Somehow in our culture, the Son of God submitting himself to death on the cross for our sake, and the miracle of his resurrection, causes us all to eat, and purchase, a whole lot of chocolate. In fact, according to statisticbrain.com, approximately 120 million pounds of candy is purchased annually this time of year. That's a whole lot. I'm still not sure how Jesus' death and resurrection got turned into a giant bunny that lays chocolate eggs, but let's save that for another time.
As you all know, I've recently been on a bit of an ethical consumerism kick. So, I just wanted to drop a short note to those of you who are last minute people and still haven't purchased your Easter chocolate yet. The craziest thing about Easter is the amount of chocolate we purchase for the occasion. Because of this, it's really easy for people to make the excuse that they can't afford to purchase Fair Trade or ethically sourced chocolate - it'll cost so much! But I'd like to take a moment to suggest the opposite. We can't afford NOT to.
I'm by no means an economic expert, but I do know this much: supply and demand help determine the prices of consumer goods. There is a massive supply of labour in this world, and not enough demand, which means in many cases, you can get it for really cheap. Like, cents. Much of our chocolate can be purchased cheaply because the people picking the cocoa beans are paid next to nothing. Let's turn the tables for a second. If you're a parent purchasing chocolate for your children, I'd like you to consider for just a moment the parents of the children producing your non-Fair Trade chocolate. If you were this parent, I have a feeling that you would be less than pleased that your child was working in dangerous conditions, for little, or often no pay, so that people on the other side of the ocean could pay a couple dollars less for their child's chocolate bunny. So before you make the excuse that it's too expensive to buy Fair Trade chocolate this Easter, I'd like you to ask yourself one question: What's more important, the amount of chocolate in your child's Easter basket, or the freedom, health and safety of someone else's child?
I sincerely hope the answer to this question is obvious.
I really am not trying to sound judgemental here. But I think in our Western, consumer society, we often forget the price at which we purchase our consumer goods, and I don't mean in dollars. I hope only to open your eyes to the cost of filling your child's Easter basket with the least expensive chocolate you can find. Yes, it can be expensive to purchase Fair Trade, which is why I like to live by the saying "everything in moderation." Do we really want our children to have that much chocolate anyway? It's not good for them, and when they crash from the sugar high and start throwing temper tantrums, it'll just mean a bigger headache for you! So let's save our children from the unhealthy amounts of chocolate, ourselves from migraines, and the producers of our chocolate from unfair labour standards, all at the same time, and just purchase less, ethically sourced chocolate this Easter.
So now, while you rush to the store tomorrow or Saturday to pick up chocolate to fill those Easter baskets with, here's a list of chocolates you can find at your local grocery store, that are Fair Trade or ethically sourced:
http://nochildforsale.ca/ethical_chocolate/
For more information on chocolate, and why it's a good idea to purchase Fair Trade or ethically sourced chocolate, take a look at this article:
http://www.ctvnews.ca/lifestyle/the-dark-side-of-easter-chocolate-1.2293971
Happy Easter everyone! He is Risen!
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