Chocolate: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

It becomes evident that our romanticized notions of chocolate, nurtured by advertisements and popular culture, (green-washed corporate media) stand in stark contrast to the harsh realities faced by those involved in its production. Oliver humorously navigates through these contradictions, highlighting the vast gap between the glossy image of chocolate and the complex web of issues surrounding its creation (Source: Swift 2024, np link)

The thing about chocolate is that, since it’s a product that practically everyone in the world enjoys, you’d think that the people who supply cocoa beans to chocolate companies would be laughing all the way to the bank. But that’s not the case at all. Cocoa farmers hardly make money to support their families, and that only happens because developed countries like the United States … imports the fruit from underdeveloped countries like Ghana and the Ivory Coast … (Source: Massoto 2023, np link).

… [where it] is mostly grown on small family-run plots and cultivated by hand (Source: Horton 2023, np link).

[Oliver: F]or all the money and happiness surrounding chocolate, there’s one group that doesn’t get to share in it, and that’s the farmers who grow cocoa in the first place. The majority have never even tasted chocolate. And that’s something that reporters and documentarians love to try and remedy on camera, perhaps none as patronizingly as this. These farmers have been growing beans for decades. They’re about to get their first taste of chocolate. [Film clip, reporter with African cocoa farmers:] You have never tried chocolate? [Farmer:] No. Mm! [Reporter:] That is your cocoa! [Oliver:} Well, to those who thought I’m the most annoying version of a loud man on TV with a British accent, looks like you owe me an apology. Because that’s pretty condescending. ‘Attention, former subjects, we noticed that you have not once tasted the fruits of your interminable toil, so allow me to present you with the generous gift of a single kit-kat. That is your cocoa!’ And the reason most farmers haven’t tried chocolate before is, they can’t afford it (Source: Oliver in Anon 2023a, np link).

Oliver explained the operation of the cocoa industry which, like many lucrative businesses, involves major companies taking advantage of its helpless workers in order to make huge sums of profit (Source: Saha 2023, np link)

[Environmental activist in film clip:] In a way, the story of chocolate is a little bit like an hourglass, where you have millions of smallholders growing cocoa at the very beginning of the story, and at the end of the story, you have millions of consumers eating chocolate. But right at the center of the hourglass are a handful of extremely powerful companies. These companies are the cocoa traders. [John Oliver:] Okay. That was a very good description of how the industry works, from what I can only assume is a nine-hour YouTube video titled, ‘Woman explains cocoa sector inequality asmr fall asleep now high quality headphones on.’ But it’s true – the industry is dominated by just a handful of cocoa trading companies, the most powerful of which are the so-called big three – Cargill, Barry Callebaut and Ofi, which together buy and process about 60 percent of the world’s cocoa. They then sell to a handful of major chocolate companies: Mars, Mondelez – which owns Cadbury – Ferrero, Nestlé, and Hershey, which together sell over half the world’s chocolate. And when you have so many farmers, and so few buyers, the buyers clearly have a big advantage. That’s why only about 6 percent of the value of a chocolate bar makes its way back to the farmer. (Source: Oliver in Anon 2023, np link).

The consolidation of power within a select few corporations becomes a focal point, as Oliver dissects how this dynamic negatively impacts cocoa farmers worldwide. His satirical analysis not only entertains but also prompts viewers to reflect on the systemic issues within the chocolate industry and consider the broader implications of corporate control on global supply chains (Source: Swift 2024, np link).

He seemed to dismantle the rhetoric surrounding industry pledges, leaving viewers with a critical perspective on corporate responsibility (Source: Swift 2024, np link).

With an adept mix of British sarcasm and satire, [he] scrutinizes the responses of major chocolate companies to allegations of child labor in their supply chains. Nestlé, Mondelez, Ferrero, Hershey (Source: Swift 2024, np link).

Around 20 years ago, a series of news stories and a documentary found that young children – some of whom had been enslaved or trafficked – were working on cocoa farms that supplied major chocolate companies. And in the wake of public horror over this, companies didn’t do themselves any favors with how they responded. Just listen to the answers that this Dutch journalist got when he asked Nestle [in a phone call] about whether children were involved in making its chocolate. [Executive:] Children are working in virtually every single agricultural setup around the world. [Journalist:] Yes. [Executive] Okay? As a matter of fact, when I was 11 or 12 years old, I went to help a farmer. I did not get paid – paid for it. I did it because I thought it was – it was fun. That was child labor. A child working. [Journalist:] And that’s the same. [Executive:] It’s not the same. Evidently. I didn’t need to do that. Okay? … For a poor farmer in–in Africa, often the help that he gets from his children is vital in order to maintain the standard of living of the family. [Journalist:] Because they are–they– [Executive:] Because they are so desperately poor. [Journalist:] Because they don’t get paid enough by Nestle, or by the companies they work for. [Executive:] All right, that’s it. Thank you very much. [Hangs up] (Source: Oliver in Anon 2023a, np link).

Oliver returned to 2005, when the US Congress attempted to pass legislation setting a deadline for eradicating child labor in the chocolate supply chain (Source: Horton 2023, np link).

[John Oliver:] Children have been known to be forced, or trafficked, to work in cocoa production. And while, because of the nature of this crime, exact numbers aren’t known, one survey estimated that in Ivory Coast, over a four-year period, 2,000 children were victims of forced labor, while in Ghana, it was 14,000. And back in the 2000s, outrage over this actually spurred US lawmakers to take action. First, they considered mandating labels for chocolate, indicating whether or not it was made with child slave labor. But the chocolate industry then lobbied that down to a voluntary agreement to eliminate the ‘worst forms of child labor”’ promising to get it done by July 2005. That agreement later became known as the Harkin-Engel protocol, after the two lawmakers who’d pushed for it – but when the deadline rolled around, Senator Harkin had this unfortunate update:

Though I was disappointed that the July 1st deadline was not fully met by the industry, they have given us a commitment – a commitment to achieving a certification system which can be expanded across the cocoa growing areas of West Africa, and which will cover 50% of the cocoa-growing areas of Ivory Coast and Ghana in three years’ time. I’m very pleased with this commitment.

