Everyone loves chocolate (O.K. there are a few oddbods who aren’t chocolate fans).The amount of chocolate we consume is astounding. The Swiss (at 22.36 lbs/yr per person) come tops in chocolate consumption, followed by the Austrians (20.13 lbs/yr per person)…the States are 11th with 11.64 lbs/yr per person (for more stats click here). That’s one hell of a lot of chocolate.

Recently I was made aware of the child slave labour that is involved in chocolate.

“Nearly half the world’s chocolate is made from cocoa grown in Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa.
The 2000 US State Department Human Rights report said “It is estimated that some 15,000 Malian children work on Ivorian cocoa and coffee plantations. Many are under 12 years-of-age, sold into indentured servitude for $140, and work 12-hour days for $135 to $189 per year.”

The stop the traffik campaign is trying to get Chocolate companies to use a label to show they don’t support slave labour. There are more and more companies which produce ‘fairtrade’ chocolate. In the UK there’s Oxfam, fairtrade, Green & Blacks Maya Gold…more examples here. In the French supermarkets I’ve seen “le commerce equitable chocolat”. And I had a quick look on the net and in the States I found fairtrade products. If any American readers know anymore companies let me know…

So I’m calling all you chocoholics. Whip up your best chocolate recipe using slave labour free chocolate and send me your entries.

I will be sending the winner a little ‘traffik free’chocolate goodie bag.

Make sure to come back to check out the results and to vote (around about the 10th Oct.)

To participate:

- Post* your best/favourite ever chocolate recipe (using Fairtrade/slave labour free chocolate)
- Include in your post a picture of the chocolate brand you used and a little background info on the product (i.e. where you bought it, was it easy to find, the taste, what you thought of the chocolate…)
- Include a link to www.rkhooks.net and if possible use the stop the traffik logo on your site (download from here)

- Finally:
Email me rkhooks@gmail.com by October 5th Monday 8th of October with the following information:

Subject line: Stop the traffik chocolate campaign
Your name
Your blog URL
Link to your post
Name of dish
100×100 pixel photo of your dish

*If you don’t have a blog just email me @ rkhooks@gmail.com by October 5th with the following information:
Your name
Name of dish
Recipe
100×100 pixel photo of your dish

Tags: Competition, Stop the Traffik