Chocolate Slavery

I am contributing to child slavery?? Never thought about it like that until recently. I know that kids are sold, taken, and tricked into working in horrible conditions, but most of the things I think about are brick kilns or other slave camps like that. BUT in reality there are thousands of children along the Ivory Coast in Africa suffering all so that I can enjoy my chocolate at a cheap price. It used to be that only the wealthy could afford chocolate, but now we can get it for almost nothing and we can have it whenever we want it....makes you wonder why? Kids as young as 5 years old are being beaten each day. It really is pointless, especially since there IS fair trade chocolate out there. Yes, it is more expensive. BUT I think I can afford to pay more when I am guarenteed that slavery and harsh conditions weren't involved in its production. There are so many places to get Fair Trade chocolate now, so it really is just a decision I have to make and hope that you will make with me. I am also going to look for the email addresses of Hershey, Mars, Nestle, and M&M. They need to know that we are aware of what is going on, their lack of effort to CHANGE the way they use children, and that we will no longer buy their products if something isn't done. Hmmm, something to email ELLEN about. :) HA.