John [Oliver]: Are you? Because if so, I’m genuinely jealous of your infinite capacity for trusting others. “Ah, I see from the first panel of today’s Peanuts comic that Lucy is finally going to let Charlie Brown kick the football. While I was disappointed by her actions in the past, it seems that a new day has brought a sense of integrity within this young girl, and I am very excited to move my gaze down the page and see this commitment honored in – what? She did it again? And predictably, the companies didn’t meet that new deadline either. Once 2008 rolled around, they kicked it to 2010, then pushed it ‘again’ to 2020 – while simultaneously downgrading their goal to just getting a 70 percent reduction in child labor, rather than eliminating it entirely, then missed that deadline too. And the companies almost certainly knew they wouldn’t be keeping their promises here. As the former head of the international cocoa initiative put it, ‘Was there any chance of child labor being eradicated by the original 2005 deadline?’ No, never. And at that point, why bother setting a date at all? If your friend agrees to meet you for dinner at 7, then pushes it to 7:30, then 8, and finally says ‘Be there in 20 – years not minutes,’ it kind of feels like they never had any intention of getting dinner in the first place (Source: Oliver in Anon 2023a, np link).

Companies have internal initiatives to support fair trade, but ‘the reality hasn’t remotely lived up to the rhetoric,’ said Oliver, citing one investigation that went to one address on Mondelēz’s Cocoa Life website in 2022 and immediately found child laborers harvesting cocoa pods without protective clothing. ‘I don’t know what statement Mondelēz could release in the wake of that other than maybe ‘Honestly, did not think anyone would actually check,’’ Oliver joked. Third-party auditors also give advance notice of inspections, ‘which is clearly ridiculous, because that’s never going to be reliable, Oliver exclaimed. ‘If you tell your teenager, ‘I’m checking your backpack for cigarettes next Tuesday,’ then great news: you’re not going to find any. ‘All these companies will say that they’re concerned about child labor and that they’ve spent a lot of money trying to fix it’ – an estimated $150m by 2019. ‘But that’s over 18 years, and while they were collecting $103bn in sales annually,’ Oliver noted – 0.1% of one year’s sales. ‘C’mon, M&Ms must have spent more than that fine-tuning how f*ckable the green M&M is,’ he quipped (Source: Horton 2023, np link).

[N]o one escapes Oliver’s razor-sharp commentary as he scalples their public statements and actions. Except for Tony’s. Tony’s escaped (Source: Swift 2024, np link).

In a passionate plea, [he] calls on consumers to go beyond merely savoring their chocolate bars. He encourages viewers to demand change, support ethical brands, and be aware of the impact their choices have on the lives of cocoa farmers (Source: Swift 2024, np link).

Remember that Dutch journalist making the guy from Nestle squirm? As a result of that segment, he actually created his own chocolate company, Tony’s Chocolonely. It works hard to ensure its supply chain is free from child or slave labor. And – importantly – ensures that the people who grow its cocoa aren’t in dire poverty. … it says something that Tony’s were somehow able to pay farmers double the going rate, despite being a mid-size Dutch cocoa company whose logo, by the way, looks like a casual dining restaurant operated by-and-for clowns. If these guys can do it, there’s frankly no reason why these can’t as well. And to be fair, even Tony’s own website admits the scale of the challenge here, saying, ‘We have never found an instance of modern slavery in our supply chain, however, we do not guarantee our chocolate is 100% slave free. While we are doing everything we can to prevent slavery and child labor, we are also realistic.’ And I have to say, I appreciate that – because there is a difference between recognizing how much there is to do, and simply not doing enough (Source: Oliver in Anon 2023a, np link).

Oliver’s concluding remarks leave viewers with a sense of introspection, compelling them to reevaluate their relationship with chocolate and consider the broader impact of their choices. Through humor and sincerity, he fosters a collective vision for a more equitable and sustainable future in the world of chocolate. Equality however, in chocolate, is not child-slavery free (Source: Swift 2024, np link). .

I know these are companies, not charities, whose job it is to make money, not save the world … But that means that they will only care about this problem exactly as much as they are forced to. So if we are serious about getting child labor out of our chocolate, we can’t keep relying on pinky promises and the honor system. We need tough legislation that requires companies do the right thing (Source: Oliver in Horton 2023, np link).

Video summed up with ‘There is little to no ethical consumption under Capitalism’ (Source: haaris_harris_harish 2023, np link).

The name of the program is a play on the official Dutch Governments ‘Keuringsdienst van Waren’ (Goods Inspection Service) (Source: @divinwill 2024, np link).

That clip was from 2003, but he still to this day makes that tv show (Source: @ryanh3635 2024, np link).

It’s very much in the same genre as John Oliver – and leads neatly into Tony Chocolonely (Source: @JasperJanssen 2024, np link).

John Oliver you are an angel among us! No one else can keep me laughing, while educating me, the way you can. Thank you for another valuable lesson (Source: @oucatfive6806 2024, np link)!

Another disturbing story made palatable to watch by John Oliver’s superb humor. A winning recipe for getting this message out (Source: @kayeroskaft9619 2024, np link)!

I feel like this is the most important show on television, because it basically exposes how our entire way of life in a ‘developed’ country has this absolutely horrid underbelly rife with human rights abuses – which is content that most normal people would turn off because its just so depressing. But this show presents the content in a way that makes the audience want to stick around, be curious, and stay engaged in hearing about these harsh realities. This type of show can make more of a difference than harsh, raw documentaries. Keep up the good work (Source: @DSS712 2024, np link)!

Oliver uses his comedic prowess to make this educational segment both engaging and thought-provoking, not even suggesting viewers to question the ethics behind their favorite indulgence. He makes audiences laugh so its easier to slug back the horrors his award-winning show covers. He even mentions that. He said he was going to ‘make it wierd’ [sic] (Source: Swift 2023, np link).

Comedy is a great way to convey truths because it disarms people, just like chocolate (Source: @kenmogibrainworld4844 2024, np link).

[This j]ust goes to show how sick the writers are and Oliver just goes along with whatever they tell him to say. Whether its animal sex jokes or children trafficking John loves all of it and will say it with a smile (Source: @qwertpoo1 2024, np link).

um… what? He’s poking fun at these issues to call attention to them and hopefully help encourage some change, not to support them. Are you really this daft? I honestly can’t believe I’m having to explain this to someone (Source: @hockema56 2024, np link).

I don’t think he enjoys these things. I think he enjoys shedding light on them and he does make jokes because it’s easier to laugh than it is to be serious and have to cry (Source: @WitOn4Wheelz 2024, np link).

Uhhh, … it’s NOT the writers who are f’d up here. Humor has historically been used to effect cultural change by getting people to pay attention to things that are wrong. [Last Week Tonight] is part of that tradition. They’re not trying to hurt people, they’re trying to fight corruption. Things won’t change unless we pay attention to them and understand the problem. The problem is not the writers, so please educate yourself, clarify your comment and pay attention (Source: @Hunter-qu3xn 2024, np link).

