Children's Blood

This story has reminded me that a book I read recently which was written in the seventies, An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie started with a young boy climbing a coconut tree with a machete to harvest some. Very resourceful and determined young lad he turned out to be.

It's a really good book. Do read it if you can get hold of a copy. Found mine in a charity shop. BTDD took it back with her when she went home after a recent visit.

Didn't Swallows and Amazons start with Roger, aged seven, wanting a knife (penknife/sheath knife)?

I thought it was a dig against atheists from a nutty US Christian fundamentalist. One of their many claims is that we eat babies and children.

Maybe we should go back to advent calendars with pictures behind the doors instead of chocolate.

But then, money those children are earning to help their families along would not be available to their families.....

And reading further, I see that the article's real complaint is about child labour, which is a somewhat different issue from children's blood.

"Only 17 out of 82 brands investigated by the consumer organisation were judged to use chocolate from suppliers that ensured cocoa farmers were paid enough to live on."

My underlining. I'd next be asking who did the judging.

The sub-title of the article is: "Only 17 out of 82 companies investigated were found to use suppliers that paid cocoa farmers enough to live on".

So the implication that children's blood is involved in cocoa/chocolate production is a bit of a stretch even if one agrees that what is a "living wage" should be paid to full-time workers.

Then there is the question of who decides what a living wage is.

The article is accompanied by a picture of a relatively healthy-looking young woman picking up cacao pods.

Totally unclear title and not religious.
OP should have included the link otherwise the phrasing makes no sense.

Caleo

It is no scam!
There is only vanishingly little I can do, but the fact I am condemning Mars and Nestle and others is a sign that others too will be noticing the scandal.

Thanks. Will look it up.

welbeck

and providing the link to the article might have been useful in the OP.

Absolutely.

LucyAnna I agree. Caleo has posted twice, both rather unpleasant thread titles where as your link is far more appropriate. The article is worth reading and highlights an on going problem we should be aware of, especially at this time of year.

and providing the link to the article might have been useful in the OP.

www.theguardian.com/food/2023/dec/02/brands-to-avoid-mars-cadbury-chocolate-firms-criticised-ethics-report

I think perhaps there might have been a more appropriate heading for this thread - and a more appropriate section than Religion?

It is no scam!
There is only vanishingly little I can do, but the fact I am condemning Mars and Nestle and others is a sign that others too will be noticing the scandal.

It's not a scam. Re article in today's Guardian.

Gross for even wanting, scam maybe?

OP has a second thread under Christmas re the same topic.

The thread is something connected with an article in today's Guardian.

Is this a real discussion?

Who is Web and how do you make chocolate taste of blood?

How does the taste of children's blood differ from that of adults, pigs or geese?

Finally, why would anyone want to buy and eat chocolate that tasted of blood?

Fee, Fie, Fo, Fum - I smell not the blood of an Englishman, but a wind-up here!

And why is this posted under Religion/Spirituality?

The only two connections or associations I can see are distasteful, the one blasphemous to any practising Christian, the other infomous and offensive to all Jews.