IntroductionThe 58 million pounds of chocolate consumed on the chocolate-drenched Valentine's Day holiday is likely made from West African cocoa beans. Côte d'Ivoire, also known as Ivory Coast in Africa, is the source of approximately 35% of the world's cocoa production. These cocoa beans were likely harvested by unpaid child laborers held captive on plantations as slaves. Chocolate companies use these cocoa plantations as a source of cocoa for their chocolate products. And because companies want to maximize their profits, they push plantation owners to lower prices, forcing plantations to cut prices in every way possible (Philpott). The result is that children are trafficked into Côte d'Ivoire from surrounding countries like Mali and Ghana, and then sold onto plantations to become slaves so that the plantations don't have to pay the workers. Most children will never see their families again and will not receive an education. If they are eventually released or flee the plantation, they will most likely live in poverty for the rest of their lives because they did not receive an education as children and lack basic knowledge (Philpott). The chocolate industry has the power to reduce slavery and child trafficking on the west coast of Africa simply by paying plantations adequate wages, but what will drive them to take this step to end this cruelty? Daily Life on a Plantation and Basic FactsThere are plantations all over West Africa, but the richest country is Ivory Coast (Roman). On these plantations children work approximately 80-100 hours a week. They are paid nothing and receive no education. They are often undernourished, which makes it difficult for them to have enough energy to work. Most...... middle of paper......d donate $1.14 million over three years to partner with SourceTrust to audit farms in Ghana. In one year they visited and helped 48 communities and their goal is to visit 176 more by 2015 (Oconnell). Over time, progress toward ending child slavery in the chocolate industry has improved. When the large chocolate corporations began to make the necessary changes, the problem of child slavery became less of a problem. But we can always do more. Of all the companies listed above, the revenue raised is much higher than the GDP of Ivory Coast, which is around 24 billion. Yet they helped build only a small fraction of the 36,000 schools needed in the country. Hopefully the chocolate companies will continue to help and stay on track to end the problem they have knowingly contributed to for many years..