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#FairTradeFriday




Let's talk chocolate today! Chocolate is a popular sweet in the world. Americans consume approximately 11 pounds per person each year of it. And that's nothing compared to what Europeans consume. The average Brit, Swiss or German will each eat around 24 pounds of chocolate a year! So needless to say chocolate is in demand. 


But that high demand comes at a price we either are unaware of or refuse to think about. The majority of chocolate products found on shelves around the world are because of forced child labor. 

Well. Now that chocolate tastes pretty bitter right now, doesn't it? (By the way, I hope it does taste bitter and you have to spit it out.) 

Listen, I'm not here to be a killjoy but I am here to ask you to think outside of the little world you have created for yourself (which we all do) and help aid others in getting the benefits you enjoy - like good health, education, fair wages, etc. 


It's easy to shrug, throw our hands up in the air and exclaim, "But I'm just one person, me buying fair trade isn't going to make a difference." Uh. Wrong. How does a lake fill? One drop of water at a time (even though our eyes don't see it that way). How does a domino train get started? One domino is tipped over to touch the next. You make a difference when you combine your actions - or lack of actions - with others. Here's a great and easy to read article by a favorite blogger of mine about the chocolate conundrum and how we can still get our chocolate fixes. 


So what to do?

“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” (unknown)







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