Magic Soaps
by Dr. Bronner's
Organic Soaps.
Food and Drink » Food & Grocery » Product Reviews
www.dagobachocolate.com/products.asp?dept=29
Dark chocolate, mint with a hint of rosemary.
Frederick Schilling is a passionate chocolatier -- I had an e-mail exchange with him shortly after the sale to Hershey's, and he told me that he was fully convinced that Hershey's is doing the right thing. Both Dagoba and Hershey's are part of the World Cocoa Foundation (http://www.worldcocoafoundation.org/). Dagoba focuses on organic, sustainable cacao production and he's hoping to influence and direct Hershey's policies.
Yes - there are many problems with cacao production in West Africa. Hershey's has been pretty vocal about their commitment to resolving those issues and supporting West African communities and families.
Hershey's is huge -- and they are making changes, check out this 2007 article http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=34714
Dagoba is continuing to operate as prior to the acquisition -- and supporting Dagoba sends a clear signal to Hershey's that consumers want organic, ethically and sustainably produced chocolate.
Jenn's keywords: organic chocolate sustainable
dagoba chocolate was bought-out and is owned by the hershey corporation. even though the chocolate for dagoba may be fair-trade by buying it you support a company that has very un-sustainable practices including sourcing chocolate from child-slave labor in the ivory coast...here's an excerpt from an Organic Consumer Association article:
Hershey's and M&M/Mars control two-thirds of the U.S. chocolate market, which generated $13 billion from retail sales of 3.1 billion pounds of chocolate in 2001. Both companies, along with other major producers like Nestlé, Archer Daniels Midland, Cadbury, Guittard and Bernard Callebaut, import cocoa beans from the Ivory Coast, which, as the largest cocoa producer in the world, provides almost half the cocoa beans that end up in America. Most of the cocoa from the Ivory Coast comes from 450,000 small farms of 12 acres or less. In September 2000, a BBC documentary entitled "Slavery: A Global Investigation" featured a segment on boys enslaved on Ivory Coast cocoa farms, showing children with heavily scarred backs from beatings with whips and switches. Awareness of the problem became more widespread in June 2001, when a four-part Knight Ridder series on the same topic told the stories of boys in the Ivory Coast, most of them 12 to 16 years old, some as young as 9, who had been sold and then tricked into indentured labor on cocoa farms.
(www.organicconsumers.org/starbucks/021603_fair_trade.cfm)
a great website that lists many of the corporate parent ownerships of "natural" foods is:
www.msu.edu/%7Ehowardp/organicindustry.html
it has an excellent chart detailing many of the corporate buy-outs that have taken place.
Jer's keywords: dagoba chocolate fair trade corporate ownership natural foods organic industry structure
I'm a huge dark chocolate fan and Dagoba makes the best tasting, most innovative and healthful AND organic dark chocolate out there!!! Dagoba also has a Triple Bottom Line business mission - so you can enjoy these delicious treats while knowing you're helping promote a better world to live in. They recently created a Superfruit bar with acai in it. YUMMY! Am a little biased but it is outstanding!!
Laura's keywords: Dagoba chocolate organic triple bottom line
I love chocolate and especially this stuff, it is rich and organic. It is high quality chocolate and proceeds go to help the planet's endangered species.
Kate's keywords: chocolate dagoba socially responsible fair trade
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User Comments:
Jenn A. says:
It's a very complicated issue -- it's the equivalent of holding the city of Berkeley responsible where a farmer who brings produce to the farmer's market beats his kids. Hershey's buys from companies which, in turn, buy... more »