Blog Assignment #5
Food!
For this Blog installment I have to pick a food, and I have to trace it as far back as I can to its source. This is a scary proposition for someone that is such an epicurean, so I decided to try to pick something safe. I failed!
My food: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
Ingredients:
MILK CHOCOLATE (SUGAR; COCOA BUTTER; CHOCOLATE; NONFAT MILK; MILK FAT; LACTOSE; SOY LECITHIN; PGPR, EMULSIFIER); PEANUTS; SUGAR; DEXTROSE; SALT; TBHQ (PRESERVATIVE)
I thought this product had a fairly small amount of ingredients for a processed food, I also thought since it was manufactured in America, Hershey PA to be exact, I would be more inclined to not get squeamish about its origin, I was sorely mistaken. Cote d’Ivoire is a country on the Ivory Coast in Africa; it is one of the world’s largest producers of cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate used by most major candy manufacturers. The problem with Cote d’Ivoire and its cocoa manufacturing process is that they use slaves, child slaves.
There is a surprising association between chocolate and child labor in the Cote d'Ivoire. Young boys whose ages range from 12 to 16 have been sold into slave labor and are forced to work in cocoa farms in order to harvest the beans, from which chocolate is made, under inhumane conditions and extreme abuse. This West African country is the leading exporter of cocoa beans to the world market.
(TED case study # 664, 2002)
But, shareholders of the Hershey Co. voted unanimously in 2007 to not disclose their sources of cocoa or any other ingredients. The company also uses third party certification programs to make it difficult to pinpoint the origin or working conditions where their cocoa is sourced.
Many companies use third-party certification programs in order to ensure that certain labor and environmental standards are met in the production of the cocoa they use in their chocolate. There are a number of certification programs related to cocoa production and many of them involve labels that communicate to consumers what standards were used in the production of the cocoa they are about to enjoy. (Laborrights.org)
The good news about Hershey’s co. sourcing: I received an email from a consumer representative regarding the source of their peanuts.
Most of the peanut we purchase come from US (southern states). Occasionally, depending on the supply, we could purchase peanuts from outside of the US (less than 1%) from places like Argentina. We find feedback like yours to be very helpful when making decisions about our product line, so you can be certain that we will share your comments with our Marketing Department.
I was pretty excited about this! Although the peanuts are not organic they are sourced more locally than Africa, which reduces transportation impacts, considering cocoa from Africa must be shipped overseas in large cargo ships, burning diesel, peanuts on a train seems like a less harmful alternative.
Speaking of organic: The cocoa sourced from Africa is most likely drenched in pesticides and herbicides. The usage practices in this area have not been properly monitored, there has been a meager amount of education to farmers and known dangerous chemicals have been in use for certain all the way into the 1990’s. What does this mean for the American consumer? The two main ingredients in this product come from a very chemical heavy background. Along with the pesticide/herbicide usage in the origin of this product you have other chemicals that have a questionable background. PGPR or Polyglycerol polyricinoleate is an emulsifier, derived from castor oil with other chemical additives, apparently it is safe in small amounts but there are a lot of unverified sources on the web that warn of it being unsafe, and causing some harm in laboratory animals.
Cocoa Butter, derived from the cocoa bean, the same ones from the slave kids in Africa, and not the kind you put on your skin! Is an additive that helps the chocolate hold its consistency, its basically just extra fat. Soy Lecithin is derived from soy beans (Lots of pesticides!) and also is there to make sure the Chocolate holds its form and consistency, also extra fat! The other ingredients are milk based and I could probably do a whole other report on those sources, most likely cows in centralized feeding farms, lots of antibiotics and not very good for you.
Overall I was pretty bummed out on my Reese’s. I should have known! Now there will be no more peanut butter cups from Hershey’s in my freezer, Ill have to find another more ethical source to keep in there! Goodbye Reese’s and good riddance.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_butter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactose
http://blog.fooducate.com/2009/07/07/what-is-soy-lecithin-and-why-is-it-found-in-so-many-products/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyglycerol_polyricinoleate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emulsion
http://www.naturalnews.com/031318_TBHQ_food_preservatives.htm
http://www1.american.edu/ted/chocolate-slave.htm
http://www.icco.org/about/press2.aspx?Id=p0w16526
1 comments:
Great job Josh!
Its cruddy to know that child labor is producing candy for developed nations children. We need to have more transparency with what we consume, there should be no trade secrets, no exploitation, nor any destructive environmental practices being kept from the general public.
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