Mighty Earth, Green America, and Be Slavery Free published a joint Easter scorecard, analyzing what the world’s biggest chocolate companies are doing to address social and environmental concerns...

The groups surveyed 13 chocolate companies and eight cocoa suppliers, examining their policies in six of the most pressing sustainability issues facing the chocolate industry: mandatory due diligence; transparency and traceability; deforestation and climate change; agroforestry; living income policies; and child labor, focusing primarily on child labor monitoring and remediation systems...

Roughly 2.1 million children work in cocoa, 96 percent of whom are found to be in hazardous labor, according to researchers at Tulane University. In recent years, research from the World Resources Institute found that there has been an increase in deforestation in the top cocoa producing countries, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. Cocoa farmers often live in extreme poverty, despite chocolate companies raking in billions every year. While progress is being made in the direct cocoa supply chains, there are still concerns about the harmful impacts of indirect supply chains on the environment, particularly deforestation, and people. These issues demonstrate an urgent need for increased efforts to transform the cocoa industry into a sustainable industry...