My Guilty Pleasure

Out of all the contemplative practices, my attention was captured particularly by chocolate. I have always appreciated and indulged every single chocolate I have laid my hands on – up until recently. It is both haunting and disturbing; the inhumane activities such as exploitation of workers and child labor associated with something that brings most people pleasure. This contemplative practice made me feel  empathetic to those children who are impoverished and stripped away from their childhood – which prevents them from attending school and living a normal life, spending most of their time working in cacao farms. 

source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/business/hershey-nestle-mars-chocolate-child-labor-west-africa/

After witnessing the video of Ivory Coast cacao growers tasting chocolate for the first time and child labor in cacao production, I instantly felt guilt – being a consumer supporting products that are sourced from people that are exploited and had been taken advantage of. Eating chocolate suddenly becomes difficult, thinking about farmers’ lack of privilege to taste chocolate – when their product is its number one ingredient.

Cacao is a multi-billion dollar industry, and yet growers in Ivory Coast are employing children (free labor) but still struggle to make enough profit to provide for their families. Considering the amount of money and power the chocolate industry possess, they most certainly have the upper hand to prevent child labor and exploitation of farm workers by providing a fair and just wage in exchange for their product.

This situation in the chocolate industry is something that I was not aware of prior to the contemplative practice addressing it. This shows that these practices may be difficult to understand for most people like myself, but it is a very useful tool to contemplate the big picture behind things. This specific contemplative practice about chocolate encouraged me to see through a bar of chocolate and think about the unjust practices associated with it as well as the actions that should be implemented to resolve it.

 

9 thoughts on “My Guilty Pleasure

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