Bittersweet Chocolate

“The failure to make progress against deforestation has tarnished the image and credibility of the chocolate industry at a time when it is already under fire for its practices in West Africa. The Washington Post reported in June about the use of child labor in West African cocoa fields, which has persisted despite promises decades ago to stop it.” WaPo: The Trouble with Chocolate. “Anytime someone bites on a chocolate bar in the United States, a tree is being cut down … If we continue like that, in two, three, four years there will be no more forests.” (Happy Halloween, everybody!)

+ “Last year Nestlé siphoned 45m gallons of pristine spring water from the creek and bottled it under the Arrowhead Water label. Though it’s on federal land, the Swiss bottled water giant paid the US Forest Service and state practically nothing, and it profited handsomely: Nestlé Waters’ 2018 worldwide sales exceeded $7.8bn.” The fight to stop Nestlé from taking America’s water to sell in plastic bottles.

+ “Nine of the 10 states that emit the most heat-trapping carbon dioxide pollution per person helped block the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which would have been the largest effort by the U.S. government to limit climate change. Four of those states, including Kentucky, were among those most often hit by disasters in the past 10 years — generally powerful storms, which science shows are worsening as the planet warms.” The Center for Public Integrity on A Disastrous Disconnect.