Value of sustainability products?

Wert von Nachhaltigkeitsprodukten?

Guest

As a consumer, I have been trying for years to shop "socially", to buy seasonally and, if possible, to consider products from the region or at least not from Asia. I have developed trust in the well-known labels such as "Max Havelar", "Rainforest Alliance", "UTZ", etc.

The recently broadcast documentary "Dirty Chocolate" shows the criminal way in which the chocolate market works. Those responsible for the labels are obviously neither able nor willing to seriously prevent abuses such as child labor and slave-like conditions.

The question arises as to how justifiable it is that we consumers are led to believe that we are buying a socially better product for a higher price. Bulk buyers such as Migros and others should actually do everything they can to ensure that consumers' expectations are not disappointed. Here too, "less is more" applies.

What consumers can do to make an effective contribution????

Here are the links for the chocolate film discussed on YouTube:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0KtWSuMIQ0
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4M9SPjKBTI
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGe5xwXgBT0

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All replies (2)

Guest

...this problem does not only exist with chocolate or cocoa.
with other sensitive products such as fish, the consumer is also promised the blue sky. fish can be eaten without a guilty conscience thanks to labels of some kind. under the MSC label, for example, fisheries that are only converting to msc are also allowed to fish. and as long as many other fisheries do not pay attention to nature, it is of little use anyway.
no children are suffering here, but i'm just saying. often labels are simply a money-making exercise.
and as a consumer there is nothing you can do except believe the labels or question them and do without them altogether. which is somehow not a solution either.

(Machine translation)

Guest

In China, per capita consumption is just 60g. But the Chinese are also slowly acquiring a taste for chocolate and sales are rising steadily. The chocolate industry has correspondingly high hopes for the rising giant country.

However, the popularity of chocolate in China is also a cause for concern. If per capita consumption of cocoa rose to the level of Côte d'Ivoire, the Middle Kingdom would become the world's largest cocoa importer, a position currently held by the United States. Around 700,000 tons more cocoa would have to be produced. This corresponds to the current annual harvest of Ghana, the second largest producer.

If China were to become as chocolate-hungry as the Belgians or the Swiss, the country alone would consume around twice the world's current production. The Swiss consume 95 times as much cocoa as the Chinese.

http://www.nzz.ch/finanzen/kakao-wo-schokolade-an-den-baeumen-waechst-ld.137775

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