TOTALLY GEEKED!

Lady Gaga Snerd · Guru

The world is running out of CHOCOLATE

flan327 · Itty bitty's Grammy

Meh.

flan

Lady Gaga Snerd · Guru

Do you really want a lot of premenopausal women, who own guns to not have their chocolate!!??

flan327 · Itty bitty's Grammy

Lady Gaga Snerd wrote:
Do you really want a lot of premenopausal women, who own guns to not have their chocolate!!??

See, I never craved chocolate...back in the day...

flan

I know what to do_sometimes · Frozen Sucks!

Lady Gaga Snerd wrote:
Do you really want a lot of premenopausal women, who own guns to not have their chocolate!!??

LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Lady Gaga Snerd · Guru

DD is 14. And she MUST have chocolate or it's a 911 emergency!

I know what to do_sometimes · Frozen Sucks!

Well, instead of whining about this, some entrepenuer will see this as an opportunity and start her own cocoa farm

Lady Gaga Snerd · Guru

Nah, govt will come along and say "it's not fair!!". And we will attack Big Chocolate as trying to screw us. And, instead of encouraging cocoa farmers we will tax the industry because it's not fair!!

ed11563 · Guru

Prices will rise, demand will continue in spite of higher prices, and

the Law of Supply and Demand will fix this.

Mellow Momma · Sniff...sniff, sniff. Yay! A Bum!

Most of those farmers growing the cacao have never tasted a chocolate bar or anything at all made from chocolate. If you care about items being "fair trade" this is one of the items to look for as being marked fair trade.

There is one company called Divine that is owned by the farmers who grow the cacao and they are all women. It's a really great cooperative that empowers women in poverty to improve their situation through hard work.

There is another company called Madecasse who is fair for life. This means that they not only pay a fair price for the product, but the end product (the candy bar) is made in the same village that the cacao beans are grown in. It creates hundreds of jobs for all sorts of people besides the farmers. The beans are taken from bean to bar in the village and then shipped to stores. The bar is a bit more pricey but it's a more sustainable business model than a lot of others.

There is a LOT to know about chocolate and cacao farming. The farmers are typically not paid a fair price for their crops - getting cents on the dollar encourages them to farm other crops. When they are paid a fair wage for the cacao, they will grow it.

Lady Gaga Snerd · Guru

ed11563 wrote:
Prices will rise, demand will continue in spite of higher prices, and
the Law of Supply and Demand will fix this.

Until govt's step in and try to "regulate". Then, the world is screwed.

Lindley · Guru

Lady Gaga Snerd wrote:
Do you really want a lot of premenopausal women, who own guns to not have their chocolate!!??

I'm one of them. I must have chocolate 😠

weltschmerz · Guru

Mellow Momma wrote:
Most of those farmers growing the cacao have never tasted a chocolate bar or anything at all made from chocolate. If you care about items being "fair trade" this is one of the items to look for as being marked fair trade.

There is one company called Divine that is owned by the farmers who grow the cacao and they are all women. It's a really great cooperative that empowers women in poverty to improve their situation through hard work.

There is another company called Madecasse who is fair for life. This means that they not only pay a fair price for the product, but the end product (the candy bar) is made in the same village that the cacao beans are grown in. It creates hundreds of jobs for all sorts of people besides the farmers. The beans are taken from bean to bar in the village and then shipped to stores. The bar is a bit more pricey but it's a more sustainable business model than a lot of others.

There is a LOT to know about chocolate and cacao farming. The farmers are typically not paid a fair price for their crops - getting cents on the dollar encourages them to farm other crops. When they are paid a fair wage for the cacao, they will grow it.

Not to mention that a lot of cocoa farms use kidnapped children as slave labour.

Children who have never tasted chocolate, and never will.

When I buy chocolate bars to give as gifts, it's Fair Trade chocolate from Dix Milles Villages.

Ohfour · Hooker

Meh, i dont care for chocolate, but then again, i dont eat ice cream either.

Lady Gaga Snerd · Guru

weltschmerz wrote:
Mellow Momma wrote:
Most of those farmers growing the cacao have never tasted a chocolate bar or anything at all made from chocolate. If you care about items being "fair trade" this is one of the items to look for as being marked fair trade.

