Halloween, Fairtrade and Choices

As the weather turns cooler, the leaves change color, coffee shops break out the pumpkin flavored drinks and other markers of fall pop up the holiday season looms large on the horizon. First among them being Halloween. This holiday has a lot to recommend it. Costumes, parties, socializing with neighbors and strangers and of course the free candy!

However for those of us who refuse to consume chocolate made from cocoa from West Africa due to the pervasive problem of child slavery on its cocoa plantations trick or treating presents us with a serious problem – sacks full of inconsumable candy and of course the question of what to hand out ourselves.

October also happens to be Fairtrade month. Fairtrade has been around for decades and at Halloween and any other time offers ethically minded consumers the opportunity to use their dollars to support just buying systems and markets. Fairtrade products offer one potential way to ensure a Halloween with slave free chocolate. Many stores now carry a wide variety of Fairtrade and ethically sourced chocolate. Just today I bought a bunch at my local Target. They included honey, mint and even bacon flavored bars! Of course these were full sized bars priced between $3 and $5. These are probably out of reach for most of us in terms of handing out treats on Halloween! Although they would likely make us neighborhood favorites.

In one Mom’s quest to avoid ingredients she deems unacceptable at Halloween we end up with a blog that provides some great alternatives for those who want to avoid not only unhealthy ingredients but also looking for ethically sourced options.

It would be easier (and frankly pretty tasty) to just avoid the issue altogether. Or maybe take this holiday off. For one night indulge in the consumption of chocolate we avoid all year because of the moral implications of participating in any way in slavery. But when I am tempted to do this, when I long for that bite sized Snickers or that teeny tiny Kit Kat bar I remind myself that an unjust system will never change is we consumers keep consuming, keep demanding with the voice of our money the product of stolen childhoods of the children of West Africa.

So let’s seek out those alternatives when we buy our own candy and let’s refuse to consume anything that is produced by slave labor.