BOOK REVIEW: Bitter Chocolate - Anatomy of an Industry by Carol Off
Chocolate, the food of the gods, is loved by everyone in the world. For both the saddest and the most dreaded moments, chocolate lifts the consumer's soul as the snap of it and the subsequent lusciousness as it melts on the tongue consume one entirely. But did you know that behind every nibble of indulgence, there is a horde of suffering across the earth?
Whether part of a child's Halloween haul or the contents of a heart-shaped box, chocolate is synonymous with pleasure. Yet behind the sweet image is a dark history of exploitation.
This book traces that history from the banquet table of Montezuma's Aztec court to the bustling factories of Hershey, Cadbury and Mars today, revealing that slavery and injustice have always been key ingredients.
The heart of the book takes place in the Ivory Coast - the world's leading producer of cocoa beans - where profits from the multi-billion dollar chocolate industry fuel bloody civil war and widespread corruption, and poor farmers employ children, who have never themselves known the taste of chocolate, to pick the beans.
In the tradition of Mark Kurlansky's Salt, this book is an absorbing social history, a passionate investigative account, and a shocking exposé of an industry that has institutionalized misery even as it indulges our appetites.
On a personal level, I have not touched a bar of chocolate since I started reading this. Everytime I pick up my Mars bar, I suddenly begin to visualize the misery and suffering of those in the cocoa plantations in Africa and Belize. This is a painfully raw story of a true scene behind the world of chocolate. I would like to end with this:
"THE GULF MUST BE CLOSED BETWEEN THE HAND THAT PICKS THE BEAN AND THE HAND THAT UNWRAPS THE CANDY"
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