There is one company called Divine that is owned by the farmers who grow the cacao and they are all women. It's a really great cooperative that empowers women in poverty to improve their situation through hard work.

There is another company called Madecasse who is fair for life. This means that they not only pay a fair price for the product, but the end product (the candy bar) is made in the same village that the cacao beans are grown in. It creates hundreds of jobs for all sorts of people besides the farmers. The beans are taken from bean to bar in the village and then shipped to stores. The bar is a bit more pricey but it's a more sustainable business model than a lot of others.

There is a LOT to know about chocolate and cacao farming. The farmers are typically not paid a fair price for their crops - getting cents on the dollar encourages them to farm other crops. When they are paid a fair wage for the cacao, they will grow it.
Not to mention that a lot of cocoa farms use kidnapped children as slave labour.
Children who have never tasted chocolate, and never will.
When I buy chocolate bars to give as gifts, it's Fair Trade chocolate from Dix Milles Villages.

Goody for you. I buy the chocolate that I like.

Lady Gaga Snerd · Guru

Is there anything you dont try to turn into a political pilgrimage? Just wondering.

Mellow Momma · Sniff...sniff, sniff. Yay! A Bum!

Lady Gaga Snerd wrote:
Is there anything you dont try to turn into a political pilgrimage? Just wondering.

If you are talking to me, I was simply trying to share some knowledge about a product that people might not know about. When farmers are not paid a fair wage, they choose to grow crops that pay them more money. Like poppies for heroin etc.

Lady Gaga Snerd · Guru

I was talking to Welts lol.

huskerbb · Guru

Where is all the outrage about wheat farmers only getting 16 cents out of every loaf of bread you buy? Or beef farmers getting a couple dollars a pound out of that $12 T-bone you buy? Or the dairy farmer getting $1.69 or so out of the $4 gallon of milk (and milk requires very little processing)?

Absurd. The FACT is the the primary farmer isn't going to get a huge chunk of the final consumer product--I don't care what product you are talking about.

People have their little pet causes--but the reality is that they don't care as much as they think they do.

Nobody Just Nobody · Rib-it! Rrrib-it!

I will be highly upset if we run out of chocolate.

I know what to do_sometimes · Frozen Sucks!

Ohfour wrote:
Meh, i dont care for chocolate, but then again, i dont eat ice cream either.

Nice! I bet you can ruin a wet dream as well.

I know what to do_sometimes · Frozen Sucks!

huskerbb wrote:
Where is all the outrage about wheat farmers only getting 16 cents out of every loaf of bread you buy? Or beef farmers getting a couple dollars a pound out of that $12 T-bone you buy? Or the dairy farmer getting $1.69 or so out of the $4 gallon of milk (and milk requires very little processing)?

Absurd. The FACT is the the primary farmer isn't going to get a huge chunk of the final consumer product--I don't care what product you are talking about.

People have their little pet causes--but the reality is that they don't care as much as they think they do.

We can deal with the lack of wheat, not chocolate. Now go crawl back into your stupid man cave 'cause you just don't get it.

Ohfour · Hooker

I know what to do_sometimes wrote:
Ohfour wrote:
Meh, i dont care for chocolate, but then again, i dont eat ice cream either.
Nice! I bet you can ruin a wet dream as well.

You got that from me didnt you????? :)

lilyofcourse · My spirit animal is a pink flamingo.

Why are we not dropping billions of dollars into fixing this?

Screw immigration.

Run out of Chocolate and the Walking Dead will look like a nursery rhyme.

Mellow Momma · Sniff...sniff, sniff. Yay! A Bum!

huskerbb wrote:
Where is all the outrage about wheat farmers only getting 16 cents out of every loaf of bread you buy? Or beef farmers getting a couple dollars a pound out of that $12 T-bone you buy? Or the dairy farmer getting $1.69 or so out of the $4 gallon of milk (and milk requires very little processing)?

Absurd. The FACT is the the primary farmer isn't going to get a huge chunk of the final consumer product--I don't care what product you are talking about.

People have their little pet causes--but the reality is that they don't care as much as they think they do.

