Have a Slavery-free Halloween

Assorted Fair Trade and Organic Chocolates

Yesterday the family and I attended the Northwest Chocolate Festival here in Seattle where “Chocolate Lover’s Unite”.  Along with a nice mix of vendors hawking everything from small little purses from 3rd world countries to hand crafted cutting boards from right here in Seattle (no, none of which were made of chocolate) there was a decent representation of small to medium sized fair and direct trade chocolate manufacturers. Some companies, which you may or may not have ever heard of, were Taza, theo, Divine and Madecasse.

All of these companies produce high quality, Fair Trade bars available online and at most Whole Foods and similar stores. During one of the many panel discussions we learned about what Fair and Direct Trade means, how it pertains to the chocolate industry, what the problems/benefits associated with both trade methods are and how the above companies work with those structures. I should note that a representative from Starbucks was also on one of the panels and it’s good to know that they have a very aggressive program in place to ensure their chocolate farmers meet certain criteria (via a point system) in order to be considered suppliers for their chocolate product line.

One question that came up was how families and parents can access Fair Trade, Organic and socially responsible chocolates to give away at Halloween time. After all, nothing is scarier than giving away handfuls of Hershey’s chocolate made on the backs of slave or child labor* and economic slavery. Personally, that’s not the kind of scary I want to spread around.

So if you’re looking for a few options, give the following companies a thought.

Divine: Individual minis, 200pc box

Dagoba: Tasting Squares, 36 pc and 432pc boxes

Kuapa Kokoo: Fair Trade Gold Coins, 13pc bag

Equal Exchange: 150pc box and 40pc sac of minis

Natural Candy Store: a variety of offerings including some of the above items.

Coco Zen: assorted chocolates including pops and disks

Sweet Earth Chocolates: Assorted, individually wrapped pieces

Assorted Options at Whole Foods (might be your best option considering time and costs)

Are these items cheap? No, they are not but at least you won’t get a little bit of your soul sucked out with each piece you give away. So maybe the kids at your door won’t get big handfuls to schlocky treats but may instead get a single/few, cherished piece of true goodness. Maybe parents will notice the Fair Trade emblem, pause and give a thought to what that means and how that differs from the colorful crap around it. And just maybe this is one step towards a Halloween candy revolution that will eventually force giants like Hershey to wake up, grow some humanitarian, chocolate-covered balls and produce products not derived from slave labor. Ooooo, corporate responsibility and change…scary concepts, I know!

Of course you can also opt to go the non-chocolate route and find good hard candies that are healthy (errr..healthier) and made with soul as well.

So have a safe Halloween everyone and remember, we consumers hold the power..shop wisely and beat the status quo down with your money stick or handfuls of loose change. If your local store doesn’t carry Fair Trade and/or organic (ie GMO-free) products squawk about it to management.

For more soul-saving purchases for Halloween visit these other informative blog posts. Remember, if you can’t make changes in time for this Halloween, there’s always Easter!

Get Child Labor Out of Your Chocolates : includes access to the 2010 Chocolate Company Score Card

Eco-Friendly Halloween Candy Choices

Green America’s Online Petition telling Hershey to go Fair Trade

17 Alternative Halloween Treats

Reverse Trick-or-Treating

Treats, no Tricks: Whole Foods Blog on Halloween candy

Free2Work Company Ratings

*It is estimated that 284,000 child laborers work on cocoa farms, and are either involved in hazardous work, are unprotected, are deprived of liberty, or have been trafficked.