SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth

Chocolate production

This week's blog post focuses on chocolate, and in particular what distinguishes a company that makes 'good' chocolate (chocolate untainted by child labour, modern slavery, deforestation and the overuse of agrichemicals) from one that merely makes chocolate.

Tony's Chocolonely is a company based in The Netherlands. Their mission is to make slave-free chocolate and turn all chocolate slave-free. It says 60% of the world’s cocoa comes from 2.5 million farms in West Africa that are placed under the kind of pricing pressure that leads to child labour and modern slavery. The average cocoa farmer earns less than US$1.20 per day, and women cocoa farmers are thought to earn around 50 cents per day.

The Chocolate Scorecard shows how well 38 companies that produce chocolate are performing, with Tony's Chocolonely leading in policy and practice.

Read the article from The Conversation to find out more about child labour and what chocolate companies are doing about it:

https://theconversation.com/at-chocolate-time-weve-discovered-what-the-brands-that-score-best-on-child-labour-and-the-environment-have-in-common-201682 

You can find out more about SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth in Unit 9 of Develop Your English: with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (free to access).