Cocoa farming and Chocolate: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

♪ ("LAST WEEK TONIGHT" THEME MUSIC PLAYS) ♪ Our main story tonight concerns chocolate, the star attraction in Neapolitan ice cream. Nothing against vanilla and strawberry, it's just that one is a euphemism for boring sex and the other is fruit, and fruit is simply not dessert. -(BUZZER BLARES) -(AUDIENCE LAUGHS) Chocolate is the greatest. Just watch as this baby gets a first taste of it. PARENT: Oh! I know, I know, I know. Okay, one more, one more. Really big one. Ready? Ready? -(EXCITED MUMBLING) -(AUDIENCE LAUGHS) Yeah, baby. Same. And I hope it savors that chocolate high because I think we all know the rest of human experience is pretty much downhill from there. Everybody loves chocolate. That is why we use it for everything. From beauty products, to sculptures, to breakfast cereal. Although some arguably love it a little too much. Like the host of this cooking show. There's a component, a substance in chocolate, called phenethylamine. And what that fancy word does is it slightly elevates your blood pressure and your heart rate. And they tell me that it's a sensation that's not unlike having an orgasm. (CHUCKLES) I don't know, maybe that's why people love chocolate so much. But, anyway, let me get back to our step here. -Okay... -(AUDIENCE LAUGHS) First, what a long, weird way to tell people that you've never had an orgasm. (AUDIENCE LAUGHS) Second, I can't believe there is a chemical that makes your brain horny and they named it phenethylamine. That is not a sexy name... All of those are free and available. And just to be very clear, eating chocolate is nothing like having an orgasm unless you count the fact that when boys do it it is messy. But chocolate isn't just making people horny. It's also making a lot of money. Globally, it's a 140-billion-dollar-a-year industry. And at this point, you might be sitting at home thinking, "Hold on, I've seen this show before. This feels like it can be one of those fun stories, but is it about to take a turn? I've got a jumbo bag of fun-sized Snickers that I'm gonna be handing out to tiny Iron Men, Elsas, and Luigis in around 48 hours. Are you gonna make that weird for me?" Well, yes. Yes, I am. (AUDIENCE LAUGHS) And also, don't bullshit me, half of that bag is gonna be gone by Halloween, and you know it. But the reason this is about to take a turn is, for all the money and happiness surrounding chocolate, there is one group that doesn't get to share in it. And that is the farmers who grow cocoa in the first place. The vast majority have never even tasted chocolate. And that is something that reporters and documentarians love to try and remedy on-camera, and perhaps none as patronizingly as this. RICHARD QUEST: These farmers have been growing beans for decades. They're about to get their first taste of chocolate. -You have never tried chocolate? -No. Mmm. QUEST: That is your cocoa! Well, well, to those who thought that I'm the most annoying version of a loud man on TV with a British accent, looks like you owe me an apology! Because that is pretty condescending right there. "Attention, former subjects, we noticed that you've not once tasted the fruits of your interminable toil, so allow me to present you with a generous gift of a single KitKat. That is your cocoa!" (AUDIENCE LAUGHS) And the reason most farmers haven't tried chocolate before is they can't afford it. More than 60 percent of cocoa comes from just two West African countries. Ivory Coast and Ghana. And researchers have found that in those places, between 73 and 90 percent of cocoa farmers "do not earn a Living Income." With 30 to 58 percent earning below the World Bank's extreme poverty line. And there's something a bit weird about a product so synonymous for spreading joy and giving babies what's basically a cocaine rush abandoning those who grow its key ingredient to grinding poverty. Because even if you had a sense that cocoa production had issues, the truth is, from the land it's grown on, to the working conditions of those who harvest it, it is worse than you may realize. So, given that, as we prepare for our annual tradition of stuffing as much of it in our faces as humanly possible, tonight, let's talk about chocolate. And let's start with the fact that cocoa is mostly grown on very small, family-run plots. There are about half a million of them in Ivory Coast and another 800,000 in Ghana. Harvesting cocoa pods is labor intensive and done entirely by hand. By the way, what's inside them may not be what you are picturing in your mind. REPORTER: Ivans Kanube cracks open the pods to extract the sweet, slimy bean, which, at this stage, has a flavor like lychee fruit. Once the cocoa is collected, it's left to ferment under banana leaves for about seven days. Yeah. That slimy bean soup is cocoa. Chocolate starts out as gluey, white insect larvae that comes out of a big tree egg. And it's only after a long process that that fermenting forest jizz becomes something more appetizing. Or, in the case of a Mounds bar, even less appetizing. (AUDIENCE LAUGHS) From the farm, the cocoa then passes through a number of hands on its way to the chocolate companies. From the people who collect the beans, to the warehouses who store them. Each