Is your chocolate harvested by child slaves?

[while1]

/shrug

Bad things happen everywhere all the time.  It doesn't directly affect us and I don't intend to make it affect me.  If you're worried about the treatment of children in 3rd world countries, buying an expensive chocolate bar isn't the way to help the problem.

I absolutely disagree. The torture of people, no matter where they live is bad, and the first step to changing things is to recognize the problem exists, and avoid supporting it. I really don't understand how people can ignore or make fun of the problen so easily -- is an absolutely horrible thing.

[Furious]

Do you make your own clothes and grow your own food?  Or do you just disagree with things that make the news recently?

[iago]

Do you make your own clothes and grow your own food? 

I buy food from local people who directly get the money, whenever I can. Or from companies that support fair wages and treat their employees properly. Naturally I don't do it 100% of the time, but I do it whenever possible. Generally, I support small and local stores/companies/farmers/bands/actors/etc whenever I am able.

Clothes, I haven't bought new clothes in a long time, so we'll talk when I do.

I don't think it's possible, in our world, to be 100% perfect in these matters. It's like a story I posted awhile back suggesting that people go one day/week without eating meat (something about, if every person ate the equivalent of 1 less hamburger each week, the reduced pollution would be the equivalent of taking every SUV off the streets) -- you don't have to take things to the extreme to make a difference. Take small steps, and try to help.

Or do you just disagree with things that make the news recently?

I'm guessing you didn't read the article -- it's nearly a decade old.

This is something I've believed in for awhile. I've made a conscious effort to lead a cruelty free lifestyle, whether it's animals or people, for the last 2-3 years. I'm not 100% perfect, of course, nobody is -- but I do my best to make a difference.


Also, for what it's worth, I do my best not to pressure people to think like me. Rather, I try to share the facts, and let people do their own thing. But really, when people make fun of something like 10-year olds living slavery and being beaten, it pisses me off. I mean, it's one thing to ignore the facts or accept that you're supporting people;s/animals' suffering, there's nothing I can do about that and I'm not going to try, but it's another thing to make fun of child slaves.

[warz]

You should not be eating chocolate. It's fatening. There's child slaves who are skinny as tooth picks out there, you know?

[Sidoh]

hahahah

[Lead]

iago you have a point and your right none of us are 100% perfect but, if someone told you that all vegetables on the earth (exaggeration) were plucked by hands of 6 year old Chinese gold / vegetable farmers, would you stop eating vegetables? I understand the point you are trying to make but as stated before all we can do is look down on it with grimace and suck it up. They have us by the balls

[iago]

You should not be eating chocolate. It's fatening. There's child slaves who are skinny as tooth picks out there, you know?

You're right, people eat way too much chocolate. The reason is because it's dangerously cheap. We came right back around.

iago you have a point and your right none of us are 100% perfect but, if someone told you that all vegetables on the earth (exaggeration) were plucked by hands of 6 year old Chinese gold / vegetable farmers, would you stop eating vegetables? I understand the point you are trying to make but as stated before all we can do is look down on it with grimace and suck it up. They have us by the balls

If all vegetables were plucked by child slaves, I'd start growing my own vegetables.

[Lead]

You should not be eating chocolate. It's fatening. There's child slaves who are skinny as tooth picks out there, you know?

You're right, people eat way too much chocolate. The reason is because it's dangerously cheap. We came right back around.

iago you have a point and your right none of us are 100% perfect but, if someone told you that all vegetables on the earth (exaggeration) were plucked by hands of 6 year old Chinese gold / vegetable farmers, would you stop eating vegetables? I understand the point you are trying to make but as stated before all we can do is look down on it with grimace and suck it up. They have us by the balls

If all vegetables were plucked by child slaves, I'd start growing my own vegetables.

Touche.

[iago]

You should not be eating chocolate. It's fatening. There's child slaves who are skinny as tooth picks out there, you know?

