The Shocking Reason to only ever Buy Fair Trade Chocolate.

Wow. My ability to resist buying a Reese’s Peanut Butter Chocolate Egg just got a lot easier…

Filmmaker U. Roberto Romano’s new documentary The Dark Side of Chocolate investigates the disturbing story of child labor in the cocoa fields of the Ivory Coast. According to the International Labour Organization, up to 72 million African children work in farming capacities.

“Even the department of labor has estimated that there are over 100,000 children involved in the worst forms of child labor on the chocolate farms of the Ivory Coast.” ~ Romano

Romano’s documentary (trailer below) exposes the Chocolate Industry’s dark secret of child slavery, wherein children are bought and sold for around $100 and forced to spend their youthful lives uneducated on chocolate farms.

Rather than depriving ourselves of chocolate this Easter, Romano urges consumers to buy fair trade or direct trade chocolate.

By choosing fair trade alternatives to Reese’s, Hersey’s and the like, we can rest assured that we aren’t promoting farms where children are forced to work and robbed of an education.

Cat Snyder is a student of cultural anthropology and peace and conflict studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Growing up on a small island off the coast of New Jersey, she is a beach girl at heart, but her love affair with the mountains of Colorado began four years ago. After her trip to India last fall, she has learned to appreciate the chaos and magic of travel. In her free time, she enjoys running, kundalini meditation, and meeting new people. Friend her on Facebook.