Friend, Valentine's Day only comes around once a year. But children labor in cocoa farms every day to make the chocolates in heart-shaped boxes. Before you head to the store to buy Valentine’s Day treats for your loved ones, use our Chocolate Retailer Scorecard to see which stores are tackling child labor and deforestation and which aren’t. Retailers make billions of dollars on chocolate sales, taking up to 44% of the profits while cocoa farmers earn a measly 6.6%. This is unacceptable, and the unfair division of profits must change. While child labor and deforestation remain big problems in the chocolate industry, we are seeing some positive changes, due in part to pressure from individuals, like yourself, calling for a more sustainable chocolate industry. In the past few months, we have seen numerous industry conversations about how to achieve a living income for cocoa farmers AND some of the largest chocolate companies called for legislation that would require greater transparency from chocolate companies. These changes wouldn’t be possible without individuals like you demanding an end to child labor and deforestation in cocoa! But to truly end child labor and deforestation in cocoa, we need all stakeholders to work together, including retailers. You can help pressure chocolate retailers to do more: - If your favorite retailer received a low score, reach out to its customer service team to let them know this is an issue you care about and that you hope they will make advances in addressing child labor and deforestation in chocolate production in 2020.
- If your favorite retailer did well, let them know! It is important that companies know what their consumers care about and keep prioritizing the issue.
- If you have the option, use your purchasing power to shop at local stores with a wide variety of fair trade chocolate options or shop at some of the higher scoring retailers, like Aldi.
- Green America’s Green Pages are a great resource for finding fair and sustainable chocolate companies!
If you prefer to shop online, you can also buy your Valentine's Day chocolates directly from these A-rated chocolate companies! Thank you for the continued support, | 