of whom gets paid for their part in the chain. But at a certain point, they all feed into one narrow bottleneck, as this expert explains in an almost unnervingly soothing way. In a way, the story of chocolate is a little bit like an hourglass. Where you have millions of small holders growing cocoa at the very beginning of the story, and at the end of the story, you have millions of consumers eating chocolate. But right at the center of the hourglass are a handful of extremely powerful companies. These companies are the cocoa traders. (WHISPERS) Okay. (AUDIENCE LAUGHS) That was a very good description of how the industry works from what I can only assume is a nine-hour YouTube video entitled... But it is true. The industry is dominated by just a handful of cocoa trading companies, the most powerful of which are the so-called big three. Cargill, Barry Callebaut, and OFI... They then sell to a handful of major chocolate companies. Mars, Mondelez, which owns Cadbury, Ferrero, Nestlé, and Hershey. Which together sell over half the world's chocolate. And when you have so many farmers and so few buyers, the buyers clearly have a big advantage. That is why only about six percent of the value of a chocolate bar makes its way back to the farmer. And look, I'm not saying that those companies aren't adding real value to their part of the process. They are. This Halloween, try offering a Spider-Man a KitKat or a handful of sticky white bean larvae, and see which they prefer. But there are clearly massive disparities in who reaps the benefits of this extremely profitable industry. And I will say, there are mechanisms in place to at least help stabilize the amount that farmers earn. Both Ghana and Ivory Coast set minimum prices that farmers receive for their cocoa. The problem is, those prices are not only difficult to enforce, but crucially, they're often not enough to cover the costs of farming. And so, some farmers, most of whom, remember, are experiencing extreme poverty, have resorted to trying to increase their earnings by growing more cocoa on land that is protected by the government. Which is illegal because it can do significant environmental damage. LATIF NASSER: Desperate farmers supplement their crop by growing cocoa trees in a protected forest, where the uncultivated soil is more fertile. And stolen land is, in effect, free of charge. What's left behind is known as a skeleton forest. Okay, let's face it, it was only a matter of time before the phrase, "skeleton forest" appeared on this show. Because if there is a sinister combination of words out there, we're gonna stumble over it. Stay tuned! All those are coming up. (AUDIENCE LAUGHS) But it's not just environmental damage. There is also significant human cost in cocoa farming. Which has been well known for a while. Around 20 years ago, a series of news stories and a documentary found that young children, some of whom had been enslaved or trafficked were working on cocoa farms that supplied major chocolate companies. And in the wake of public horror over this, companies didn't do themselves any favors with how they responded. Just listen to the answer that this Dutch journalist got when he asked Nestlé about whether children were involved in making its chocolate. FRANÇOIS PERROUD: Yes. PERROUD: And it's the same? PERROUD: Yeah. Right. Not to stress the most obvious point in the universe, but doing something for fun isn't the same thing as doing it to survive. It's the difference between being in an escape room and being in a Saw movie. (AUDIENCE LAUGHS) Sure, they're both equally bad first date ideas, but that is where the similarities end. And look, I'll give him this, a lot of child labor does consist of kids working on their own family's cocoa farms. Though even in those cases, they can be doing so in hazardous conditions. And also, watch as that Nestlé spokesperson accidentally walks into a pretty damning admission of exactly why they might've been having to do that in the first place. PERROUD: Because they-- PERROUD: Because they don't get paid enough by Nestlé or by the companies they work for. PERROUD: Wow. It is very funny to me that he thought ending that call when he did was somehow avoiding implicating himself. "Look, the farmers have to make their children work for them because they are so poor because they're not paid a living wage by Nestlé, the company that I-- You know what? Nice try. You're breaking up. I'm going through a tunnel. Goodbye! That was a close one. I think I got away with it." And again, it's not just kids working on their family farms. Children have been known to be forced or trafficked to work in cocoa production. And while, because of the nature of this crime, exact numbers aren't known, one survey estimated that in Ivory Coast, over a four-year period... While... And back in the 2000s, outrage over this actually spurred US lawmakers to take action. First, they considered mandating labels for chocolate indicating whether or not it was made with child slave labor. But the chocolate industry then lobbied that down to a voluntary agreement to eliminate the "worst forms" of child labor, promising to get it done by July 2005. That agreement later became known as the Harkin-Engel Protocol, after the two lawmakers who had pushed for