Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Houndsthehorse t1_iug25ha wrote

Reply to comment by locks_are_paranoid in TIL that in ancient times, the carob seed was used to measure the worth of gems and gold since the seeds have a general uniform weight. This is where the word "karat" comes from. by kkoolook

The slavery tends to leave a bad taste

15

8ad8andit t1_iugdi2k wrote

There is plenty of fair trade, sustainably grown, organic chocolate out there these days.

But back in the day it was a little more scarce.

9

Alexstarfire t1_iuh1jgd wrote

The trick is to eat the chocolate, not the slaves.

Seriously though, this is one of the downsides of globalization. Hard to keep unethical labor practices out of the process. Even harder for the consumer to know.

5

VoiceOfRealson t1_iuha1cu wrote

>Seriously though, this is one of the downsides of globalization. Hard to keep unethical labor practices out of the process. Even harder for the consumer to know.

Arguably modern globalization makes it easier for the consumer to know about unethical labor practices (internet/smartphones and all), but the global supply chain can be used to cover up, specifically where those products go.

In the old days you had to send people to manually inspect every step of the transport process to catch whether somebody was introducing shady products into the supply stream.

These days you have to do the same.

2