As a father, there is perhaps nothing more profound than being mindful, present, and open-minded enough to life’s lessons that my young child incessantly and brusquely thrusts in my face. As a winemaker, little has motivated or reminded me more about our natural propensity to be captivated by our sense of smell and taste, as much as watching my toddler instantly become enraptured with chocolate. In chocolate, at three-years old no less, he likely had already discovered one of the few things that will remain among his favorite pleasures for many decades to come. A remarkable lifetime relationship that will bring virtually uninterrupted pleasure. Anyone think they can compete with that?  Sweet dreams.

But just recently, when he turned four, I thought he was compassionate enough and could emotionally handle the “dark side” of chocolate. By forcibly inserting his brain into his heretofore frivolous relationship with chocolate, beyond just tickling its pleasure receptors, I was hoping to elevate his enjoyment of chocolate beyond mere taste. Now, when he comes to understand the implications of his chocolate consumption decisions, it will not only taste great, but also feel great.

It is achingly beautiful to witness the instinctive, boundless love, and yes, even empathy, in a young child’s heart. At four, my son does not yet know that the world is supremely unjust and that children are not born equal. He does not yet know a single reason why anyone, no matter the circumstance, deserves anything less than true happiness, fulfilled. There is a glorious magic, wisdom, and starkness to the simplicity with which he approaches logic, reason, and justice.

He sees a picture of a young child working hard on a farm and he wonders. He hears that those children, in a forest far away, work very hard all day while here, he laughs and plays. That those children rarely have any food, while he eats often. And he learns that those children don’t have a choice, while he sometimes has a choice  (if I’m in a good mood). Occasionally at night he is read the story of Chaga and the Chocolate Factory and he begins to quickly make sense of the land and life of those “other” children in a forest far away.

He doesn’t yet know the horrific nature and history (past and present) of slavery. But he doesn’t need to. To my four-year old boy, it is so incredibly simple. What isn’t so simple is how somewhere along the road to adulthood, youth lose empathy. They lose the energy they once had to fight for something better for themselves and especially others. And their idealistic instincts drift away with each puff on a long forgotten dandelion.

From Gnats to Farmers

People have seemingly always been obsessed with chocolate. Ancient civilizations such as the Olmecs, Aztecs and Mayans had long ago used cacao as currency, ceremonial offerings, and as food reserved for the elite. The botanical name for the plant, Theobroma cacao, means “food of the Gods.” It is a curious plant: While fermented and processed cacao beans (i.e., chocolate) is recognized as one of the most aromatic and intoxicating substances known, the cacao flower itself has neither fragrance, nor nectar. As such, it is pollinated by chance and not by bees, but by the lowly gnat.

Cacao is grown in a narrow belt around the equator in some of the world’s poorest nations, with West Africa (Ivory Coast, Ghana) responsible for around 70 percent of the world’s supply. Farming cacao is not where the money is: It is estimated that approximately 90 percent of the world’s cocoa is grown on small family farms of less than 12 acres. As such, the World Cocoa Foundation estimates that 40-50 million people worldwide are dependent on cocoa as their main source of income. Widespread reports persist of large scale poverty, farmers cheated myriad ways, and systematic and pernicious exploitation despite hardscrabble toil and enormous profits and pleasure derived from their labor.

While executives and their boards of directors have sought profit from the exploitation of human beings within their corporate family, the earth fares no better. Poor soil fertility, increased pest pressure, declining yields, and other immediate economic factors have led to widespread disfigurement of diverse cacao habitats and deforestation, which leads to an endless cycle of ecological destruction.  In its 2004 report, “Commodities and Conservation: the Need for Greater Habitat Protection in the Tropics,” the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science estimated that cacao production has been responsible for the loss of 80 percent of the forest habitat in West Africa over the past several decades.

Chocolate and Slavery: Indelibly Intertwined

Most abhorrent of all, despair and hopelessness plaguing the nations bordering cacao exporting countries (Mali, Burkina Faso) has led to conditions conducive to child slavery. UNICEF, the U.S. State Department, and many others have reported [PDF] the use of child slaves in cocoa production for more than 10 years, particularly by the world’s largest exporter of cacao, the Ivory Coast.  According to the International Labor Rights Forum, the State Department estimates that more than 109,000 children in the Ivory Coast work under “the worst forms of child labor” and that an estimated 10,000 are unquestionably slaves.