Column: The bittersweetness of a Hershey's Kiss

Once again the time has to come to celebrate Valentine’s Day or, as those not in relationships like to call it, Single’s Awareness Day.

The holiday’s celebration of love is sweet, and the history of St. Valentine is rich.
But the heart of this holiday is undoubtedly what comes in heart-shaped boxes — chocolate.

During this year’s Super Bowl, the International Labor Rights Forum spent big bucks and purchased advertising space at Lucas Oil Stadium to broadcast a video titled, “Hershey’s Chocolate: Kissed by Child Labor.”

The ILRF accused the Pennsylvania-based company of using the labor of more than 200,000 West African children to harvest its cocoa beans yearly. In addition to their child labor infractions, the plantations also raise environmental issues. To make cocoa farms possible, sometimes miles of rainforest must be destroyed. Hershey’s provides the world with ample Kisses and Hugs, but are their unsustainable business practices worth their low retail price? 

Hershey’s has already responded to the ad and released a statement promising to make its business practices less bitter. A new line of sustainably grown, Rainforest Alliance-certified Bliss and Dagoba chocolates have been introduced. The company also invested $10 million in its West African suppliers. However, there has been increased consumer demand for artisanal chocolate, and these new additions might be a response to the ILRF statement, but they are also a response to basic market practices.

The Hershey’s company’s practices exemplify the darker side of chocolate and the questionable ethical practices of major food manufacturers.

While all is fair in love and war this Valentine’s Day, there are definitely things unfair in the food industry.

The power to change companies’ actions is in the hands of the consumer. It is our purchases that prompt stores to continue to stock shelves with products that are made in a less than desirable manner.

As the years roll by, the truth of the commercialization and overproduction of this annual love fest has become more evident to me.

I cannot help but yearn for the Valentine’s Days of elementary school years past, when my classmates and I were more concerned with what Nickelodeon characters were on our cards than what children around the world were sacrificing to make our fun-size candy bars possible.
 
—hsspence@indiana.edu