I Love Chocolate & I Also Love the Earth!

February 15, 2021

Valentine’s Day is here! A day where we all show our spouses, significant others, family and friends that we love them. Now we show them love everyday, but on Valentine’s Day, we lay it on a little extra. We give flowers, plush toys, and my all time favorite, CHOCOLATE! I love chocolate! I like chocolate with nuts, with caramel, but it must be dark chocolate.

Chocolate can actually be very healthy. It is made from the seed of the cacao tree and is very high in antioxidants and also lowers your risk of heart disease. Let me reiterate, this is dark chocolate, not the usual Valentine’s Day chocolate that’s loaded with sugar. Dark chocolate with 70% or higher cocoa content qualifies as quality chocolate.

Look for this image on the packaging.

According to delish.com around 60 million pounds of chocolate are purchased and consumed around and on Valentine’s Day! All of this yummy chocolate, unfortunately is the reason for widespread deforestation. Most of the chocolate we consume comes from cocoa beans grown in West Africa. Unfortunately, the practices of harvesting the cocoa are oppressive. It’s important to look for Fair Trade Certified chocolate. Chocolate with this label is grown without the use of mass deforestation or the use of child labor to grow, harvest and transport the cocoa beans. Cocoa farming in countries such as the Ivory Coast, have been responsible for about 70% of the country’s deforestation. The cocoa is a $100 billion dollar industry but the 5 million small cocoa farmers make a very meager living. Supporting Fair Trade Certified chocolate, helps to establish more sustainable production practices that will benefit the Earth and also the livelihoods of those farmers. It’s a win win for us all. You can eat your chocolate sweets with a clear conscious. It’s good for you AND good for the Earth.

So today and every time you want a chocolate treat, let’s take the time to select the Fair Trade option. You can find a list of Fair Trade Chocolate Brands here: https://www.thegoodtrade.com/features/fair-trade-chocolate

The kids and I love these two brands (Thrive, Unreal). Enjoy!

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