it. But when the deadline rolled around, Senator Harkin had this unfortunate update. Though I was disappointed that the July 1st deadline was not fully met by the industry, they have given us a commitment. A commitment to achieving a certification system which can be expanded across the cocoa growing areas of West Africa, and which will cover 50 percent of the cocoa growing areas of Ivory Coast and Ghana in three years' time. I am very pleased with this commitment. Wait, are you? Because if so, I am genuinely jealous of your infinite capacity for trusting others. Ah, I see from the first panel of today's Peanuts comic that Lucy is finally going to let Charlie Brown kick the football. While I was disappointed by her actions in the past, it seems that a new day has brought a sense of integrity within this young girl, and I'm very excited to move my gaze down the page and see this commitment honored in-- Oh, she did it again! (AUDIENCE LAUGHS) And predictably, the companies didn't meet that new deadline either. Once 2008 rolled around, they kicked it to 2010, then pushed it again to 2020, while simultaneously downgrading their goal to just getting... ...rather than eliminating it entirely. Then, they missed that deadline too. And the companies almost certainly knew that they wouldn't be keeping their promises here. As the former head of the International Cocoa Initiative put it... And at that point, why bother setting a date at all? If your friend agrees to meet you for dinner at seven, then pushes it to 7:30, then eight, and then finally says, "Be there in 20... years not minutes," it kind of feels like they never had any intention of getting dinner in the first place. And I will say, it is not like the chocolate companies have done nothing. They all started flashy looking programs with "cocoa" in their names that promised to be vigilant about monitoring for child labor. And they produced impressive-looking ads featuring happy farmers and websites showing how carefully they monitor their supply chain. But the reality hasn't remotely lived up to the rhetoric. Just last year, some journalists looked at a map of farms on Mondelez's Cocoa Life website and then sent a camera crew to Ghana to check some out. And you'll never guess what they found. ANTONY BARNETT: It didn't take long to find children working on a farm matching the coordinates listed on the Cocoa Life website. The team filmed two young boys, aged 10 and 11, harvesting cocoa pods using long sticks with sharp hooks and wearing no protective clothing. It's true. They went to just one of the farms listed on their site, a site filled with claims that child labor is completely unacceptable, and instantly found child labor. And I don't know what statement Mondelez can release in the wake of that, other than maybe... (AUDIENCE LAUGHS) And if you're thinking, "Well, obviously we can't trust companies to monitor themselves. That's why there should be a third party involved." The thing is, those have also existed for years. Chocolate companies have long purchased at least some of their beans from third-party organizations like these, who certified the farmers who supply them have met certain child labor and environmental standards. You might have seen one of these logos on a chocolate bar and felt reassured by it. But while advocates say that some of these organizations have improved conditions somewhat, these logos just aren't the guarantee that you might want them to be. For a start, while the organizations pay farmers a small premium for meeting their standards, those premiums might not even cover the cost of complying with the program. But also, typically... And just watch what happened when reporters went undercover as chocolate company executives and visited a contractor who did audits for Utz, one of those third-party organizations. Because he explains to them exactly why he is so confident that he won't find child labor on any farm that he visits. TRANSLATOR: The audit is announced in advance. You go and visit producers who know that you're coming. When you go to them, you are not going to see any children. That is true. Auditors give advance notice of inspections, which is clearly ridiculous. Because that's never going to be reliable. If you tell your teenager, "I'm checking your backpack for cigarettes next Tuesday." (AUDIENCE LAUGHS) Then great news, you're not gonna find any. Now, I have to tell you, Utz has maintained that it holds auditors to the highest standards, although you have just seen those standards, and I don't know about you, but they didn't seem that high to me. As for Mondelez, who, remember, turned out to have child labor at one of its suppliers in Ghana, it said that it was "deeply concerned" by these incidents. And okay. That makes two of us, Mondelez. (AUDIENCE LAUGHS) It also wants you to know that it has a child labor monitoring system in place to prevent this kind of thing from happening. Which is very reassuring, until you remember it only took a documentary crew one flight to Ghana to prove that that system is, at best, deeply inadequate. And that is the thing. All these companies will say that they are concerned about child labor, and that they've spent a lot of money trying to fix it. By one estimate, as of 2019, they'd spent more