It’s Easter time and we are all rushing to the stores to buy pointless, over packaged Easter eggs. While we love the taste of chocolate it’s a sad fact that ever sale further supports forced labour and environmental destruction. I have spoken about this before and received a cease and desist letter from a chocolate company, even though everything I said was all factually correct. This podcast focuses on sustainability and for this episode we are looking at an aspect of sustainability we don’t always discuss. People. We’ll be discussing why a lot of chocolate companies suck and who you should buy from instead. In this episode I share: - The surprising place that 70% of the worlds cocoa beans come from - How much profit the growers and farmers of cocoa take home compared to the companies that on sell it - The average yearly income of fair trade farmers and how it has increased - How 80% of deforestation has occurred because of cocoa in some regions - How fair trade is involved in fixing the social issues from chocolate purchases - The flaws in the fair trade process - What Direct trade is and it can also help - The pros and cons of direct trade - The social and environmental implications of palm oil - How a customer response to Cadbury has caused the company to make changes in the past - Why switching from using palm oil is not the option to fix things - What you can do as a consumer this easter - Tricks to look out for when it comes to certification - Why you should skip easter eggs entirely - The unbelievable amount easter eggs have increased by in price - My recommendations for ethical chocolate for easter this year - Who I don’t recommend you buy from this easter Key Quotes “Chocolate, it's creamy it's sweet it melts in your mouth. But for every delicious bite you take, chocolate drives a bitter twisted tale of forced labour and environmental destruction.” “It's impossible to buy and do the right things all of the time.” “Sustainability is about progress not perfection. And it’s not about feeling guilty, because you can't be perfect, we are in a cost of living crisis.” More Information Chocolate I recommend: Tony's Chocolonely Mind Your Temper Bennetto Solomons Gold Chocolate Trade Aid Honest Chocolat She Universe You can get involved with the podcast online Find our full podcast plus our sister podcast via the website here: www.nowthatswhatIcall.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nowthatswhaticallpodcasts/ You can follow me on socials on the below accounts. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/briannemwest/ Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@briannemwest Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briannemwest/ For our latest big project, find out more about Incrediballs here: https://incrediballs.com/