Hold The Pesticides Please: Removing Nasty Chemicals From Cocoa Farming

What’s in a chocolate bar? Cocoa, milk, sugar of course. What you won’t find within the ingredients list are the nasty chemicals often used in cocoa farming. It’s enough to make even the most loyal chocolate lovers among us lose our appetite. 

Agrichemicals refer to the chemicals used in agriculture, and while not all chemicals are harmful (even water is a chemical), many are.

Agriculture has been increasingly dependent on pesticides over the past 70 years, using them to increase productivity and manage pests. However, exposure can be hazardous to human, planet, and animal health. Those most at risk are cocoa farmers, who are dealing with chemicals directly, as well as their communities who depend on the local waterways in which chemical residue often ends up.

To complicate the issue even further, some governments local to large cocoa-growing regions have at times promoted rather than discouraged agrichemical use.

For the well-being of people, the planet, animals, and particularly cocoa farming communities, it’s critical that the industry encourages greener, cleaner ways forward. We have already lost 80% of the world’s insects – largely due to use of chemicals.

Now before you panic, most countries have very strict rules and testing of products they import to ensure the food we eat doesn’t poison us. In the case of cocoa, the pod has a leathery skin about 2-3 centimetres thick and the cocoa bean itself is inside the pod in a pulp (looks a bit like a lychee or even durian). The chance of the chemicals making it to the chocolate we eat is small.

The exposure of children to agrichemicals on farms is a very different thing. According to United Nations definitions, it shifts the category of work children are doing to ‘hazardous’ or ‘worst forms’ of child labour. Exposure has increased significantly over the last 10 years. Alternatives must be found.

Aiming for Organic

Certified organic cocoa is currently the golden standard in ensuring no harmful chemicals were used in the farming process. Although their standards aren’t quite as rigorous as the Organic certification, Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance certifications also have approaches towards eliminating the worst agrichemical practices.

They may not be the ones on the ground growing the cocoa, but chocolate companies can still influence (and have a responsibility to contribute to) positive change by building strong relationships with their suppliers and supporting them to adopt safer, and ideally organic, methods. According to the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, a business is responsible for any and all adverse human rights impacts either through its own activities or due to its business relationships with other parties.

Here’s What We’d Like To See From Companies

Commit: Strong agrichemical policy that includes a time-bound commitment to phasing out agrichemicals, or at the very least phasing out the most harmful ones.

Support: Encourage upskilling and help farmers to invest in alternative methods.

Trace: Approximately half the cocoa we consume probably can’t be traced back to the farmer that grew it. Tracing cocoa back to the farm is the first step in supporting the farmer.

Advocate: Leaders will look beyond their own company walls to ask how they can uplift other companies too, by for instance joining the Cocoa & Forests Initiative (CFI), Initiatives on Sustainable Cocoa (ISCOs), and advocating for industry-wide reform.

I am but one individual chocolate-lover, what can I do to help? 

It’s not all bitter, we’ve found a number of companies leading the way, and more and more are joining the ranks. What makes companies really pause and pay attention is data and their bottom line. With that in mind, the best way to create positive change is to get out and eat some chocolate! We can think of worse ways to be an activist.

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Share: Just like chocolate, this blog is better shared.

Author: Etelle Higonnet, Senior Advisor at the National Wildlife Federation. Co-written by Athina Greenhalgh