when Tony’s Chocolonely started up based on slave free, the financial journals were doing headlines like “will they be able to survive this bold new direction?”
They eventually found the cocoa market to be almost impossible to separate from slavery. They still do their best, which is a lot more than most, but they don't make any guarantees
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.
Surprised that the processor, Barry Callebaut, is down for Tony to publish such blunt criticism of them. It’s like “don’t worry, Barry’s made a totally separate production line for us - only the Barry’s non-Tony production line contains the slave blood!”
That would be a rad game, if you could wake up Manchurian Candidate style in a bathroom in the 42nd floor rest room just before a board meeting at Corpotek and there is a voice in the back of your head that guides you to the pistol that is hiding under the second toilet from the wall.
Fuck it, from where I come from: people in agriculture get smacked just by existing or trying to build common cause with "let's end hunger in the world". I'm with you, salutations from America Latina ! And let's make those fuckers get what they deserve.
Quando dou comida aos pobres, chamam-me de santo. Quando pergunto por que eles são pobres, chamam-me de comunista.
(When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.)
—Dom Hélder Câmara, cited in Zildo Rocha, Helder, O Dom: uma vida que marcou os rumos da Igreja no Brasil (2000)
The biggest problem with claiming to be slave free is that you need to own the farms to make sure, which means the locals don't get those profits either.
Whittaker's is slave free but they can't advertise it because they support the local economies ... which means they can't be reasonably sure slaves aren't used when they're not looking.
I have yet to see proof that Tony's is actually slavery free. And if it isn't (as in "we are doing oUr BeSt") then why the hell would I buy from them instead of... not buying chooclate?