In 2014, approximately 18 million chocolate products were manufactured by Mars Inc. (Chocolate Industry, 2015). However, individuals who have chocolate as a daily essential are not aware of its origin. Cocoa comes from the Theobroma tree, which originated in South America (Growing cocoa, n.d). Cocoa beans are produced in the Ivory Coast and Ghana, the two main producers of cocoa. Indeed, Each year, 600,000 stacks of cocoa beans are exported globally (Products that can be made from cocoa, 2003). Once the cocoa beans are fermented and dried they are used to produce cocoa butter, cocoa powder, and cocoa liquor that produce chocolate (Products that can be made from cocoa, 2003). However, cocoa production is associated with a number of negative issues. As a result, consumers should not buy traditionally produced cocoa because it does not benefit the farmers socially, economically, or environmentally.
Cocoa has various negative social impacts on both farmers’ and children’s health. Firstly, growers’ and children working on the cocoa fields suffer from poor nutrition and injuries as well as the lack of access to fresh drinking water (Human rights and Child Labor, n.d). In addition, small children and growers in Ghana and the Ivory Coast are exposed to pesticides on cocoa farms as they spray the pods with toxic poisons (Human rights and Child Labor, n.d). This threatens farmers’ lives as when pesticide is inhaled it causes headaches, vomiting, and body weaknesses and other diseases (Hicks, n.d). Indeed, according to agricultural pesticides “2.2 million people are at risk due to exposure from agricultural pesticides” (“Agricultural Pesticides”, n.d). Secondly, Child labor and slavery is used in West African cocoa farms. For example, children struggling on cocoa farms are between the ages of twelve and sixteen and forty percent of these children are girls (Child labor and Slavery in the Chocolate Industry, n.d). Children are traded to traffickers by their own families because of insufficient living circumstances, low profits, and lack of understanding the challenges children face in the yields as when small farmers are sent to the fields they do not come back to their families for years (McMahon, 2005). For instance, children work very long hours; indeed many work eighty to one hundred hours a week without earning wages and are frequently being hit and starved (McMahon, 2005).
It has also been argued that cocoa has a negative economic impact. To begin with, more than seventy percent of the globe’s cocoa comes from Ghana and the Ivory Coast (cocoa, n.d). The cause of failure in cocoa production results from low soil abundance, pests, and lack of enhanced planting tools, as well as climate change, and the struggle in finding farming supplies (agricultural pesticides and human health, n.d). Similarly, the failure of cocoa growers is caused by the unsteadiness of prices. For example, farmers’ lack of education and lack of modern farming tools as well as the defeat of bargaining command to markets results in the unsteadiness of prices (“world cocoa foundation”, n.d). Another economic effect is on the farmers’ income as growers receive a mere two dollars a day, and receive a low share of the world’s fair price for cocoa beans (Make chocolate fair, n.d). Farmers’ use their wages to pay school and health bills for their family. In addition, cultivating areas usually have poor schooling and healthcare and a shortage of electricity and sanitation due to the lack of government financing (fair trade and cocoa, n.d). Farmers use their wages to pay debts and buy tools to harvest and often take out high-priced loans. Similarly, the significance low costs of cocoa is that growers have neither the encouragement nor supplies to spend in growing or buying tools to yield a high value crop (fair trade and cocoa, n.d). Governments in manufacturing farmlands charge high trade tolls on cocoa beans to enhance public markets at the cost of farmer incomes and are commonly waged less than market fees by retailers, which resulted in a worsened poverty in the villages (fair trade and cocoa, n.d).
Another negative impact is environmental. Firstly, deforestation triggers global warming. For instance, farmers fell trees, which are made through two methods, careful cutting and cut and burn method (“chocolate in the rainforest”, n.d). Cut and burn method is a method used to clear the land by cutting plants in the cocoa field and the remains of the plants are reduced to ashes (“chocolate in the rainforest”, n.d). Indeed, These techniques are triggering destruction to the environment as they release harmful amount of carbon dioxide from the burning of plants, which causes global warming (“chocolate in the rainforest”, n.d). Secondly, soil pollution is another aspect of the negative environmental impact. Cocoa soil is worsening because of the toxic control of heavy metal copper caused by the use of fertilizers (“Heavy metals pollution in fungicide treated cocoa plantations”, 2010). An additional instance is that yields decline due to weakness of soil nutrients, and increasing amount of pests and plant diseases (pesticides, pollution, and people, n.d). Another Example is that the Soils source of nourishment is decreasing due to lack of fertilizers that are caused by hybrid cocoa (“Heavy metals pollution in fungicide treated cocoa plantations”, 2010). Some of the soils in the ground are severely leaked due to everyday high rainfall. Intensive large-scale cocoa production can result in the failure of biodiversity and soil fertility, soil destruction, and environmental problems (agricultural pesticide and human health, n.d).
In conclusion, cocoa consumption has risen significantly around the globe (Chocolate Industry, 2015). The increasing demand of chocolate benefits the manufacturers to spread throughout the world. Such demand on chocolate make farmers struggle in the cocoa field to supply the needs of the consumers, in return farmers earn low wages for their hard work. This essay has argued that consumers should not buy traditionally produced cocoa for social, economic, and environmental reasons. In the opinion of this writer, if consumption of cocoa continues it is highly likely that growers will remain suffering because of lack of sufficient wages and the lack of aid from the government to support them. The problems caused by cocoa affects the health of the farmers and the environment (“chocolate and slavery”, n.d). It is suggested that cocoa manufacturers be more aware of new modern technologies when it comes to cutting down trees. Moreover, government should supply free pesticides, fertilizers, and other involvements to cocoa cultivating to support the farmers to maintain good cocoa farms (Lambert, 2014). Cocoa companies need to be more considerate regarding the use of child labor and slavery. Indeed, Governments need to promote programs to end the practice of child trafficking in Africa and to provide the fund and access of education to farmers’ children (Lambert, 2014). Such methods could have a positive impact on the individual cocoa producer, his society and the marketplace.