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Library Project: Sustainable Chocolate

Erica Cutts

Keene State College

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Summary of Article: ​Making Sustainable Chocolate the Norm

The 2018 ​Food Technology​ article titled “​Making Sustainable Chocolate the Norm”

discussed the goals set by Barry Callebaut, one of the world’s largest chocolate companies, to

make the process of cocoa production more sustainable (Hensel, 2018). In 2016, the company

established four sustainability goals for themselves to be reached by the year 2024. These goals

included lifting half a million cocoa farmers out of poverty, eliminating child labor from their

supply line, becoming carbon and forest positive, and having 100% sustainable ingredients in

their whole supply chain. The article then explored the steps Barry Callebaut was taking to meet

those goals, and then evaluated the success of those tactics as of 2018.

To reduce poverty among cocoa farmers, Barry Callebaut created a training program for

the farmers that educated them on proper agricultural practices and provided them with materials

and financing needed to expand crop yield. This is also the approach they took to become more

carbon and forest positive--by educating farmers about sustainable farming practices such as

increasing yield on less land and mapping out plans to eliminate cocoa farming on national parks

and reserves. To diminish the use of child labor in cocoa production, the company has provided

children with school kits, funded schools and classrooms, and worked with farmers to understand

the underlying causes of child labor in the cocoa industry. Lastly, to reach their goal of 100%

ingredient sustainability, Barry Callebaut has begun to partner with the companies that provide

them with their other ingredients (i.e. vanilla, sugar, palm oil, etc) to ensure that they too are

relying on sustainable and ethical practices.

Summary of Article: ​Reconfiguration of the Cocoa Industry and Poverty Reduction in Côte

D’Ivoire
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The purpose of this article was to examine the cocoa supply chain in Cote D’Ivoire and

find ways to increase the financial returns for local cocoa farmers (Malan, 2010). Specifically,

the article discusses how poor Ivorian cocoa farmers are, even though the cocoa industry is so

important to their economy, making up 10% of their GDP. Although Cote D’Ivoire is the top

producer of cocoa in the world, they have a 60.8% poverty rate in that sector. Next, the article

proposes how specifically Ivorian cocoa farmers could get a better financial return on their

crop--by actually making and distributing chocolate worldwide in country, rather than simply

stopping at the export of cocoa beans to outside grinding companies. It was suggested that this

would increase job opportunities for Ivorian cocoa farmers, as well as increase their income

because of their heightened control of cocoa/chocolate prices.

Summary of Article​: Estimating the economic incentives necessary for eliminating child

labor in Ghanaian cocoa production

This article looked at the underlying reasons as to why child labor is such a prominant

labor practice in many West African, cocoa producing countries. The article surmised that

children in the workforce were both a cause and result of poverty (luckstead, Tsiboe, and Nalley,

2019). This is because when families face poverty, they are more likely to forgo education and

send their children to work, which ultimately reduces the opportunity for later economic

independence due to the lack of education. Next, the article discusses the actual costs of

eliminating child labor from the Ghanian cocoa industry. To eliminate the worst forms of child

labor, a price premium of 2.81% would be required, while an 11.81% price premium would be

needed to eliminate both the most dangerous forms of child labor, as well as regular child labor

in Ghanian cocoa production.

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Summary of Article: ​Impact of cocoa farming on vegetation in an agricultural landscape in

Ghana

The purpose of this article was to discuss the effects of cocoa production on deforestation

and other species of vegetation. Essentially, the increasing cocoa farm sizes is leading to a

decline in plant species and plant species diversity (Asase, Ofori-Frimpong, and Ekpe, 2009).

Further, the articles explains that although increasing the size of cocoa farms is leading to greater

cocoa yields, it’s also putting a significant amount of stress on the cocoa trees and making them

more susceptible to pests, which ultimately leads to a decline in cocoa yield. Ultimately, this

article suggests that the current cocoa farming practices occurring in places such as Ghana are

not environmentally viable for the long term.

Summary of Article: ​Unpacking ‘sustainable’ cocoa: do sustainability standards,

development projects and policies address producer concerns in Indonesia, Cameroon and

Peru?

