As soon as October is over, people tend to fall into Christmas spirit again. We are consuming Advent calendars, gingerbread and chocolate Santa Clauses without end and are eating even more sweets than at Halloween. The only consequences we are worrying about in doing so, are the extra pounds which have to be runned off in New Year. We do not spend any thoughts on which effects the chocolate manufacturing has on the environment, the local farmers and their workers. And yet, especially Christmas is the time for charity and the period of reflection about the essentials in life, after all.

Disastrous production conditions

A bar of chocolate is a real calorie bomb as it consists mainly of cocoa mass, cocoa butter and even halfway of sugar. As it tastes fantastic nonetheless and additionally makes us happy, we do not want to miss it again. And yet, the impacts of our chocolate consumption for our bikini figure are still the slightest problems. Because the popular major corporations which are dominating the snack counter worldwide, of course want to keep their chocolate as inexpensive as possible while making profit at the same time. Hence, it is no wonder, that there is scarcely any money left for the local farmers which they could invest in decent production conditions and the wage of their workers in turn. The sad consequence is that for our pleasure, children are enslaved and have to do physically extremely demanding work which damages their health permanently.

Sustainable labels

If you want to consume chocolate with a clear conscience, except for the huge amount of calories, you should mind certain certifications which guarantee sustainable production conditions. The GEPA-label, for instance, puts the highest requirements on just working conditions and a fair payment wherefore you should only buy chocolate which carries this sigil in the best case. Also Fairtrade-tagged sweets are recommendable. However, you have to treat some labels with caution as a consumer because unfortunately, many of the them are initiated by the major corporations themselves. This dependent sigils mostly have vague and very intransparent regulations wherefore one should scrutinize which certifications can really be relied on.

In this spirit, we wish you a sustainable pre-Christmas season!