During the contemplative practice on chocolate, my thinking focused on the origins of the cacao and how I take my ability to indulge for granted. Overall, the practice made me feel guilty. I contemplated swearing off chocolate, but couldn’t entertain the idea for long and tried to forget the practice. However, when examining the variation of typical foods in a nation for my Hungry Planet paper, I considered my relationship with chocolate on this level instead of simply feeling guilty.
From https://www.amazon.com/Larabar-Chocolate-Chip-Cookie-Dough/dp/B01IRA6DO6
The smooth and sweet substance has dressed s’mores from around family campfires, covered birthday cakes enjoyed with friends, and filled holiday baskets. It is idealized as something special and decadent. Although those particular occasions evoke my immediate associations of chocolate, the sweet plays a role in my daily life; chocolate is in my granola bars, Starbucks order, and, this morning, pancakes. Chocolate enters my life almost unintentionally; its ubiquity influences my intake because I am not often actively seeking it, but it is offered as an option.
From http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3755147
The food culture in the United States turns chocolate into an oxymoron; it is both a luxury limited to celebration and an element of everyday consumption. This makes it difficult to consider removing it from my life because it’s constantly available, sold in many forms, and central to holidays, like Halloween.
From http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-15917164
Now, I feel more conscious of my chocolate intake by noticing the when, where, what, and who is involved with my consumption. I realize despite buying fair-trade chocolate bars, I buy pastries and snacks that contain the ingredient without a thought to its integrity. I realize the Halloween candy I hand out to children is cheap because a child elsewhere is suffering. I still feel guilty, however, with this reflection over time I can identify changes I can make in my own life, prove life is possible without cheap chocolate, and share strategies with others.
Hi Shelby!
I love this take on chocolate. As one of the most widely consumed sweets in the world, it is easy to lose track of the deleterious side effects of chocolate’s production. Not only do laborers work long, arduous hours to foster chocolate from bean to table, but they toil under unsafe working conditions and unfair compensation that often prohibits economic mobility for them. It is correct to feel uncomfortable eating chocolate that has been produced under such abhorrent conditions; the candy you hand out to children truly is “cheap, because a child elsewhere is suffering” as a result of their parents’ inability to provide them adequate sustenance on a measly migrant farmworker’s wage. I must ask, though, how are you going to prove that life is possible without cheap chocolate? I’m curious to hear your strategies on how to reduce cheap labor and break the cycle of migrant farmworker discrimination/poverty. I find that even raising awareness in small groups, or inciting collaborative action can be helpful! I look forward to hearing back from you.
Response 1
Hi Shelby,
I completely understand how you sometimes feel guilty over consuming chocolate after we’ve learned the hard details about how it’s actually made. And truly, that seems to be the hardest part of this class for me. Learning about the labor behind chocolate production, where the actual laborers don’t even get to taste the final product, is disheartening. In addition, it seems like each topic covered in this class provides the backstory behind a common staple food that I love to consume. If you think about how much fertilizer it takes to produce our favorite foods, and it’s subsequent impact on the global environment, is also eye opening. Or how about how much water it takes to produce even 10 pounds of steak– the equivalent of a family’s entire household consumption for a year! Then if you think about all of the land that has been grabbed and acquired to raise and grow the meat and crops in relation to indigenous peoples homes… It’s easy to get overwhelmed and feel guilty. But on the other side, the beautiful part of this class is how eye opening this all is, and the possible solutions too. For me, learning about ethical eating , the “Slow Food” movement, and ecovillages has allowed me to step back and analyze where I stand in the spectrum. What I would encourage you to do is to not feel guilty for what you choose to eat, but instead be mindful of where it comes from and how it’s made. Perhaps eating/ buying locally, purchasing fair trade products, or even using less water in your own home could help you be mindful of your contribution to the world. I think one of the bests thing you can do is educate others on what you’ve learned and then serve as a role model for people to look up too!
Hi Shelby,
I really enjoyed your blogpost on chocolate. You make a great point in drawing attention to how prevalent chocolate is in the US food system. I also felt guilty during the chocolate contemplative practice. I had never stopped to think about where my chocolate comes from. It’s such a simple sweet that I think many of us take for granted. It seems almost unfair that we get to enjoy chocolate so easily, in so many variations, whereas the people who harvest cacao have never even had a simple chocolate bar. I found it a little frustrating at how “globalized” the global food system actually is. This practice made me realize the extent of how the globalization of food is very much oriented to serve the western world. What are your thoughts on Theo chocolate? They claim to use organic and fair trade certified cocoa, however they source their cocoa from Peru and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Do you think that labeling their product as organic and fair trade is just for marketing?
Hi shelby, I really understand your “guilty” feeling and have the same kind of feeling as you did after learning all of the facts about chocolate production. I am a chocolate lover and I am always feeling relax and gratify by tasting the sweetness and bitterness from it. However, before that class, I have never thought of the process of creation and the fairness trade behind the production of my favorite food. I could never imagine that how many cocoa farmers, who produce cocoa but have no ideas about what their crop is going to make and have never tasted chocolate before in their life! And how there are so many people are still suffering from hunger because they have no choice but to accept the price that is given to them. After knowing all of the facts and details, I start to become aware of what I am purchasing and consuming, and I was not able to get that amount of gratification when I am eating my chocolate bar since the image of the cocoa farmers would always emerge in my mind. There are still so many unfair trades happening around the world, and we can’t change the situation immediately. What we can do is to educate others and let many other know about the problems and issues that we have notices and learned from. So, more and more people would become aware of the unfairness that happened in the market and contribute to help the people who need the help.