Chocolate

(This is entry 77 of 100DaysToOffload)

For quite a while, I've taken a fairly relaxed stance on chocolate. I'm fairly strict on my veganism (well, I'm not a proper vegan, but that aside) but I tend to be a bit lacksadaisical about the chocolate issue, and honestly other issues like plastic, too.

Some are difficult to avoid. Chocolate though falls into a similar category to meat: easily avoided.

I looked up a brand of chocolate that I have, several times now, bought from Aldis. Moser Roth, owned by Storck. In this Chocolate Scorecard, Storck are a full red, with lowest marks for child/slave labour exploitation and environmental concerns. I can't very well say that one of the reasons I don't eat meat is the abuse of the workers, and then buy this!

In essence, I sort of treat chocolate as a bit different, and say to myself, yeah, it's not great, but I want to have a bit of fun... and buy the product without looking into it fully beforehand, thus paying money into slave and child explotation. I do exactly what I dislike about people who support the meat industry: staying ignorant so as to avoid making an unpleasant change of action!

I know I must know. I will have to change, and treat chocolate as a luxury. Have it less often, and when I do have it, make sure I pay good money for it to be ethically sourced. Basically, exactly what I do with eggs. I only ever have eggs from ethically sourced, local farms where I can basically see the chickens to know they are well-treated, no major environmental, employee, etc. abuse is going on. I essentially should treat it like that.

And obviously, for my health, I need to treat it like a treat. Only rarely. That way, I can also spend more on it to make sure it's ethical.

I do feel bad that I've fallen into this trap though. Ignorance is so compelling, and so easy to fall into. And so enjoyable, too. I really just wish I could just not care at all.