«The bitter truth is that children are doing dirty, dangerous and degrading
work in the chocolate industry,» says Cheryl Hotchkiss, manager of World Vision's End Child Slavery campaign in Canada.
«Thanks to our global presence from the bean to the shelf and our innovative strength, we have been able to establish ourselves as the outsourcing partner of
choice in the chocolate industry,» said Patrick de Maeseneire, the company's chief executive.
In response to rising
demand in the chocolate industry and reduce dependency on imports, Indian cocoa producers have said they will increase domestic cocoa production by 60 per cent in the next four years.
Both shows will showcase Chicago as the
leader in the chocolate industry, drive advancements in chocolate and educate both audiences through two distinct events.
While many civilly debated the issues at hand (unethical marketing of formula to developing countries where there isn't access to clean water, child slave
labor in the chocolate industry, the bottled water), others (from both sides of the debate) turned to name calling and snark.
In view of the challenges, we and
others in the chocolate industry worry that without fast action on a number of fronts, cacao farming could slide into a downward spiral.