Halloween candy concern

Maddie&EthansMom wrote: PRODUCT PLUNDER OF THE WEEK:
IT'S SCARY -- HALLOWEEN CHOCOLATE MADE WITH FORCED CHILD LABOR

The scariest thing about Halloween this year won't be the costumes... it's the chocolate. Almost half of the world's cocoa is being produced on West African plantations where, according to the UN's International Labor Organization, 284,000 child laborers "are either involved in hazardous work, unprotected, or have been trafficked." Say no to the chocolate industry's ghoulish links to child slavery by buying Fair Trade and organic chocolate.

Help educate people about this important issue by sending a letter to the editor of your local newspaper here:
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organ...?letter_KEY=576

Host a slavery-free Halloween house party to distribute trick-or-treat sized Fair Trade chocolate minis to your friends and neighbors. Fair Trade trick-or-treat kits: http://store.gxonlinestore.org/trickortreatkit.html

Order Fair Trade chocolate minis for your Halloween party or trick-or-treaters: http://equalexchange.stores.yahoo.net/organiccocoa.html

Help us publicize the slavery-free Halloween campaign by letting us know about your house party. Contact: alexis@organicconsumers.org

mckayleesmom replied: Does this include my Tootsie rolls?


The first link didn't work Aimee.

Crystalina replied: Why does it have to be the chocolate? Why not the licorice?

gr33n3y3z replied: juice boxes are nice to give out

Crystalina replied: I couldn't get the letter to the editor link to work. Is it just a letter they want you to copy and send? If so can someone copy and post it so I can read it?

mckayleesmom replied:
Exactly.....or candy corn....


Thats horrible that there is also trafficked slaves doing it also...


Its such a sad world we are living in today. I hate to admit it, but sometimes I like being left in the dark.

luvbug00 replied: I'm not gonna stop eatting candy, sorry. There are so many injustices in this world and they are gonna happen no matter what . In india there are woman and young teens making the sweatpants we buy at walmart for 2 dollers an hour and we buy them for 12. Diamonds are sold everyday and some ( not all ) are sold to US companies and the money is then funding the civial wars that have killed millions of children and people. Kays and shaws jewery type stores are open ans still booming in business. children in panama old enough to learn to sew make woven baskets to sell to tourists late into the night with cave diving lights on their heads. People still buy them.
I should have asked before my rant if this has been checked out on spoof sites or if this is really true beyond what this person says.

CantWait replied:
I checked on Snopes and couldn't find anything.

I agree though. As unfortuate as it is, it happens everyday.

Crystalina replied: That is a sad truth Nadia. That is one reason DH and I try to buy everything made in the U.S.A. Try keeping up with that. I can't even find a freakin American flag made in the U.S.A. That is just sad. If we find it we buy it but most of the time everything is imported. We were lucky to find our fishtank made in the U.S.A.

coasterqueen replied: We are actually thinking of buying organic chocolate for Halloween. We definitely are for Christmas.

Very sad.

Kaitlin'smom replied: Sad. I dont noramlly give chocolate out. DH like the sweettarts and smarties so I usually get them so if there are leftovers someone (besides me) will eat them.

CantWait replied: My question to those that are buying the organic chocolate for Halloween and take your children tricker treating, what will you do then? Surely 99% of the candy you get isn't going to be organic, and will probably be made overseas.

coasterqueen replied:
Marie,

The girls will get some of what they get other places, but after the initial raid of the candy bags they soon forget what they got as far as treats. So I can substitute that with organic chocolates and suckers and send the rest of the Halloween candy to Ryan's work...where it usually goes every year. If I kept it around the house I'd eat it.

Kylie and Megan have loved the organic chocolates and suckers we have gotten anyways. Not only that but we have instilled in Kylie that if she has the choice to choose organic over non-organic that's better and so she will choose organic. To her it's candy, candy is candy so if she has the choice over the organic or not I'm confident she'd choose organic. She likes the taste 100% better anyways over regular stuff.

Might be crazy to some but it is fitting our family very well.

mckayleesmom replied:
Exactly....and its really kind of unavoidable for holloween.

CantWait replied:
Oh Karen I certainly don't think it's crazy at all.
I guess in essence I was just wondering if you bought extra organic chocolate to substitute and really how much selection of organic goodies there were to provide a little diversity.

Edited to add: Was also wondering, for those that only buy organic because they don't want to support slave labor, that buy consuming those candies that the children get on halloween, that in essence you're really still supporting it.

I just checked my candies that I bought, and mine were manufactured in Canada.

coasterqueen replied: Well I don't know how to answer that because we haven't bought that much. I have bought the organic suckers that the girls really liked and we bought some chocolate covered pretzels that we all LOVE (too much actually ). I have also bought the organic candy bars a long time ago when I was nursing Kylie, but not since. Not sure if there is a lot too choose from or not. That's something I have to find out.

Living out in the country we tend to not have but a couple of trick-or-treaters anyways and since we go to another town to trick-or-treat with the IL's we aren't home. But I do give to the cousins that come by and so they get a mixture of candy and other stuff like raisins, popcorn, and small grab toys. Nothing too special.

The girls probably won't get much variety of candy than what we buy but we try to limit it anyways.

ETA I don't buy organic to support anyone else's cause except my family's cause.