Choosing a Chocolate of Change

Consumers in the United States buy more chocolate candy during the week of Valentine's Day than any other time of year.

But — however happy your Valentine's Day might otherwise be — unfair wages, child labor and ravaged ecosystems often accompany cocoa production. Fortunately, a small cadre of advocates picked up on the momentum of coffee consumers and introduced fair trade chocolate a few years ago.

This year, Global Exchange, 20-year veteran of the "people not profit" globalization movement, is sponsoring a Day of Action, complete with a curriculum for school teachers who want to teach students where their "kisses" are coming from.

Perhaps it's no coincidence, then, that organic chocolatiers Green & Black chose February to announce their intent to move to all fair-trade chocolate. (The move, and its timing, is especially interesting given that Green & Black was sold to Cadbury in 2005, and U.S.-based Kraft Foods is scheduled to take over Cadbury by month's end.) While Green & Black will source its cocoa from the Dominican Republic, farmers in Peru are also jumping on the opportunity to sell fair trade chocolate. As the Christian Science Monitor reports, Peruvian farmers are replacing coca with cocoa. As the demand for organic chocolate grows, farmers who used make a dangerous living as suppliers of cocaine have found sweet relief in the chocolate trade.

With the supply of fair trade and organic chocolate on the rise, consumers have more sustainable choices than ever. Sustainable Table has a great list of chocolate vendors along with some fun chocolate facts, and Global Exchange even lists the types of chocolate products available from their collection of vendors. Plenty of options, whether your sweetheart wants extra dark art bars or kosher hot cocoa – just remember to wrap it in red and don't spill the (cocoa) beans.

Photo via 123Network.