This article examines if the efforts made to create a sustainable cocoa production process

are actually effective. Specifically, it compares the cocoa industry in Indonesia and Cameroon,

which are longtime producers of cocoa, to Peru, which is a relative newcomer to the cocoa

industry (Mithofer et al,. 2017). Overall, what the article suggests is that the programs put in

place to make cocoa production sustainable economically and environmentally do have some

effect on the quality of the cocoa being produced, but they aren’t necessarily meeting the needs

of the actual cocoa producers. In the three countries evaluated in the article (Peru, Indonesia, and

Cameroon), the cocoa farmers are focused on the economic viability of cocoa, which is low;

input costs, which are high, and organizations that could advocate for the best interest of the
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farmers, which are relatively non-existent. In other words, the efforts being made to make cocoa

production sustainable aren’t targeting the right aspect of the production line.

Opinion

There is no way to dispute the blatantly obvious downsides of the current cocoa

production process--extreme poverty, rampant child labor, and widespread economic and

environmental insustainability. All of the articles above discuss, in depth, the causes, effects, and

possible solutions to these issues. And although it’s great for companies such as Barry Callebaut

to set goals to resolve these problems within the cocoa industry, I can’t help but wonder how

genuine their motives are. Do they really care about the Ghanian farmer making fifty cents a

day? Or the eleven year old boy who works on a cocoa farm instead of attending school? Or did

they just create these goals for themselves to create a better image for the consumer? I think the

latter. I think these companies, and not just Barry Callebaut alone, were forced to act as a way to

save face when they were caught buying from farmers who hacked down protected national

forests (Pearce, 2019) and overlooked the farmers who utilized children for labor in cocoa fields

(Philpott, 2017).

Research Skills and Process

One of my biggest takeaways from the research process for this project was

self-direction. The instructions for the project were relatively open-ended, which meant I had to

decide the direction of my research and outline of the project. This also meant doing research

before I even knew what my topic specifically was because I had to get an idea of where I could

go with the article I chose from ​Food Technology.​ Further, as with most projects of this type, I
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had to be able to identify, find, and assess the resources that I was using to ensure that they were

accurate and relevant to my research purpose.

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References

Asase, A., Ofori-Frimpong, K., & Ekpe, P. K. (2009). Impact of cocoa farming on vegetation in

an agricultural landscape in Ghana. ​African Journal of Ecology​, ​48​(2), 338–346. doi:

10.1111/j.1365-2028.2009.01112.x

Hensel, K. (2018, January 1). Making Sustainable Chocolate the Norm. Retrieved from

https://www.ift.org/news-and-publications/food-technology-magazine/issues/2018/januar

y/features/cocoa-sustainability-barry-callebaut.

Luckstead, J., Tsiboe, F., & Nalley, L. L. (2019). Estimating the economic incentives necessary

for eliminating child labor in Ghanaian cocoa production. ​Plos One​, ​14​(6). doi:

10.1371/journal.pone.0217230

Malan, B. B. (2010). Reconfiguration of the Cocoa Industry and Poverty Reduction in Cote

D’Ivoire. Retrieved from

https://www.gtap.agecon.purdue.edu/resources/download/6745.pdf

Mithöfer, D., Roshetko, J. M., Donovan, J. A., Nathalie, E., Robiglio, V., Wau, D., … Blare, T.

(2017). Unpacking ‘sustainable’ cocoa: do sustainability standards, development projects

and policies address producer concerns in Indonesia, Cameroon and Peru? ​International

Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management​, ​13​(1), 444–469.

doi: 10.1080/21513732.2018.1432691

Pearce, F. (2019, February 21). The Real Price of a Chocolate Bar: West Africa's Rainforests.

Retrieved from

https://e360.yale.edu/features/the-real-price-of-a-chocolate-bar-west-africas-rainforests.

Philpott, T. (2017, June 25). Bloody Valentine: Child Slavery in Ivory Coast's Cocoa Fields.
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Retrieved from

https://www.motherjones.com/food/2012/02/ivory-coast-cocoa-chocolate-child-slavery/.