This might be news to you...but some of us can carry more than one thought in our brains at a time. Just because we comment about chocolate farmers doesn't mean we don't care about beef and dairy farmers. Just like commenting on what we are eating for dinner doesn't mean we aren't eating breakfast.

But by all means, jump to conclusions and get all dramatic about it.

flan327 · Itty bitty's Grammy

Seriously...this should go in the "First-World Problems" thread.

flan

huskerbb · Guru

Mellow Momma wrote:
huskerbb wrote:
Where is all the outrage about wheat farmers only getting 16 cents out of every loaf of bread you buy? Or beef farmers getting a couple dollars a pound out of that $12 T-bone you buy? Or the dairy farmer getting $1.69 or so out of the $4 gallon of milk (and milk requires very little processing)?

Absurd. The FACT is the the primary farmer isn't going to get a huge chunk of the final consumer product--I don't care what product you are talking about.

People have their little pet causes--but the reality is that they don't care as much as they think they do.
This might be news to you...but some of us can carry more than one thought in our brains at a time. Just because we comment about chocolate farmers doesn't mean we don't care about beef and dairy farmers. Just like commenting on what we are eating for dinner doesn't mean we aren't eating breakfast.
But by all means, jump to conclusions and get all dramatic about it.

Oh, I know pretty well. You didn't even know any of that until I posted it.

weltschmerz · Guru

Lady Gaga Snerd wrote:
weltschmerz wrote:
Mellow Momma wrote:
Most of those farmers growing the cacao have never tasted a chocolate bar or anything at all made from chocolate. If you care about items being "fair trade" this is one of the items to look for as being marked fair trade.

There is one company called Divine that is owned by the farmers who grow the cacao and they are all women. It's a really great cooperative that empowers women in poverty to improve their situation through hard work.

There is another company called Madecasse who is fair for life. This means that they not only pay a fair price for the product, but the end product (the candy bar) is made in the same village that the cacao beans are grown in. It creates hundreds of jobs for all sorts of people besides the farmers. The beans are taken from bean to bar in the village and then shipped to stores. The bar is a bit more pricey but it's a more sustainable business model than a lot of others.

There is a LOT to know about chocolate and cacao farming. The farmers are typically not paid a fair price for their crops - getting cents on the dollar encourages them to farm other crops. When they are paid a fair wage for the cacao, they will grow it.
Not to mention that a lot of cocoa farms use kidnapped children as slave labour.
Children who have never tasted chocolate, and never will.
When I buy chocolate bars to give as gifts, it's Fair Trade chocolate from Dix Milles Villages.
Goody for you. I buy the chocolate that I like.

Good for you! Clearly, you don't give a crap.

Honeys_Mom · Mod & Permanent Board Sweetheart

Only on TG can I find people actually arguing about chocolate...

Sorry, debating.

biggrin

lilyofcourse · My spirit animal is a pink flamingo.

BIG eyeroll here.

Great big eyeroll.

weltschmerz · Guru

But even in a day of widespread and flagrant abuse of power, there is a dark side to the operations of the Hershey company that make it particularly egregious. Hershey, which is the largest chocolate manufacturer in the world, gets most of its cocoa from West Africa. The company purchases the primary ingredient in its products from sources notorious for abusive labor practices including forced labor, human trafficking, and child slavery,
***
Ivory Coast, located on the southern coast of West Africa, is by far the world’s largest supplier of cocoa beans, providing 43 percent of the world’s supply. According to an investigative report by the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), hundreds of thousands of children are being purchased from their parents for a pittance, or in some cases outright stolen, and then shipped to Ivory Coast, where they are enslaved on cocoa farms. These children typically come from countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso, and Togo. Destitute parents in these poverty-stricken lands sell their children to traffickers believing that they will find honest work once they arrive in Ivory Coast and then send some of their earnings home. But that’s not what happens. These children, usually 11-to-16-years-old but sometimes younger, are forced to do hard manual labor 80 to 100 hours a week. They are paid nothing, receive no education, are barely fed, are beaten regularly, and are often viciously beaten if they try to escape. Most will never see their families again.