Do you know the saying ‘A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down’? The use of comedy while delivering terrible information is one way to get people to HEAR the information without turning away. If you think that dark humor CONDONES the topic, then you have misunderstood the entire premise of the show. Try telling the story of child labor with the appropriate grim tone it calls for, and see how many people simply ignore it. Many people don’t follow politics or news in general because it’s too freaking depressing. Using humor gets the word out (Source: @charlieevergreen3514 2024, np link).

Funny you attack the writers of this show and not the monsters they are writing about (Source: @UncleMilo 2024, np link).

[Like] the [marketing budget for the f*ckable] green M&M joke, that whole thing was literally done by Mars in order to distract from the fact that they had then recently been named in a child slavery lawsuit by several former child slaves from Mali who were kidnapped from their families and forced to work under armed guard on cocoa plantations in Ivory Coast. I highly recommend a video by Thought Slime called ‘The M&Ms are not Hot Anymore: Somehow, a serious video about the evils of colonialism’ (Source: @LeBonkJordan 2024, np link).

Y’know. I’ve been suspicious of the Hershey chocolate company since I took their factory tour. There’s this one part where they show the beans being grown in Africa and they go on and on about how happy their workers are and how it’s all very fair. Which was, of course, suspicious (Source: @keegandecker4080 2024, np link).

Hershey Park has a ride about the process from cocoa bean to chocolate. They lie about who really collects the beans. When I was 15, I stood up in the cart and kept shouting ‘child labor’ until they almost kicked me out (Source: @ethanpowell8687 2024, np link).

The (Lindt) Chocolate Museum in Cologne, Germany, uses literally half of their space to fill with explanations and graphs on how this part of the industry was in the past or something. I mean, if 50% of a museum is saying you didn’t commit murder, 25% is a live chocolate factory with shops in it and another 25% is compromised of old advertisement, then you find a café outside, you might start wondering if the first part is really true at all (Source: @drallagon 2024, np link).

Anyone who knows anything about the Cadbury family and Bournville – where they set up a small town to look after their employees, their education and their health – would cringe at the way workers are exploited in the name of chocolate and profit these days. I’m damn sure they founded their company on more moral and fair terms than Mondelez, the company that so sadly swallowed them up. I doubt that conditions for cocoa farmers in those days were any better, but it is unlikely the Cadburys knew much about the origin of their beans. I believe if they did, they would likely have tried to do as much for the farmers as they did for their workers (Source: @sureshot8399 2024, np link).

Fun fact: Ferrero is mostly known in Germany for their ‘kinder’ products like the Surprise Egg. Kinder is the German word for children. It’s made by children for children (Source: @rhysodunloe2463 2024, np link).

The chocolate of the children, by the children, for the children (Source: @Vitrunis 2024, np link).

Evrytime you take a bite of that chocolate just remember a slave child cried and bled on those beans so you could be happy (Source: @vectoralphaSec 2024, np link).

Should start requiring companies to label ‘May Exploit Children’ like a ‘may cause cancer’ warning sign on their packaging, to see how it affects marketing (Source: @Mezz9009 2024, np link).

so, not very fun really (Source: @sachadee.6104 2024, np link).

I love john oliver’s style of introducing hard or depressing stories in not a sad or gloomy way … (Source: @MaxFerney 2024, np link)!

… but it’s pieces like this that make me and my wife call this show depression. ‘Hey look honey, new episode of depression is up’ ‘oh, what’s it about this time?’ ‘Uh… chocolate’ ‘noooooooo, not chocolate’ (Source: @bigthyme26gaming64 2024, np link).

John and his writers’ talents [make] me depressed about literally everything, even the substance which keeps me from just dying of despair – chocolate (Source: @shroomyk 2024, np link).

It does such a discredit to what the show really brings to the table when you mark it as depressing, lol… Even when you say it affectionately. But whatever (Source: @Onigirli 2024, np link).

I have to take long breaks (Source: @keonawelch9782 2024, np link).

I never wanted to be depressed and underwhelmed by his coverage of anything let alone something I cared so deeply and passionately about. The episode was very upsetting, from the perspective of a chocolate professional (Source: Swift 2024, np link).

My issue with it is that, on average the topics are hard, unchangeable problems that even large amounts of money can’t fix unless it’s used properly. These things make it feel hopeless and depressing don’t you agree (Source: @bigthyme26gaming64 2024, np link)?

[@bigthyme26gaming64] So rather than learn about reality, which is often depressing, and how to contribute to a positive change in the world, you complain? It’s attitudes like yours, and others I see whining in the comments, that allow such abuses to continue unabated (Source: @frances-if5fp 2024, np link).

@frances-if5fp perhaps direct your anger at those who actually hold sway.. like the chocolate companies. two people sitting on the couch informing themselves about what’s wrong with the world is not actually your target audience (Source: @lamoinette23 2024, np link).

The first step to solving a problem is recognizing that there is one. That’s what this show is to me, a sobering look at my own reality so I can make better choices at a level I can control (Source: @mr.slyvesteefoxinator3426 2024, np link).

As a food researcher, I can confidently say, that this is one of the few stories that has at least one nice point, without leaving you totally depressed: ‘We can choose to buy as much slave-free chocolate as possible! Eat our way to change’ (Source: @ambersampson7444 2024, np link).

[I] don’t need chocolate anyway too many calories (Source: Sutherland 2023, np link).

It contains no essential nutrients. It is a snack. Nobody needs it to survive. Plus, some of us have health conditions that make us unable to eat chocolate regardless of how ethical it might be to do so (Source: @Toksyuryel 2024, np link).

It was a nice segment but I’ve seen most of it before. The child labour, toxic chocolate companies were pretty much a known thing. I would’ve liked some crazy inside info (Source: Sarkar 2023, np link).

So you already knew it … are you eating chocolate (Source: Rifkin 2023, np link)?

I saw it last night, I’ll be giving up chocolate now (Source: Fallon 2023, np link).

It’s really funny how these people think they’re taking the moral high ground by not eating chocolate because people get exploited. In reality they are buying a ton of other products that have similar exploitation (Source: @watcherit1311 2024, np link).

It’s the unfortunate truth that in almost everything we buy, some poor person or child slave probably made it or farmed it (Source: @frostyfilmwatcher2148 2024, np link).

It’s … not realistic not to eat chocolate. By that measure never buy jeans, or a new car, or vegetables at the store (Source: @frostyfilmwatcher2148 2024, np link).

Coffee, chocolate, diamonds, most of our clothing (Source: @HH-gv8mx 2024, np link).

Smart phones, rare earth minerals used in all our tech and batteries (Source: @TulipIris7244 2024, np link).

better get off your phone then (Source: @youtubesuxdik 2024, np link)!

