Chocolate and Our Moral Responsibility
Cocoa beans remain the only source of raw materials for the production of chocolate that
people consider as the most sensual food. While companies like Nestle, Hershey’s, and
World’s Finest Chocolate have banned the usage of child labor in their cocoa, minors
continue to participate in the production without any control measures to curb the unethical
practice (Robbins). The farming of cocoa beans in Ivory Coast and Ghana exploits the
worst forms of child labor that make the product cheaper for the American consumer
translating to $100 billion (O’Keefe). American consumers contribute to the subjugation of
minors to slavery in cocoa farms by purchasing chocolate produced through child labor.
Moreover, buyers have failed to acknowledge the exploitation and abuse of children who
are subjected to slavery-like conditions to sustain the production of cocoa beans that
Americans love. Ivory Coast produces about 43% of the world cocoa beans for export, but
the farmers remain poor and impoverished due to low prices that cannot sustain their labor
market forcing them to use their children. The Kantian deduction maintains that the
universalizable maxims of honesty apply to all and each individual has the duty to behave
morally to one another (Stanford). Thus, American consumers have the responsibility of
stopping child slavery from being part of the chocolate industry. Equally, the
Act-Utilitarianism asserts that every result of an action should maximize the happiness of
humanity, which requires cocoa users to purchase cocoa products that increase the
happiness of everyone particularly to protect children. The research uses Kantian and
Utilitarianism to find ways that consumers can use to stop child labor in Ivory Coast. The
Cocoa industry is very profitable yet with the worst forms of equity distribution to the
extent of using extreme forms of child labor and slavery during the production stage.
Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative (CI) asserts that people’s actions must be guided
by the principles of universality, impartiality, and rationality (Stanford). Hence, a person
should act on a maxim by employing acceptable means that are binding for all in order to
become a universal law that guided all similar action. The Kantian principle of
universalizability emphasize that every moral decision must be equally relevant to all
identical situation to be adopted as ethically permissible (Stanford). Kant asks the cocoa
market to assess if the worst forms of child slavery are right if similar situations happened
to the consumers, farmers, corporates, and smugglers. United States consumers of