“The beatings were a part of my life,” Aly Diabate, a freed slave, told reporters. “Anytime they loaded you with bags (of cocoa beans) and you fell while carrying them, nobody helped you. Instead they beat you and beat you until you picked it up again.”

foodrevolution.org/blog/child-slavery-chocolate/

huskerbb · Guru

weltschmerz wrote:
Lady Gaga Snerd wrote:
weltschmerz wrote:
Mellow Momma wrote:
Most of those farmers growing the cacao have never tasted a chocolate bar or anything at all made from chocolate. If you care about items being "fair trade" this is one of the items to look for as being marked fair trade.

There is one company called Divine that is owned by the farmers who grow the cacao and they are all women. It's a really great cooperative that empowers women in poverty to improve their situation through hard work.

There is another company called Madecasse who is fair for life. This means that they not only pay a fair price for the product, but the end product (the candy bar) is made in the same village that the cacao beans are grown in. It creates hundreds of jobs for all sorts of people besides the farmers. The beans are taken from bean to bar in the village and then shipped to stores. The bar is a bit more pricey but it's a more sustainable business model than a lot of others.

There is a LOT to know about chocolate and cacao farming. The farmers are typically not paid a fair price for their crops - getting cents on the dollar encourages them to farm other crops. When they are paid a fair wage for the cacao, they will grow it.
Not to mention that a lot of cocoa farms use kidnapped children as slave labour.
Children who have never tasted chocolate, and never will.
When I buy chocolate bars to give as gifts, it's Fair Trade chocolate from Dix Milles Villages.
Goody for you. I buy the chocolate that I like.
Good for you! Clearly, you don't give a crap.

I don't really give a crap. Everyone says the U.S. shouldnt be the world police--except when they find some pet cause they pretend to care about, then we should.

weltschmerz · Guru

Who said anything about being the world police? I'm not in the US. A lot of folks here stoppped buying this stuff. If people worldwide stopped buying slave labour chocolate, it would diminish considerably.

huskerbb · Guru

weltschmerz wrote:
Who said anything about being the world police? I'm not in the US. A lot of folks here stoppped buying this stuff. If people worldwide stopped buying slave labour chocolate, it would diminish considerably.

BS. The ONLy way that works is to quit buying chocolate altogether. It's a world market. That chocolate IS going to be in that market. Do you truLY not understand how world markets work?

weltschmerz · Guru

And if more people are aware of the inherent problems with chocolate, it might make a difference.
Lots of folks are clamoring for non-GMO and gluten-free foods. Some companies are listening.

lilyofcourse · My spirit animal is a pink flamingo.

The only inherent problem with chocolate is that it's too yummy.

If a person stopped buying anything or boycotted everything that had some kind of bad situation, no one would go any where or buy anything.

huskerbb · Guru

weltschmerz wrote:
And if more people are aware of the inherent problems with chocolate, it might make a difference.
Lots of folks are clamoring for non-GMO and gluten-free foods. Some companies are listening.

But it doesn't matter. In a world market, that chocolate is going to get consumed. There's not another alternative.

I know what to do_sometimes · Frozen Sucks!

I have a ton of chocolate in my house. VD just rained it on me.

lilyofcourse · My spirit animal is a pink flamingo.

You and your VD!

I know what to do_sometimes · Frozen Sucks!

lilyofcourse wrote:
You and your VD!

biggrin

lilyofcourse · My spirit animal is a pink flamingo.

I'd take some chocolate if anyone is sharing.

Mellow Momma · Sniff...sniff, sniff. Yay! A Bum!

huskerbb wrote:
Mellow Momma wrote:
huskerbb wrote:
Where is all the outrage about wheat farmers only getting 16 cents out of every loaf of bread you buy? Or beef farmers getting a couple dollars a pound out of that $12 T-bone you buy? Or the dairy farmer getting $1.69 or so out of the $4 gallon of milk (and milk requires very little processing)?

Absurd. The FACT is the the primary farmer isn't going to get a huge chunk of the final consumer product--I don't care what product you are talking about.