You can buy a Tesla. But that is about it (Source: @davidbeppler3032 2024, np link).

Except for the cobalt and lithium (Source: @MikeSwirled 2024, np link).

[And] Elon is a horrible boss (Source: @stoodmuffinpersonal3144 2024, np link)?

Basically any cheap consumer thing is like this sadly. Tea, fruit, and so on (Source: Valkerion 2023, np link).

[I]t’s insane how the things we enjoy the most are made in the worst possible ways (Source: @seffishestopal59508 2024, np link).

[E]ven the most innocuous and widely beloved items, has ‘widespread labor exploitation’ somewhere in its supply chain (Source: Trey 2023, np link).

[T]here are people out there pointing fingers about slavery in the past (which needs to be addressed now, for sure!), while spending tons of money on today’s products made by modern slavery. It’s like, the people who are alive and suffering today, don’t matter at all (Source: @AmaltheaVimes 2024, np link).

[That’s] CAPITALISM (Source: @nohbuddy1 2024, np link).

Not buying things is not gonna fix this, only complete overhauls to our very existence would change things and that simply isn’t going to happen (Source: @frostyfilmwatcher2148 2024, np link).

Buying second-hand and refurbished products, repairing instead of throwing them out, and extending their life cycles as much as possible is always a better philosophy to live by than the mindless consumerism and fast fashion trends of the West. Unfortunately, people are brainwashed into thinking that they need more than they actually need. Of course, reducing demand won’t lift the third-world countries out of poverty, but at least we won’t be helping the corrupt politicians in these countries to stay in power and undermine all the problems their countries and people have. I understand people being angry about these huge Western and Chinese corporations, but they’re only half of the problem. Regulation is necessary, but reducing consumption is also an important piece of the puzzle (Source: @GeorgeGzirishvili 2024, np link).

[As is w]aste reduction? More safety protocols? Anti trust? eating LESS chocolate (Source: @stoodmuffinpersonal3144 2024, np link)?

Fortunately there is that charity a non-for-profit for that has created a food label that regulates for child-slavery. You wont have to boycott eating chocolate! You can just boycott some brands. And that, is an actual start. If you, or someone you know wants to to start the obvious way by boycotting. Go for it! Although there are many thoughts on this, such as it hurting what normal labor conditions may remain, which could mean, driving more folks into poverty. Normally, that would increase the need for child-slaves in cocoa, however, if there is no demand, farmers will continue to go in new directions such as rubber farming or even chocolate-making. But as these are the worst conditions of child-slavery out of any industry, boycotting IS timely and necessary (Source: Swift 2024, np link).

[There’s n]o mention of boycotting from John, so can’t you think that thats exactly what Tony’s wanted (Source: Swift 2024, np link)?

5 minutes into this [monologue] I really was craving chocolate. Then I was feeling guilty for the next 15. Only to feel better because I was eating Tony’s. Real roller coaster of emotions (Source: @Andre-Nader 2024, np link).

Spotlighting Tony’s was a brilliant idea. If [John Oliver] said, ‘Chocolate production is inhumane, so maybe don’t eat it,’ few would listen, and nothing would change. Instead he gets to say ‘Keep eating chocolate! Just don’t buy slave labor chocolate!’ I’m happy to take him up on that (Source: @orlkorrect 2024, np link)!

Don’t you just love it when John Oliver calls out Big Choco for you? And also highlights the sweet solutions to help eradicate slavery in coca.. heck yea we do! It’s pretty clear, if we can.. well, why can’t they? Hands up if you’re with us (Source: tonyschocolonely_uk_ire 2024, np link).

I’ve always automatically assumed that ‘fair trade’ products were just deceptive advertising…. good to know that’s not always the case (Source: @PRH123 2024, np link).

I was glad I can justify my purchases of Tony’s chocolate (Source: ajukeboxgirl 2023, np link).

Good 2 know that my fav chock is ‘best in class’ when it comes to paying and monitoring their cocoa source. I love chocolate, but hate how comes off the exploited backs of poor people (Source: Ræggis 2023, np link).

Chocolate is so amazing, I would not mind spending more to support farmers (Source: @papwkitty 2024, np link).

[S]ame thing here! It is just difficult to differentiate between companies out who takes more to provide a living income to the farmers and companies that provide a nice living of a bunch marketing consultants… I hope John [Oliver] is right here and I can enjoy Tonys… th[e] price is ok for me (Source: @Stolens87 2024, np link).

The only downside to Tony’s is that it basically ruins cheap chocolate for you. You’ll impulse-buy a Hershey Bar then realize it has the taste and texture of a scented candle (Source: @joshua.harazin 2024, np link).

Now I feel bad about absolutely hating the taste of Tony’s chocolate! I wish I liked it but I found it inedible (Source: @Nadine944 2024, np link).

[John Oliver’s monologue is a] great (and at times hilarious) summary of the issues in cocoa (Source: Tony’s Open Chain 2023, np link).

As an industry insider (Tony’s) I can say the research is ON POINT. They nailed it. The whole thing is accurate AF and that’s very impressive (Source: @chielversteeg 2024, np link).

Tony’s releases marketing reports every year and it’s important to read them as evidence of what’s happening in their supply chain. This is where every opinion John [Oliver] shared about Tony’s came from (Source: Swift 2023, np link).

[John Oliver’s] narrative was literally right out of Tony’s mouth. Everything John said about Tony’s were Tonys words and he made no actual criticisms of his own. Every time he opened his mouth about Tony’s it was from Tony’s Chocolonely’s marketing team. Seemed almost like it was an ad (Source: Swift 2023, np link).

Tony’s is a marketing company. Their chocolate is made by Callebaut and is not ‘slave free’ (Source: Chocophilenyc on Bluesky 2023, np link).

[Tony’s Cholcoloney is] cheap garbage chocolate made by Barry Callebaut (well-known for decades of profiting from human trafficking), not them. They don’t make their own chocolate. … Barry Callebaut chocolate is known for child-slavery and tastes bad. Tony’s hired them to save money and was taken off the slavefreechocolate.org list immediately as they can no longer guarantee control of their own production. Barry Callebaut is in charge of their production and receives Tony’s cocoa that Tony’s has been monitored. … Another reason they were taken off the list is because they pay Barry Callebaut. Their finances are engorged and engaged to a point where customers are basically just paying major-offender of child-slavery, Barry Callebaut (Source: Swift 2023, np link).

Tonys don’t claim to be slavery-free (Source: J 2023, np link).

