Skip to content
Chocolate — Food of the GodsLesson 7 of 16

The Children in the Cacao

Goal: After this lesson you can face the modern labor reality in West African cacao and name the responses to it. Subject: Social Studies | Run time: about 7 minutes

Quick recall

Last time we covered conquest and the great reversal. Two quick questions. One: what happened when cacao reached Spain in 1528? Sugar was added, turning a bitter sacred drink into a sweet European luxury (Coe & Coe, 2013). Two: how much of cacao's value was captured locally before conquest, compared to after? It fell from 100 percent to about 3 to 6 percent (Coe & Coe, 2013).

Why this matters

The great reversal is not just history. It is still running. In 2020 a study by NORC at the University of Chicago counted about 1.56 million children working in cacao labor in West Africa (NORC, 2020). That is not a number from a textbook about the past. That is the chocolate aisle right now.

The idea

Let's look at the system honestly, the way you would read a map, not to feel bad but to see how it works. The 2020 NORC study found about 1.56 million children in cacao labor across West Africa, and about 95 percent of those child workers were exposed to hazardous conditions (NORC, 2020). Hazardous means real danger: sharp tools, heavy loads, chemicals. Now ask why this happens, and the numbers answer. School attendance in cacao regions sits around 58 percent (NORC, 2020). So a large share of children in these areas are not in a classroom, and many are in a field instead. And about 85 percent of cacao families live below the poverty line (NORC, 2020). When you put those facts next to the great reversal from last lesson, the picture sharpens. If the place that grows the crop keeps only about 3 to 6 percent of the value, families stay poor, poor families need every set of hands, and children end up in the cacao. The labor crisis is not separate from the value crisis. It is the same crisis, seen from the ground. So what is the response? One answer began in 1988, when fair trade cacao certification started (Coe & Coe, 2013). Fair trade is an attempt to push more of the value back toward the people who grow the crop, to reverse a piece of the great reversal. It is not the whole solution and it does not erase 1.56 million children. But it is a deliberate effort to change who captures the value, which is exactly the lever the data points to.

Picture it

Picture the chocolate bar in your hand and follow it backward. Past the wrapper, past the factory, past the ocean crossing to West Africa, to a cacao farm where a child, one of about 1.56 million, is carrying a load in a place where most families live below the poverty line and only about 58 percent of kids in the region are in school. You are not looking at a villain. You are looking at a system that pays the bottom 3 to 6 cents on the dollar. Fair trade is one hand trying to change that arithmetic.

Remember this

The fact to carry out: in 2020, NORC counted about 1.56 million children in West African cacao labor, with about 95 percent exposed to hazardous conditions, school attendance around 58 percent, and about 85 percent of families below the poverty line, and fair trade certification, begun in 1988, is one response aimed at the value gap behind it (NORC, 2020; Coe & Coe, 2013). The modern crisis is the great reversal still running.

Quick check

Quick check. About how many children did the 2020 NORC study find in cacao labor in West Africa, and what share faced hazardous conditions? About 1.56 million children, with about 95 percent exposed to hazardous conditions (NORC, 2020).

Key Takeaways

  • The 2020 NORC study found about 1.56 million children in cacao labor in West Africa, with about 95 percent exposed to hazardous conditions (NORC, 2020).
  • School attendance in cacao regions sits around 58 percent, and about 85 percent of cacao families live below the poverty line (NORC, 2020).
  • The labor crisis is tied to the value crisis: when the growing region keeps only about 3 to 6 percent of the value, poverty drives child labor (Coe & Coe, 2013; NORC, 2020).
  • Fair trade cacao certification began in 1988 as one response aimed at pushing more value back to growers (Coe & Coe, 2013).

Sources

  • Coe, S. D., & Coe, M. D. (2013). The true history of chocolate (3rd ed.). Thames and Hudson.
  • NORC at the University of Chicago. (2020). NORC final report: Assessing progress in reducing child labor in cocoa production in cocoa growing areas of Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana. https://www.norc.org
Sign in to track your progress