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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 31, 2012)
Il,c ÌJJortlanò (©bseruer Page 12 October 31, 2012 Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. New Prices Effective May 1,2010 Martin Cleaning PACK OR /MISTREAT 2 L ' -C . 1/X 1 X ' ' i t > J Service Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning Residential & Commercial Services Minimum Service C H G $45.00 A sm all distance/travel charge m ay be applied C A RPE T CLEANING 2 Cleaning Areas or more $30.00 Each Area Pre-Spray Traffic Areas (Includes: J sm all H allway) 1 Cleaning Area (only) $40.00 Includes Pre-Spray Traffic Area (Hallway Extra) Stairs (12-16 stairs - With O ther Services): $25.00 Area/Oriental Rugs: $25.00 Minimum Area/Oriental Rugs ( Wool): $40.00Minimum Heavily Soiled Area: Additional $10.00 each area (Requiring Extensive Pre-Spraying) UPHOLSTERY CLEANING Sofa: $69.00 Loveseat: $49.00 Sectional: $ 109 - $ 139 Chair or Recliner: $25 - $49 Throw Pillows (With Other Services): $5.00 % ADDITIONAL SERVICES • Area & Oriental Rug Cleaning • Auto/Boat/RV Cleaning • Deodorizing & Pet Odor Treatment • Spot & Stain Removal Service • Scotchguard Protection • Minor Water Damage Services SEE CURRENT FLYER FOR ADDITIONAL PRICES & SERVICES Call for Appointment (503) 281-3949 The Spooky Side of Chocolate There's nothing sweet about child labor. by A ndrew K orehage This Halloween, many of the chocolate goodies handed out to American children dressed as goblins and witches will have aghoulish history of their own. In the cocoa fields where many of these chocolates originate, West African children work grueling hours — some of them trafficked or forced into this labor— to make the sweet treats we enjoy here in the United States. Nobody wants to know ingly p urchase p roducts tainted with exploitation, which is why the most responsible choco late companies have been working to certify that their products are free of child labor ever since this prob lem first gained wide public expo sure back in 2001. Unfortunately for the children in the cocoa fields, those responsible companies haven’t yet included the giant chocolate corporations whose can d ies line the im pulse-buy shelves near the cash registers of nearly every gas station, conve nience store, and supermarket. The companies working hardest to pro tect children and pay living wages to the workers in the cocoa fields have been the smaller, less widely known brands acting voluntarily to create those protections. It didn’t have to be this way. Back in 2001, the chocolate industry as a whole was on notice from no less an author ity than C ongress, w hich sought to legally prohibit the use of forced child labor in chocolate products sold in the United States. The chocolate in dustry successfully watered down the proposed legislation into a se ries of voluntary goals with unen forceable deadlines, which Big industry knew in 2001 that it had a problem severe enough to require legislative intervention by Con gress, but put off addressing that problem for 10 years. And then, it set its eventual targets another eight years into the future. That’s a life time for a child bom in the Ivory Coast at the turn of the millennium. An entire generation of children could have been protected by a chocolate industry that refused to act. The problem is still real. The Child for their work. Chocolate lovers must keep the pressure on Big Chocolate, and hold those companies accountable so they meet their eventual deadlines. While 2020 is too far off, a shift in the industry’s priorities will nonethe less benefit the millions of cocoa farmers in West Africa — whose labor helps our children have a happy Halloween. In the meantime, what can you do? This Halloween, you can pur chase chocolates for your trick-or- treaters from the smaller, more re sponsible companies that foster direct relationships with their sup ply chains, and have been certify ing their cocoa for years. Here are some examples: Alter- E co C h o c o la te M inis: a lte r e c o f o o d s .c o m /p r o d u c ts / chocolate; Coco-Zen Chocolate Labor Cocoa Coordinating Group "Halloween Shapes" & Minis: coco- prepared a report for Sen. Tom Harkin zen.com; Divine Chocolate Medal (D-IA) back in January, which re lions: divinechocolateusa.com; En ported continued child trafficking dangered Species Chocolate Or in Ghana and Ivory Coast. "Thou ganic Bites: chocolatebar.com ; sands of children are engaged in Equal Exchange Organic Chocolate hazardous activities in cocoa farm Minis: equalexchange.coop/choco- ing, including clearing fields, using late-bars; Mama Ganache Scary machetes, and applying pesticides," Skulls, Mini Pumpkins, & Choco according to the report. late Disks: mama-ganache.com And a 2011 report prepared by Andrew Korfhage is Green Tulane University confirms that only America's online and special around 10 percent of the child work projects editor, ers in Ghana, and less than five www. greenamerica. org. Distrib percent of child laborers in Ivory uted via O therW ords Coast receive any form of payment (OtherWords. org) ? When it comes to workers' rights, some o f the most influential government officials we 'll be voting for are ones whose names don't actually appear on the ballot. Chocolate— companies like Mars, Nestle, and Hershey — then pro ceeded to ignore for nearly a de cade. In 2009, Mars and Nestle began making baby steps to use third- party certifiers to monitor child la bor in small percentages of their product lines. Hershey — the in dustry laggard— finally announced weeks before Halloween that it would take action by the year 2020 (the same year Mars has publicly announced as its target to expand certification). Think about it: The chocolate
