Readers, everyone should stop eating Hershey's.
Most cocoa is imported from West Africa, which is rife with corruption and what's more the ones doing the work on the plantations over there are child slaves. The Harkin-Engel Protocol, or the Cocoa Protocol, is an international agreement aimed at ending child labor in the production of cocoa. It requires that cocoa manufacturers show where their cocoa is coming from and how it's produced. Its been 10 years since it was signed, and out of all major chocolate manufacturers, Hershey's has made the least progress in stopping child slavery. Not only that, but according to IPS News:
Hershey is the only one that refuses to certify their chocolate as organic or fair trade.
In fact, not only does Hershey refuse to certify its sources, it also won’t even list them publicly. When asked by companies like Global Exchange and The International Labor Rights Forum, Hershey refused to provide public information about its cocoa sources in West Africa, period.
But we do know that the majority of Hershey’s cocoa is sourced from West Africa; that the company has no purchasing policies that would prevent labor exploitation of those in West Africa; that it refuses to shift to third-party fair trade certifications (which almost every other major chocolate manufacturer has); and lastly, even when Hershey’s investors asked the company to "institute supply-chain transparency programs for its cocoa," the company refused.
I was already trying to lay off the sweets in order to trim down my ever-expanding waistline, but the fact that any Hershey's candy you eat was at one point touched by an adolescent slave is enough to make me swear off them completely!
