prevalent and a challenging concern caused by numerous factors. Therefore, to identify the significant solutions to such challenges, the group must consider the social and economic and cultural factors that lead to factors. The main aim of the group's work plan is to improve the lives of children experiencing child labor. Thus, to overcome the many challenges, it is the group's responsibility to investigate each situation and roll out the solutions that work best for each case. Specific solutions would include education remediation and raising awareness as the initial step.