YES, Tony’s works with Barry Callebaut. it’s no secret that Barry Callebaut has come under fire in the past for things we, Tony’s, condemn, e.g. negligence and human rights infringements in their supply chain. As such, there are plenty of sceptics out there who believe we shouldn’t partner with them. While we recognize this gut reaction comes from a good place, we must reiterate our perspective: at Tony’s, we exist so make all chocolate 100% slave-free, not just our own. That means climbing into the lion’s den and tackling change from within. It means getting to the root of the problem and paving the way for others by proving the scalability of our solutions. So you see, dear Choco Fans, it’s not only good but actually vital that we team up with the likes of Barry Callebaut & co  (Source: Tony’s Chocolonely 2022, np link).

I … appreciate the fact that Tony’s is honest about the fact that they cannot absolutely guarantee that their chocolate bars are made entirely of sustainable cocoa. That is far more honest than the big companies who claim their product is made with 100% sustainable cocoa, accompanied by some fancy logo, when in fact it is not by a long shot. That is hypocritical (Source: @korelzenga2305 2024, np link).

There are many other wonderful craft chocolate companies that truly are [slave free]. Please highlight them instead (Source: Chocophilenyc on Bluesky 2023, np link).

[T]here is a third-party charity non-for-profit that certifies chocolate companies as slave free or not, for consumers. Its a food label. Its called Pono Cocoa. It was developed, so you no longer have to struggle to identify it slave-free chocolate, or have to make excuses as to why you are supporting slavery chocolate, or so you no longer have to listen to John Oliver’s corporate promotion of [Tony’s, a] $100 million company. Gross (Source: Swift 2023, np link).

As often as I can I buy my chocolate from fairtrade brands or from brands like Tony’s Chocolonely and avoid big brands like Nestlé (Source: @Tabascofanatikerin 2024, np link).

Consumers making ethical buying decisions after being informed is our best bet to change practices in this area (Source: @Shidokun96 2024 link)!

No, consumer choice is never effective enough. Regulations are the only thing that works (Source: @CleverAccountName303 2024 link)!

Fair point, but regulations won’t be put in place unless those with the ability to make them see a demand for it in this instance. For 20 years they’ve not been made, even after [the US] Congress knew about the blatant child labor violations going on in the industry. If their constituents show they actually care about the issue by demanding / paying for ethically produced chocolate, regulations will more likely be put in place (Source: @Shidokun96 2024 link)!

yes, I agree, but putting the burden on consumers is a classic way for corporations to escape responsibility. For example, the plastics industry hyping consumer recycling as the antidote to their pollution. Hopefully, this piece raises enough awareness that consumers put pressure on legislators, but without action from legislators, consumer buying choices alone are unlikely to make much of a dent in the problem (Source: @CleverAccountName303 2024 link)!

We can’t beat capitalism by mere boycotts or by changing our spending habits, but sometimes doing these things collectively can certainly affect positive change, albeit usually temporarily or with strings attached. And we can’t beat capitalism by merely petitioning governments, though certainly the mighty tremble when enough people gather together with demands, be they with ballots or bullets. Combining boycotts with petitions probably has an even better chance of winning than either would alone. But while we attempt these things, we also should be striving to overturn capitalism altogether, so that someday we can run the economy instead of the economy running us. Only when there are no capitalists will there be no temptation by capitalists to exploit child labor – but while striving for that long-term goal, we cannot ignore our short-term responsibilities to use whatever tools we have at hand, including those of the market, to at least try and shield as many children from cocoa plantation slavery as possible (Source: @d.m.collins1501 2024 link)?

Lately, chocolate’s reputation hasn’t been so sweet. From John Oliver calling out the industry’s use of child labor on Last Week Tonight, to Hershey facing a class action lawsuit due to the presence of heavy metals in their products, enjoying chocolate with a clear conscience feels like a thing of the past. Amid all of this commotion, small cacao farms with thoughtful cultivation practices rise above the noise (Source: Cooper nd, np link).

As someone who worked in the Fairtrade chocolate industry for 6 years I am moved to tears that this topic is on John Oliver. My former company, Divine Chocolate, was trying to advocate for these same issues and deliver more through Fairtrade and farmer ownership – the company is co-owned by the cooperative of Ghanaian farmers who supply the cocoa and they have roles on the Board. I’m glad Oliver touched on the point that child labor isn’t the primary issue on its own – poverty is. It’s complex in many ways, but in some it’s not – as long as these enormous companies focus their efforts on maximizing profit, nothing with change. If farmers can have MORE of a share in the wealth they are essential for creating, these issues will improve. They need to have a voice in the industry and more opportunities to earn more (Source: @lizmiller1476 2024 link).

This was a genuinely strange episode that was short, much less in-depth than his usual content … I would not recommend watching it but rather watch some documentaries he uncharacteristically failed to rise to the opportunity to mention: “The Dark Side of Chocolate”, “Shady Chocolate”, “The Chocolate War”. There are others but the man behind th[e] award-winning [Dark Side of Chocolate] blasted his films on the outside of the headquarters building of Nestle with a 30 foot projector … He is more upset than this author and his work is a travesty to be left out of John’s crooked opus. Was it left out on purpose? Copyright Issues? International Laws? I would love to find out what the film maker himself thinks (Source: Swift 2024, np link).

Finding out that journalist was the founder of Tony’s was a bigger plot twist than any movie I’ve ever seen (Source: @fhey7903 2024, np link)!

[T]he nestle guy walked right into ‘well why the f*ck arent they making enough to survive when your chocolate bars sell for orders of magnitude more than the production costs’ like a looney toons character running off a cliff and only falling when they look down (Source: @HungerGamesFan00 2024, np link).

‘So, the farmers are so poor because Nestle doesn’t pay them?’ Brilliant. Coffee everywhere, right out of my nose (Source: @user-tc5pl3zw3h 2024, np link).

It’s a pity [Last Week Tonight]’s writers didn’t point out that Teun van de Keuken (the OG Tony from Tony’s Chocolonely) is very critical of the course of Chocolonely’s current management, as he thinks they’re doing far too little to make their chocolate free of slavery and child labour. He thinks they’ve abandoned the company’s original goals and vision. Now, this is not to say that Tony’s Chocolonely is not a better alternative to most of the chocolate brands critiqued in this episode, but it’s fair to say that even while a good step forward, there’s still a long road ahead, even if everyone suddenly switched to eating only Chocolonely (Source: @korelzenga2305 2024, np link).

I mean, it’s not really a cute inspiring story that you seem to think it is. Just another horrific portrayal of greed and cynicism (Source: @weareallbornmad410 2024, np link).