You're right, people eat way too much chocolate. The reason is because it's dangerously cheap. We came right back around.

iago you have a point and your right none of us are 100% perfect but, if someone told you that all vegetables on the earth (exaggeration) were plucked by hands of 6 year old Chinese gold / vegetable farmers, would you stop eating vegetables? I understand the point you are trying to make but as stated before all we can do is look down on it with grimace and suck it up. They have us by the balls

If all vegetables were plucked by child slaves, I'd start growing my own vegetables.

Touche.

It's an interesting thought, though -- what if picking vegetables was such a labour-intensive task that slavery was the only cost effective way of doing it?

I like to think that, if that was the case, technology and the economy would have evolved in such a way that the process would be in someway automated by now (and I suppose that's already happened in modern agriculture, really).

[Lead]

You should not be eating chocolate. It's fatening. There's child slaves who are skinny as tooth picks out there, you know?

You're right, people eat way too much chocolate. The reason is because it's dangerously cheap. We came right back around.

iago you have a point and your right none of us are 100% perfect but, if someone told you that all vegetables on the earth (exaggeration) were plucked by hands of 6 year old Chinese gold / vegetable farmers, would you stop eating vegetables? I understand the point you are trying to make but as stated before all we can do is look down on it with grimace and suck it up. They have us by the balls

If all vegetables were plucked by child slaves, I'd start growing my own vegetables.

Touche.

It's an interesting thought, though -- what if picking vegetables was such a labour-intensive task that slavery was the only cost effective way of doing it?

I like to think that, if that was the case, technology and the economy would have evolved in such a way that the process would be in someway automated by now (and I suppose that's already happened in modern agriculture, really).

But remember some of our veggies may come from 3rd world countries that do in fact use child labor as a medium for vegetable picking.

[Camel]

Bu... bu... but I thought Cadbury Cream Eggs were laid by magical rabbits?

I think iago would argue that's wrong, too...

[Chavo]

About the only thing we can do to protest is not buy their products.  I think it's pretty clear from the response here that most of us aren't chocolate junkies anyway

I think I've spent less than $10 total in the past year on Hershey or Mars products, and that was probably all at Halloween.  Of course my reasons are more not-wanting-to-destroy-my-teeth and don't-particularly-like-sweet-things motivated.

[iago]

But remember some of our veggies may come from 3rd world countries that do in fact use child labor as a medium for vegetable picking.

You're right, and tropical fruit is one of the sketchiest things.

Like I said, I do my best to buy fair trade and such when I can. I love spending $5.99 for a small bag of dried mango!

About the only thing we can do to protest is not buy their products.  I think it's pretty clear from the response here that most of us aren't chocolate junkies anyway

I think I've spent less than $10 total in the past year on Hershey or Mars products, and that was probably all at Halloween.  Of course my reasons are more not-wanting-to-destroy-my-teeth and don't-particularly-like-sweet-things motivated.

I disagree that it's the only thing you can do, but it's by far the easiest thing.

[Lead]

About the only thing we can do to protest is not buy their products.  I think it's pretty clear from the response here that most of us aren't chocolate junkies anyway

I think I've spent less than $10 total in the past year on Hershey or Mars products, and that was probably all at Halloween.  Of course my reasons are more not-wanting-to-destroy-my-teeth and don't-particularly-like-sweet-things motivated.

What kid wouldn't want a bowl of fresh green grapes over a Chocolate bar 

[warz]

You should not be eating chocolate. It's fatening. There's child slaves who are skinny as tooth picks out there, you know?

You're right, people eat way too much chocolate. The reason is because it's dangerously cheap. We came right back around.

I don't think price is necesarilly the reason somebody would buy chocolate. That giridelli chocolate or whatever is fairly expensive - so why do people love it? Because it tastes good. People are going to buy chocolate because they want to eat it, regardless of price... ofcourse, until the price becomes so high that people start to look for alternatives. Even chocolare that isn't made by chinese gold farmer children slaves isn't too expensive. But then again people could just really like chocolate.