Cocoa harvested by kids as young as 5 in Ghana: CBS News investigation

Post by qez2 » Fri, Dec 01, 2023, 10:26 PM UTC

janice1999 wrote: post #14

bell-cot wrote: post #3

> Munira, 15, is one of those children. [...] Last year, her family harvested only one bag of decent-quality cocoa. A 140-pound bag of the product fetches only about $115. Sounds like "child labor" is downstream of the actual problem.

Call me a bleeding heart but child labor is an 'actual' problem. You can keep destructing societal issues until you reinvent the universe from scratch. It may be difficult to solve global poverty but it's not a lot to ask extremely profitable companies to enforce the supply chain checks they've committed to.

Post by bmacho » Fri, Dec 01, 2023, 10:28 PM UTC

the-alchemist wrote: post #11

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #4

> Munira, 15, is one of those children. She has worked in the cocoa fields since she was 5 years old. Education is a luxury, with her school an hour-long walk away and transportation options expensive. Last year, her family harvested only one bag of decent-quality cocoa. A 140-pound bag of the product fetches only about $115. I think child labor is actually a symptom of a deeper problem and cracking down on child lab…

This. We would all benefit from more cause and effect analysis in our media. - Let's say we increase prices that we pay cocoa farmers, even double the price - Is this extra enough to send the girl to school an hour away, pay for her books, etc.? If you pay the family more, how do you know they would spend it on the girl's education? Maybe fixing the water well or building a sturdier house is more important. Or paying…

Post by walterlb » Fri, Dec 01, 2023, 10:30 PM UTC

the-alchemist wrote: post #11

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #4

> Munira, 15, is one of those children. She has worked in the cocoa fields since she was 5 years old. Education is a luxury, with her school an hour-long walk away and transportation options expensive. Last year, her family harvested only one bag of decent-quality cocoa. A 140-pound bag of the product fetches only about $115. I think child labor is actually a symptom of a deeper problem and cracking down on child lab…

This. We would all benefit from more cause and effect analysis in our media. - Let's say we increase prices that we pay cocoa farmers, even double the price - Is this extra enough to send the girl to school an hour away, pay for her books, etc.? If you pay the family more, how do you know they would spend it on the girl's education? Maybe fixing the water well or building a sturdier house is more important. Or paying…

Post by tdb7893 » Fri, Dec 01, 2023, 10:30 PM UTC

User23 wrote: post #12

benj111 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

150 years ago child labour in the West was common. If you can barely afford food then everyone needs to work to earn money. I'm kind of in two minds, from their point of view there's probably nothing wrong, but that's incompatible with our morals. But then we obviously aren't willing to pay for those morals.

Child labor is still not uncommon in agricultural communities in the USA. I believe the federal law is age 12 and up for farm work. And de facto if not de jure there is no age limit on children working their own family’s farm. Granted one might call that chores rather than labor. And the minimum age to babysit is as low as 8 based on a quick search.

Post by autoexec » Fri, Dec 01, 2023, 10:33 PM UTC

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #4

> Munira, 15, is one of those children. She has worked in the cocoa fields since she was 5 years old. Education is a luxury, with her school an hour-long walk away and transportation options expensive. Last year, her family harvested only one bag of decent-quality cocoa. A 140-pound bag of the product fetches only about $115. I think child labor is actually a symptom of a deeper problem and cracking down on child lab…