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Bitter Chocolate: Anatomy of an Industry, by Carol Off
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Hailed in hardcover as “compelling” (Kirkus Reviews) and an “astonishing [and] wrenching story” (The London Free Press), Bitter Chocolate is an eye-opening look at one of our most beloved consumer products. Tracing the fascinating origins and evolution of chocolate from the banquet tables of Montezuma’s Aztec court in the early sixteenth century to the bustling factories of Hershey, Cadbury, and Mars today, investigative journalist Carol Off shows that slavery and injustice have always been key ingredients.
The heart of the book takes place in West Africa inside the Ivory Coast—the world’s leading producer of cocoa beans—where profits from the multibillion-dollar chocolate industry fuel bloody civil war and widespread corruption. Faced with pressure from a crushing “cocoa cartel” demanding more beans for less money, poor farmers have turned to the cheapest labor pool possible: thousands of indentured children who pick the beans but have never themselves known the taste of chocolate.
“An astounding eye-opener that takes no prisoners” (Quill & Quire), Bitter Chocolate is an absorbing social history, a passionate investigative account, and a shocking and urgent expos� of an industry that continues even now to institutionalize misery as it indulges our whims.
- Sales Rank: #536679 in Books
- Published on: 2014-03-04
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.20" h x .90" w x 5.50" l, .85 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 336 pages
From Booklist
People in the First World consume chocolate with no qualms save what the confection might be doing to increase their waistlines. But, in fact, the manufacture of chocolate depends on its cultivation in Third World nations by citizens condemned to live in general poverty and with little control over their futures. Off describes the migration of the cacao tree from its Mexican homeland to West Africa, the land that now dominates its production. Off travels to the tropical C�te d’Ivoire, where the laborers who harvest cacao pods have never even tasted the final product into which they have poured their lifeblood. Off draws an even more sordid picture of the relationship between the institution of slavery and the rise of British chocolate capitalism under such magnates as Cadbury. Worse still, Off asserts, slavery continues to be a vexing, intractable problem in these West African regions. --Mark Knoblauch
Review
Praise for Bitter Chocolate:
"Bitter Chocolate is less a book about chocolate than it is a study of racism, imperialism and oppression as told through the lens of a single commodity."
—The Globe and Mail
"An astounding eye-opener that takes no prisoners in its account of an industry built on an image of sweetness and innocence, but which hides a dark and often cruel reality. You'll never look at chocolate the same way again."
—Quill and Quire (starred review)
"We know chocolate makers have their secrets—like how they get that caramel in there. That one, though, is pretty tame compared with the stuff unearthed in . . .Carol Off’s new expos�, Bitter Chocolate.
—Toronto Star
In the style of Mark Kurlansky’s Salt, Bitter Chocolate unravels chocolate's glittery packaging and uncovers an industry tainted by war and genocide."
—Ottawa XPress
"[Off] makes her case so strongly and with such nuanced flavour that the book becomes as hard to put down as a bar of Toblerone."
—Shared Vision
About the Author
Carol Off is a co-host of CBC radio’s current affairs program As It Happens. One of Canada’s leading investigative journalists, she has won numerous awards for her CBC television documentaries set in Africa, Asia, and Europe. She lives in Toronto.
Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Powerful and un-biased
By Carol
Researching the poor working conditions in third world countries, I thought this book would only give me the history of chocolate. Instead I discovered a comprehensive look at the abuses in the cocoa sector primarily in the Cote d'Ivoire. A combination of the developed countries demand for cheap chocolate, corrupt government, corrupt police and avaricious manufacturers, the true losers are the farmers and the "indentured" workers who produce my favorite food source. Carol Off presents an unbiased look at the world's favorite confection.
[...]
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Exposing the dark and bitter side of a sweet industry
By Adrenalin Streams
Chocolate is a wonderful product. It makes its consumer feel good and, at its most refined, is as capable of providing all the exquisite and subtle ranges of refinement and taste as fine wine. We associate chocolate with happiness, and yet all is not sweetness and light in the chocolate industry. With this book Canadian investigative journalist, Carol Off, digs beneath the surface of the industry's smiling public face to expose the exploitative side of the business, in particular with regard to the growers of cacao, who often struggle just to live so low are their incomes. First providing a brief history of chocolate, Off then examines the historical and current behaviours of the major chocolate industry companies as well as the government and politics of the major cacao producers. It is not a pretty story. Corruption, violence and exploitation (including some child slavery) at country level are rife (and appear always to have been) in the industry. The author uses Cote d'Ivoire, the world's number one cacao producer, as her main case study, and risks her safety to travel into its cacao and political heart. Everyone involved in the industry gets criticised by Off, but this is not a book that just targets big corporations for the misery of cacao producers (the argument always being that they should simply pay cacao farmers more); the situation is much too complex for that and Off makes that crystal clear. If anything, the book is most condemnatory of the corruption and brutality of regime's such as that of Cote d'Ivoire. How to improve the lot of the cacao farmer is a difficult question to answer. At its root must be honest and stable governments in the major cacao producing countries. After that there is the question of how much companies should pay for cacao. It may be that companies are forced to pay more soon because of an impending world cacao shortage, and those that argue that you must allow the market to operate freely may feel this strengthens their case. Then there are those who feel that big companies should act more philanthropically by paying more than they need to for cacao - i.e. Fair Trade, or by guaranteeing to purchase cacao from farmers who follow sustainable methods (i.e. Rainforest Alliance). It is not my place as a reviewer to answer these questions. However, Carol Off's book exposes in a stark manner that cacao farmers in countries like Cote d'Ivoire are not in a sustainable position and one way or another something needs to be done to rectify the situation. There is no simple solution, and probably a combination of stable government, higher prices and better education of farmers is required. Of course, the chocolate consumer is also part of the equation. We may complain about poorly paid cacao producers but we still buy chocolate, and most people don't like the prices of their products going up. To slightly distort a well known phrase - you can't have your chocolate and eat it. "Bitter Chocolate" is a thought provoking work, one that attempts to provide a balanced view of the darker side of the chocolate industry. It is highly recommended as an entry book on the subject
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Interesting expose of the cruelty behind our favorite dessert
By Alan A. Elsner
This book is half history, half passionate condemnation of "Big Chocolate." As a chocolaholic myself, it did make bitter reading. Apparently, the international chocolate industry is fueled by the cruel exploitation of child labor in Africa. These children are treated no better than slaves. Others who are complicit in the many sins of this industry include the Europeans and American companies who profit from it, the IMF and World Bank who impose impossible conditions on producer nations, the corrupt leaders and officials in the countries themselves who cynically exploit their own citizens and of course we, the consumers.
France comes in for particular condemnation for its behavior in Cote D'Ivoire.
I learned from this book that it has always been thus. Major companies like Cadbury and Rowntree were founded by Quakers devoted to the ideals of treating their employees well and did so -- in England. But they turned a blind eye to the horrible slave-like conditions of those who grew and picked the crop in Africa. Likewise, Milton Hershey was an enlightened though paternalistic employer in America -- but did not care about the poor Africans who actually produced his raw materials.
It's an interesting, though depressing book. It's well-researched and well-written but it can't be called real investigative reporting since it relies mostly on the fruits of others' labors and a bit too much on Canadian sources. It spreads its condemnation a little too wide as well on occasion. I sometimes felt the entire capitalist system was under assault. However, still very much worth reading.
I guess I'm weak. I still like chocolate occasionally. I guess I'll try to find "fair trade" and "organic" products in future.
For more on me and my book The Nazi Hunter: A Novel go to [...]
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