Fun fact for those who don’t know … the Dutch journalist which later founded Tony Chocolonely, he wanted that Ben & Jerry’s used slave free chocolate in their ice cream or at least tried, on camera they said great idea we would love to work together, but then when the cameras were ‘off’ (they weren’t) Ben & Jerry’s told him he’d never succeed, never ever (Source: @Mendelian 2024, np link).

Ben and Jerry’s themselves are on the side of the good here, and always have been so it’s not greed from them. What it is is cynicism over a supply chain that has been built using exploited labour, built from colonialism onwards and which is based around keeping the prices of what is basically a luxury product, not a commodity, at subsistence level. I am glad that Ben and Jerry’s were wrong on this (Source: @samnichols4361 2024, np link).

Exactly. People read what B&J said and imagine they were saying it gleefully. It’s entirely possible they said what they said because they believed it and wanted to spare this person the disappointment of not being able to work around this horrible issue (Source: @batkat0 2024, np link).

Tony Chocolonely may have been started as an attempt to pay fair wages, but the guy who started it has left and by now the company is owned by a Belgian beer conglomerate, so it would be interesting to follow up and look at how the situation has developed (Source: @mvvpro8688 2024, np link).

51% is still owned by the same person for the last 15 years, besides, the other 49% is owned by ‘green’ investing company’s, who by the way, have no say what so ever in the way buying chocolate as that is done by a seperate not-for-profit company. In that way, there is actually no way anyone can just choose to stop paying a fair price for the cacao (Source: @abkaan 2024, np link).

There are no benevolent companies. And it’s not even entirely Tony’s fault if they are exploitative, because it’s baked into the system itself. There is no way to run a company for a profit that does not steal workers’ surplus labor unless that company is actually a cooperative owned by the workers themselves (Source: @d.m.collins1501 2024, np link).

There was a supreme court case on this. Two former child slaves who were practically held captive and forced to work on a cocoa farm sued Nestle. The supreme court basically ruled that as long as it doesn’t happen in the US, it doesn’t exist (Source: @mystbunnygaming1449 2024, np link).

I might misremember, but the ruling wasn’t that it didn’t happen. It was that the courts in the USA don’t have jurisdiction over horrible things that happen in other countries. Can you imagine the opposite? That US courts declared they DO get to impose rulings in Africa? Restraint might lead to a bad result in a given case, but it’s still important to recognize limits on imperialism (Source: @sagittated 2024, np link).

True, but I find the implication that the corporation had no responsibility disturbing (Source: @3Rayfire 2024, np link).

Sometimes bad actors can escape responsibility by having the location of their bad acts be vague or nebulous. But like everything else in law, there’s tests and rules that outline when there is substantial actions inside the jurisdiction to give the courts authority over the case. This case is perfect for first year law students precisely because it involves such horrible behavior that make you want to see justice done. And then you have to learn the principles of jurisdiction to see why you can’t (Source: @sagittated 2024, np link).

That seems like the kind of thing in criminology class that made Bruce Wayne put on a bat suit instead of a police uniform. But if jurisdiction is the issue they certainly should’ve brought the case in an international court (Source: @3Rayfire 2024, np link).

Big companies being deeply concerned is like politicians offering thoughts and prayers (Source: @JFresh1977 2024, np link).

there is no ethical consumption under capitalism 🙁 (Source: @Veralix 2024, np link).

I’m glad to live in Brazil and have access to chocolate with Cocoa produce by locally sourced slaves (Source: Emerson 2023, np link).

I have found that chocolate produced using slave labor is 23% tastier … (Source: @brandonchutt312 2024, np link).

… [and] ending slavery would hurt my stock portfolio… :/ (Source: @rowbeans-l1n 2024, np link).

I went in [to watching this John Oliver monologue] knowing I was gonna feel bad and also going ‘well, I bet this bursts the bubble on Tony’s Chocolonely too’. [But w]hen I found out who the [journalist] guy calling Nestle was my heart felt so warm (Source: @Delcat42 2024, np link)!

[John Oliver] and his team’s format is amazingly legendary. It always ends on some ‘how to solve it’ or ‘how it’s being addressed but it needs a bit more and here is you need to do’ (Source: @ZentaBon 2024, np link).

I LOVE SHOWS that don’t just highlight a problem and make you feel helpless but offer a solution too … eat Tony’s … its great chocolate (Source: @andrewglover9769 2024, np link).

Tony’s … have some quirky flavors but some are mind blowing in a good way (Source: @RustOnWheels 2024, np link)!

I bought Tony’s … because it’s just really good chocolate but also because I thought ‘well … don’t know if they’re really fairtrade, but at least there’s a chance, and with the others there’s none’ (Source: @klaasvanhees 2024, np link).

the one with the toffee bits … makes my mouth water just thinking about it. Genuinely way tastier than a Hershey’s bar (Source: @TheIsabelStuff 2024 , np link).

I love Tony’s, but can we all agree the weird abstract way they divide the bar into is annoying (Source: @masterspartanchief33 2024, np link)?

Fun fact: the reason why the chocolate breaks in different sized chunks is because the world isn’t fair and not everyone gets an equal share. It defeats the point when I gobble one up all by myself, but I like the sentiment (Source: @SpottopsNL 2024, np link)?

[But] huge respect to the journalist for actually going out there and making a small but admirable difference in the industry (Source: @drdewott9154 2024, np link)!

John Oliver sums it up perfectly: we need higher farmgate prices and regulation (Source: Tony’s Open Chain 2023, np link).

Unregulated capitalism maximizes one thing: profit. It does not maximize health. It does not maximize freedom. If you want those things, you need regulations (Source: @willfreese 2024, np link).