People have their little pet causes--but the reality is that they don't care as much as they think they do.
This might be news to you...but some of us can carry more than one thought in our brains at a time. Just because we comment about chocolate farmers doesn't mean we don't care about beef and dairy farmers. Just like commenting on what we are eating for dinner doesn't mean we aren't eating breakfast.
But by all means, jump to conclusions and get all dramatic about it.
Oh, I know pretty well. You didn't even know any of that until I posted it.

Wow. That's hysterical. You do know that I am the general manager of a food co-op right?! We do over $10M a year and a decent portion of that is from meat and dairy. I work with local farmers on a daily basis. So, yeah, I didn't know anything about those issues until you brought them up!!! That's hysterical. The fact is, this is a thread about chocolate so that's what I commented on. You are so ignorant it's laughable. Don't you ever presume to have a clue what I know about unless you ask me first ok?

-- Edited by Mellow Momma on Monday 15th of February 2016 11:27:44 PM

WYSIWYG · Guru

I could stand to eat a little less chocolate.

huskerbb · Guru

Mellow Momma wrote:
huskerbb wrote:
Mellow Momma wrote:
huskerbb wrote:
Where is all the outrage about wheat farmers only getting 16 cents out of every loaf of bread you buy? Or beef farmers getting a couple dollars a pound out of that $12 T-bone you buy? Or the dairy farmer getting $1.69 or so out of the $4 gallon of milk (and milk requires very little processing)?

Absurd. The FACT is the the primary farmer isn't going to get a huge chunk of the final consumer product--I don't care what product you are talking about.

People have their little pet causes--but the reality is that they don't care as much as they think they do.
This might be news to you...but some of us can carry more than one thought in our brains at a time. Just because we comment about chocolate farmers doesn't mean we don't care about beef and dairy farmers. Just like commenting on what we are eating for dinner doesn't mean we aren't eating breakfast.
But by all means, jump to conclusions and get all dramatic about it.
Oh, I know pretty well. You didn't even know any of that until I posted it.
Wow. That's hysterical. You do know that I am the general manager of a food co-op right?! We do over $10M a year and a decent portion of that is from meat and dairy. I work with local farmers on a daily basis. So, yeah, I didn't know anything about those issues until you brought them up!!! That's hysterical. The fact is, this is a thread about chocolate so that's what I commented on. You are so ignorant it's laughable. Don't you ever presume to have a clue what I know about unless you ask me first ok?

-- Edited by Mellow Momma on Monday 15th of February 2016 11:27:44 PM

Food co-op???? You know even less then i thought.

flan327 · Itty bitty's Grammy

Oh, husker, no one knows more than you...

flan

Lawyerlady · On the bright side...... Christmas is coming! (Mod)

Baby J has not been allowed chocolate for 3 days. On Saturday, I picked up her jacket and it felt heavy, so I checked the pockets. She's gone in the pantry and filled the pockets of her jacket with chocolate. I had to hide my face so she wouldn't see me laughing. All I could get out was - "No chocolate! Three days!" DH said I sounded like the soup nazi.

Renegade Time Lord · Member

Speaking only for myself, this is not an issue with me. I am just not a chocolate eater. I don't have to have it. In fact, I very rarely get a craving for candy and sweets. I could live the rest of this lifetime and all succeeding ones without eating chocolate.

huskerbb · Guru

flan327 wrote:
Oh, husker, no one knows more than you...

flan

Yes that's true.

Honeys_Mom · Mod & Permanent Board Sweetheart

Lawyerlady wrote:
Baby J has not been allowed chocolate for 3 days. On Saturday, I picked up her jacket and it felt heavy, so I checked the pockets. She's gone in the pantry and filled the pockets of her jacket with chocolate. I had to hide my face so she wouldn't see me laughing. All I could get out was - "No chocolate! Three days!" DH said I sounded like the soup nazi.

I absolutely LOVE Baby J's confidence! And I also don't envy the challenge you and Mr. LL have in training and teaching her to do things God's way and not her way, LOL... biggrin

huskerbb · Guru

I can't say I never eat chocolate, but I'm not a big eater of "sweets" in general.

TOTALLY GEEKED!

The world is running out of CHOCOLATE: Soaring demand and slowing production are combining to put sweet treats at risk

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