Print The dark side of chocolate
In the corner of the Bluff Country Co-op usually reserved for eating lunches and drinking coffee, a handful of shoppers sat Thursday evening intently watching the flat screen TV mounted on the wall.
Images of children being shipping across boarders to work in cocoa fields appear on the screen as the small group learned about “The Dark Side of Chocolate,” a documentary by journalist Miki Mistrati and director U. Roberto Romano.
“Chocolate is suppose to be a comforting thing and the way it is sometimes harvested is very inhumane,” said Liz Haywood, general manager at Bluff Country Co-op in Winona, Minn.
The co-op used the film to inform about the chocolate industry and Fair Trade. The Bluff Country Co-op is one of the few certified fair trade stores in Minnesota. Fair Trade means that the a product is produced organically, without using slave or child labor, and that a fair price was paid to workers who produced it, according to fairtradeusa.org.
Bluff Country Co-op, which was certified Fair Trade in 2007, works with a variety of farms, including some of the first fair trade farmers in the United States. Along with Bluff Country Co-op, Mugby Junction also offers Fair Trade coffee in Winona.
“People have the choice but they don’t know it,” said Haywood.
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