Sadly I think John [Oliver] missed on this one badly. First, you can’t force a market. Let’s say a single trader bought 100% of all cocoa, then simply paid a living wage. What would be the consequence? A mass exodus from other labor markets where cocoa is grown and high pressure to develop more cocoa production likely by illegally growing it on protected lands and converting farmland used to produce local food commodities. This would result in incredible inflation for the cocoa producing countries and probably also food insecurity as the labor market for all other sectors gets squeezed and production of local foodstuffs drops dramatically. Also, this increased production would glut the cocoa market. Are the traders going to buy every cocoa bean produced? If they do and they increase production of chocolate that would glut the market and crash the price consumers pay leading to bankruptcy for the trader. Or perhaps out of good will to cocoa farmers the whole world agrees the pay more and buy more chocolate that they don’t really want… unlikely. Or will they install some sort of artificial economic mechanism like a lottery to determine whose beans they will buy, resulting in many beans being unpurchased? So no, you can’t force a market. Second, child labor in agriculture is absolutely the global norm. Here in Ohio I’ve paid the neighbor Amish kids to work on my farm $4/hr for the 8 year old and $6/hr for the 12 year old. Heck, the reason why we have summer vacation is because traditionally most of our kids helped out on the family farm. Should there be protections and labor standards? Absolutely. But to argue that children shouldn’t work in agriculture under any circumstances flies in the face of our collective reality. The only real solution is near impossible under current geopolitical conditions: we have to raise the standard of living in cocoa producing countries. Then nobody would be willing to farm cocoa for less than a living wage, and cocoa traders would be forced to pay it. Raise the standard of living further and it becomes more beneficial to send children to school than to have them working on the plantations. Wealthy nations, if their citizens had a conscience, should support massive economic development projects in poorer nations, if we’re so concerned with global poverty. And we should be. Wealthier neighbors means more markets for our goods and services and therefore greater prosperity for us. It means greater global security and protection for natural resources meaning we need not spend as much on the military and can enjoy the global benefits of biodiversity. There is no long term downside to achieving an equitable planet, rather it’s an investment that not only pays itself back and then some, but one which goes a long ways towards fighting for social justice across the world. Sadly too many of us are too damn selfish and shortsighted. Maybe someday we’ll get there… (Source: @JeffreyGoddin 2024, np link).

Codswallop Jeffrey – you may not be able to force a market – but you can regulate a market.. and you dfinitely can AFFECT a market (Source: @kaiberberich1 2024, np link).

From the Ivory Coast & grand child of cocoa farmer, I can confirm that the farmers do not get their fair share of the benefits. Thank you (Source: @thierryk8720 2024, np link)!

Move out of there. … Never heard something more ridiculous in my life. It’s a competitive market and more countries are growing cocoa, if it’s not cheap there, they will find out where it grows cheap. That’s like me saying I want to pay more for Chinese goods because of the labor practices of China (Source: @timd729 2024, np link).

Oh, my gosh, why haven’t they thought of that? Just move! How incredibly, amazingly brilliant! WHAT A GENIUS (Source: @FuzzyElf 2024, np link)!

You just produce the raw material. It’s normal you don’t get proceeds of the end product (Source: @CryptocurrencyInsider 2024, np link).

that’s a very rude thing to say to someone who is saying that yes indeed my family and my people are being exploited. With no ‘raw material’ the hundreds of millions of dollars these big companies make won’t exist, African people and children should be compensated fairly for their role and it’s frankly not just insensitive to make this comment it’s also racist and classist because it says it’s okay for poor people of the global south to be exploited in poor working conditions and for marginally no pay for the value they create. It’s as if you didn’t watch this episode (Source: @ilafnasreldin2637 2024, np link).

I think you need to watch this episode again, [@CryptocurrencyInsider]. Maybe it is the norm for people to be so underpaid that they can only survive by making their children work, while the companies who benefit from their labour are making enormous profits. But if that is the case, then this norm MUST change. It is more important for cocoa farmers to have enough money to put food on the table and send their kids to school than for Nestle’s shareholders to get a load of extra money. Lots of terrible things are normal. It is up to you, and me, and all of us to change our world for the better (Source: @lwest6217 2024, np link).

A few years ago, I read a book on the cocoa industry … the justification used by these huge companies (although they don’t say this openly) is that chocolate wouldn’t be as affordable for the consumer if the farmers were paid more. I would like to think that most of us would be fine either paying more for chocolate, or buying less of it if it meant that farmers were paid fairly and children weren’t forced into labor (Source: @CardboardMarzipan 2024 link).

Despite the price of things like chocolate or coffee being said to be falsely deflated due to companies paying workers unlivable wages, the price is also simultaneously falsely inflated because the companies want to make the greatest profit they can (Source: @oftinuvielskin9020 2024 link).

[M]aybe, just maybe, they could have slightly reduced profits … (Source: @KitC916 2024 link).

… [and] the[ir] CEO’s and shareholders … could definitely also do with a few hundred million less a year … (Source: @oftinuvielskin9020 2024 link).

… and not make their consumables more expensive because any consumable (coffee, food, drugs) being expensive or more expensive per serving pretty directly makes it not an option for most and we shouldn’t be asking regular people to make sacrifice after sacrifice (Source: @KitC916 2024 link).

They got enough money to pay fair wages and cut the price of choclate in half and would STILL make a good profit (Source: @Shuizid 2024, np link).

What an intricate way of saying that you prefer to move the responsibility from yourself to the mythical ‘company executives’ (Source: @watcherit1311 2024, np link).

Surely the fact that the chocolate industry has already spent in excess of US$150 million dollars but failed to resolve the issue should be sufficient indication that child labor is not a problem that can be solved primarily through an injection of cash (Source: Berlan in Martin 2023, np link)?

as an African i know more money will lead to corruption, asassinations, nepotism and looting of funds meant for the farmers by african leaders interested in these projects (Source: @Tedkelvin 2024 link).

[Oliver’s] story doesn’t fit the David and Goliath lens through which the issue of labor in the chocolate industry is so commonly viewed. It is not simply a matter of drafting tougher laws relating to corporate behaviour, of consumers paying more for chocolate or even of chocolate companies paying farmers more for a sack of cocoa. None of these, in isolation, will achieve the desired outcomes. Instead, what is required is a much more complex – and in many ways much less attractive to a non-specialist audience – set of interventions focusing on child welfare in a holistic sense and involving a wider set of stakeholders in a coordinated way. There is presently little appetite for or recognition of this among key stakeholders, and with battle lines drawn up between those arguing for price rises and those resisting them, it is difficult to see how progress will be achieved (Source: Berlan in Martin 2023, np link).

[His] Last Week Tonight segment is at its most stereotypical when it repeats a classic trope of white ignorance in relation to cocoa producers. The episode includes a clip of, to use John Oliver’s words, ‘the most annoying version of a loud man on TV with a British accent,’ journalist Richard Quest, smarmily introducing cocoa producers to ‘their first taste of chocolate.’ Quest hands a piece of chocolate to a nameless African community leader, who tastes it on camera. The explanation of what is happening is wrong on many levels. Ivorians and Ghanaians throughout their countries can access products like European wine, Italian canned tomatoes, Chinese-made flip flops, and more. They are participants in the global economy. In a dozen years of interviewing cocoa producers in twenty countries, I have yet to meet a single cocoa producer who has never tasted chocolate. More likely than not, the cocoa producers in the clip are reacting to a specific chocolate that they are tasting for the first time, perhaps even one that is made traceably with their own cocoa. Or maybe they are simply having the journalist on, exercising their right to know better in the face of his cruel voyeurism (Source: Martin in Martin 2023, np link).

