Hello, Halloween.
Every Halloween, children in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere set off on a quest. The familiar ringing doorbells, cute costumes and shouts of "Trick or Treat!" are a fall ritual, with origins dating back centuries, and one singular, important goal in mind: candy.
Like most fall feasting rituals, this impulse probably comes from a seasonal urge to acquire calories, for staying well during a long, cold winter. But now that our food supplies are generally stable year-round, we can be particular - not only about how much we consume but about where that food is coming from and how it is made.
Halloween is of ethical concern, not because of ghosts or demons, but because of real concerns about the sourcing of Halloween candy. Much of the haul that kids take in will be candy bars, and according to "The Dark Side of Chocolate," nearly half of all the world's chocolate was sourced from the Ivory Coast, where forced child labour is commonplace.
The U.S. Congress came close to passing regulations in 2001 which would have required companies to assure consumers that their chocolate was "slave-free". The main chocolate producers fought this regulation and it did not pass. Instead, the companies agreed to voluntarily end child forced labour in their industry by 2005. Yet, that deadline has been postponed multiple times, and as of Halloween 2021, little has changed. A new lawsuit has been launched against chocolate giants Nestle, Hershey and Mars, by former child labourers.
So what is an ethical consumer to do? Well, if you have the time and money you can order chocolate bars in many varieties from Divine Chocolates, which buys cocoa from co-ops and claims to have "Bean to Bar" accountability. Other sources for ethical chocolate can be found here, from Nelly's Organics to ChocZero, each with claims to specialize in ethical sourcing. However, as the busy holiday season approaches, you may simply want to add trick-or-treat candy to your grocery cart on your regular shopping trip.
If that is the case, our recommendation is that you avoid the Big Three of Nestle, Hershey and Mars for now, as there has been almost no movement toward making Big Chocolate accountable for child slave labour. Instead, a typical scroll through the Halloween candy at Loblaws offers one chocolate that made it onto the Ethical Chocolate list - Oh Henry!, manufactured by Ferrara. This manufacturer was acquired by Fererro Group, which consistently scores 99% for Corporate Social Responsibility from the CSR Hub. If your selection is limited and you must go with a Big Three brand, Dove Dark (by Mars) at least uses chocolate that is traceable. Dove has Rainforest Certification for its dark chocolate and says this means it is "more ethically sourced" than other brands.
Nothing celebrates the coming of Autumn like the annual Halloween season, when everyone, not just kids, gets to wear costumes and eat candy. While we can't avoid all the problems, let's make it just a little more fun by choosing the treats with the fewest tricks.