than 150 million dollars to address this issue. But that's over 18 years, and while they were collecting 103 billion in sales annually. Meaning that over two decades, they've spent just 0.1 percent of one year's sales. And come on! M&M's must have spent more than that fine tuning exactly how fuckable the green M&M is. (AUDIENCE LAUGHS) And for all the company's claims of concern, the fact remains, according to the US Department of Labor, an estimated... ...work in cocoa production in Ghana and Ivory Coast. Many of whom are engaged in dangerous tasks. Or, as the Washington Post investigation concluded... In fact, the persistence of it in the supply chain is an open secret. Just watch as some young workers end up joking about it when asked by visiting journalists. Oh, yeah. We all fondly remember being 21. Small frame, child-like voice. Another guy has to constantly remind you that you're 21. Just classic early twenties stuff. And I know they were laughing there, and that clip was honestly kind of charming, but the truth is, for others, their stories are pretty harrowing. Like this young girl, who said that at this point, she'd already been farming cocoa for five years. TRANSLATOR 2: I was brought here by my aunt. I was told I would be helping with the baby, but instead, I only do farming. BARNETT: She says she wants to go to school, but her uncle can't afford to send her. TRANSLATOR 2: My uncle says he struggles to pay for his own children, so if I join them, he will not be able to buy the schoolbooks. BARNETT: We asked if she misses her family. TRANSLATOR 2: Yes. BARNETT: Do you hear from them? TRANSLATOR 2: No. BARNETT: Have you ever been back to visit them since you came here? TRANSLATOR 2: No. That is heartbreaking. And the truth is, there are a lot more clips out there like that one than there are of kids joking around about being 21. And at this point, you might be wondering, "Well, what can we do differently?" And I will admit, it's really complicated. Child labor in these regions is caused by a myriad of issues, from poor infrastructure, to limited access to education. But to a significant extent, it is caused by poverty. A poverty that is actively perpetuated by these chocolate companies. And if they really want to remedy things, a good first step would simply be to pay farmers more. And companies might balk at that, saying that they don't set the price, the market does. But as this advocate points out, that's a pretty lousy excuse. Every trader and every multinational I speak to always say, "Oh, but that's the world market price. We have no influence on that at all." But you buy a quarter of the world's cocoa beans. How can you not influence the price? Exactly. And look, I am no economist, despite winning "Most Likely to be an Economist Based on Appearance" back in preschool. But if you buy that much of the global supply of something, you definitely have some sway over how much it costs. And the thing is, there are models here that companies could look to. Remember that Dutch journalist making the guy from Nestlé squirm? As a result of that segment, he actually created his own chocolate company, Tony's Chocolonely. It works hard to ensure that its supply chain is free from child or slave labor. And importantly, it shows that the people who grow its cocoa aren't in dire poverty. Here is its former Head of Sustainability explaining how it sets the price for the beans that it buys. We calculate how big the gap is between the government set price and the Living Income price, and we pay that gap as an extra premium. SETH DOANE: For the spring harvest, the premium was about 63 dollars higher than what's set by the government, meaning Tony's paid almost double for each bag of beans. That's great. And it says something that Tony's were somehow able to pay farmers double the going rate despite being a mid-size Dutch cocoa company, whose logo, by the way, looks like a casual dining restaurant operated by and for clowns. (AUDIENCE LAUGHS) If these guys can do it, there's frankly no reason why these guys can't as well. And to be fair, even Tony's own website admits the scale of the challenge here, saying... And I have to say, I appreciate that. Because there is a difference between recognizing how much there is to do and simply not doing enough. And I know these are companies, not charities, whose job it is to make money and not save the world. But that means that they will only care about this problem exactly as much as they are forced to. So if we are serious about getting child labor out of our chocolate, we can't keep relying on pinky promises and the honor system. We need tough legislation that requires companies do the right thing. And it's not like this is the only industry where exploitation in other countries is the norm. I could just as easily have done this piece about coffee or palm oil. And we actually talked about trafficking and child labor in the US farm system this year. But experts themselves say of chocolate... Look, we have known for 20 years what the problems are here, and we haven't bothered to fix them. But if we do, then imagine this. One day, maybe, just maybe, we can get back to a point where chocolate can once more give us the simple, uncomplicated joy of this. (EXCITED MUMBLING) Exactly.