Given the relentless stream of visits from reporters, industry representatives, researchers, NGOs, activists and many other groups who all come to ask the same questions and whose visits indicate no understanding of the local context and fail to deliver any benefits, is it any wonder that communities now just tell their visitors what they know what want to hear and comply with interventions like farm audits in the most passive (and at times completely meaningless) sense (Source: Berlan in Martin 2023, np link)?

[Oliver] should have led with the missing and numerous journalists researching the subject. The most recent of which was Guy-André. Oliver failed to document his actual disappearance and bring it to your attention. He was believed to be kidnapped in a dark parking lot at night after being identified by local traffickers as a journalist – documenting child-slavery in cocoa (Source: Swift 2024, np link)?

[Oliver’s] narrative [also] gives the impression that … Africans are … in need [of] Western support in order to achieve better lives. However, the reality is more of a mixed picture. For example, [he] mentions the need for ‘tough legislation that requires companies to do the right thing’ but makes no mention of the enormous amount of time and resources that has already been spent by the governments of Ghana and the Ivory Coast to draft and implement national legislation in the area of child labor. From the initial concerns regarding child labor to the present day, both countries have engaged with the issues on various levels. As far back as 2002, I witnessed a community leader in Ghana campaigning to end the involvement of minors in hazardous tasks in cocoa production; in recent weeks, I have been heartened to hear from communities in the Ivory Coast that they would be committing a proportion of their time and meagre earnings to boost the local school infrastructure. Having spent all my working life researching the issue of child labor in cocoa, and working directly with farmers, I would have welcomed more discussion – and perhaps even some celebration – of the Ghanaian and Ivorian efforts to tackle the problem of child labor in cocoa. … [These] have not always been ideal, rapid, or at times even effective, but there are many noteworthy achievements. The invisibility of these efforts in the public arena is deeply problematic (Source: Berlan in Martin 2023, np link).

[These kinds of a]nalyses and proposed solutions for how to end the wicked problems of the chocolate industry are neither universal nor coherent. More often than not, they lack an understanding of the significance of cocoa and chocolate as products of racial capitalism – the idea that racialized exploitation and capital accumulation are mutually constitutive. From its earliest days as an export crop, cocoa (and sugar) was produced, in large part, by forcibly appropriated labor – first through the encomienda system and then through chattel slavery in Latin America, then through systems of indenture and debt slavery in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia – and now through often unrecognized familial labor on small scale farms around the world. In other words, today’s industry evolved over centuries from the demand for taste and wealth acquisition of white Europeans and North Americans. The supply was driven by the labor of people of color, many of them unfree – indigenous Americans, Africans, and South and Southeast Asians. Solving specific problems requires a general understanding of this history. It also requires that we challenge our notion of the market, which is often presented as two conflicting things: 1) beyond our control; and 2) the solution to these problems. It is neither (Source: Martin in Martin 2023, np link).

If we are not prepared to think critically about how to solve the problems in cocoa and chocolate, if we simply consume haphazard, incomplete analyses [like Oliver’s], we will not only fail to adequately address the current issues faced, but we will also fail to create the morally just world that we all deserve. Those most capable of solving the wicked problems in the chocolate industry are the people who are living with them every day. Together, we must create the solutions that they need to succeed (Source: Martin in Martin 2023, np link).

John Oliver’s chocolate segment on Last Week Tonight was widely noticed by my colleagues and students. In general, they have celebrated the reporting for its obvious use of fact-checking and citation of credible sources. Yet I find myself compelled to offer a challenge: how can we frame this story not only in terms of what it means to grow cocoa and eat chocolate today, but also in terms of what it would mean to create a morally just world for tomorrow (Source: Martin in Martin 2023, np link).

Hi John, anything to say about what is happening in the Middle East or just playing safe with chocolate (Source: Sher 2023, np link)?

Ever since OCTOBER 7TH, your cowardly silence @iamjohnoliver just sickens me. Not condemning acts of terror equals actively supporting them. There is no way around it, no way to twist it (Source: EtayB 2023, np link)?

why u aint speaking about the genocide that’s happening in palestine now (Source: azizfcb 2023, np link)?

[I]s John Oliver doing an episode on chocolate because he’s not allowed by the parent company to criticize Israel’s ongoing genocide (Source: @venenodelalengua 2024, np link)?

[It’s] more likely he and his team have been working on this one for a while because it’s topical for Halloween. Writing and fact-checking scripts for these bits can take a few weeks. We’ll have to wait a while to be sure he isn’t going to commentate on the conflict or it’s history (Source: @Xenobears 2024, np link)?

Did you miss the episode just before this one? I do believe he did talk about this (Source: michaelle t-a 2023, np link)?

[I]f you binge watch these episodes, it’s hard to imagine a future that’s not a complete, unmitigated disaster of epic proportions (Source: @121intheshade 2024, np link).

Tony’s chocolonely has literally just became my new favorite chocolate. I wish this episode came out more than 1 day before Halloween cuz this is all the Kids would be getting (Source: @Fifthelement203 2024, np link).

You still have Christmas, Valentine’s, Easter, Halloween next year and all the years to come (Source: @Rythmandviews 2024, np link).

This Halloween I’m going to be passing out cards that have a QR code to this video so kids can learn more about chocolate (Source: @steverogers7601 2024, np link).

Timing, guys (Source: @TigDegner 2024, np link).

I purposefully waited 5 months to watch this video so I could enjoy chocolate for 5 more months (Source: @RMarr-uy9hf 2024, np link).

I haven’t watched this yet. I just saw the title and I have died a little inside knowing that whatever is wrong with chocolate is bad enough that it warranted a story (Source: @Goblinkatie 2024, np link).

Not going to watch this one, need chocolate in my life (Source: Palkova 2023, np link).

If only black lives mattered in cocoa (Source: Swift 2023, np link).

I’m in NZ, saw this segment and I’ve ordered about $100 (US) of the stuff… It better be good!!! But if it’s not, at least I know I’m contributing, in a tiny way, to a better outcome for these awesome farmers (Source: @frankiefavero1666 2024, np link).

I am writing a paper about fair trade chocolate and I keep coming back to this video. It’s got everything (Source: @cquinn03 2024, np link).

Consumers and shareholders are increasingly aware of human rights issues. The topic has been reported on by several major news outlets and has been the subject of several televised investigative reports [including John Oliver’s chocolate monologue]. As of February 2024, over 29,000 consumers have signed a petition to hold corporations accountable for child labor in the cocoa industry. Retaining customers is essential to consumer goods companies and negative publicity can affect a company’s bottom line (Source: Krisanda & Rojas 2024, np link).