Big Damn Heroes

The rest of the class action lawsuit is hereby…

(SLAM) (SLAM)

THROWNITY OUT!

Food Empowerment Project maintains an updated list of chocolate brands they recommend based on the following standards:

transparency about the country of origin for cocoa

if sourced from Western Africa, the workers must own the companies/be in charge of the profits from their labor (this standard is because child labor and slavery have been widely documented for decades in this area)

if sourced from Brazil, the workers must own the company and/or be in charge of the profits from their labor, or the company must be going above and beyond to support the workers and their families (this standard is because "child labor and slavery only recently have been documented in cocoa in Brazil" and they are "giving Brazilian companies that are trying to address the issue by supporting the workers and their families the benefit of the doubt.")

[Source: "Understanding Our Chocolate List" from their website]

So, Tony’s allied with Barry Callebut to get its cocoa. Barry Callebut is one of the biggest chocolate companies in the world, and it is unethical, obviously. This led to Tony’s revealing in February 2022 that 1701 child laborers were in their supply chain. Barry Callebut had over 21K at the time. Both of those numbers have risen, and Tony’s has outright admitted they don’t give a fuck about child labor laws when asked about it, content to let children to continue farming their cocoa instead of actually doing the activism they claim to do. (business-humanrights.org, feb 6 2022)

About a week ago, Tony’s joined Barry, Nestle and Ferrero in pushing against the reinstatement of important EUDR deforestation legislations. Under that regulation that they pushed against, they would’ve had to be more transparent about their supply chains for their more key ingredients - So Tony’s is lobbying against the exact thing they claim to stand for. (confectioneryproduction.com, mar 18, 2026)

Won’t restate @closet-keys’s addition, of course. That’d just be redundant and maybe annoying since, yknow, it’s already been said.

If you wanna find a better chocolate brand it’s really damn easy. There’s lists on slavefreechocolate.org of both the ethical and unethical companies. Both lists can be found here:

I'm not well-versed in ethical chocolate production but I took a look at some of the sources provided to learn more and found misinformation in this post.

First off, @roninnozlo's claim that Tony's, Nestle, Barry, etc. (the Cocoa Coalition) are lobbying against the EUDR deforestation regulation is incorrect. I read the article cited and it is the other way around. Right wingers are the ones lobbying against these regulations. The article says that the Cocoa Coalition is against the reopening of the EUDR, which is legal speak for delaying it for revisions (which is what right-wingers want). The Cocoa Coalition wants these key regulations to be reinstated. This is expanded on further in a different article by the same website which also directly quotes the Cocoa Coalition's statement on the situation. Here is part of that quote:

"The Cocoa Coalition, which comprises companies and civil society and other organisations in the cocoa and chocolate sector, has consistently supported the introduction of the EUDR. We welcome the publication of the guidance and updated FAQ document by the European Commission on 2 October. We will study them closely, and look forward to further clarifications as soon as possible. We note the Commission’s proposal to delay implementation by twelve months, and call for this to be adopted as speedily as possible, without amendment, in order to give companies as much certainty as possible on the revised timetable. We strongly oppose reopening the substance of the EUDR for new negotiations, and urge policymakers to resist any such suggestion."

As for Tony's partnering with Barry Callebaut, this post gave me the impression that Tony's chocolate is intermixed with theirs but that isn't true. I looked into it and found out that Tony's cocoa beans are kept 100% separate from all other beans so that they are fully traceable. From their news article on why they partner with Barry Callebaut:

"Some critics believe we shouldn’t work with Barry Callebaut, one of the biggest cocoa processors in the world. But again, this decision is deliberate. Our mission is to make 100% slave free the norm in chocolate, not just our chocolate but all chocolate worldwide. The 3rd pillar of our roadmap is to inspire others to act, most importantly to inspire other big chocolate companies to adopt our 5 Sourcing Principles. In 2005, we deliberately chose to partner with Barry Callebaut to show that it is possible to be fully traceable while working with a large processor. This way we show that every chocolate company can work according to our 5 sourcing principles. From the start, Barry Callebaut has believed in our mission and collaborated with us to set up fully segregated processing for our 100% traceable beans so they are never mixed with other beans. Working with Barry Callebaut allows us to further scale up our production and enables us to grow Tony’s Open Chain by processing the 100% traceable cocoa beans from our mission allies, too.

The website linked above - Slave Free Chocolate - is a great resource but it's not an official certification. Tony's Chocoloney is still Fairtrade and B-corp, and they have found no cases of modern slavery in their chocolate production. They have found child labour, though, which they are very transparent about. Back in 2017 they developed a system of catching and remedying child labor and it seems to be working. In their 2025 report, they helped 813 children out of labor and are working on helping other identified cases. Saying they're "content to let children to continue farming their cocoa" is...idk. It doesn't add up. If there's any more information on that, I'd like to know.

Another thing I noticed is that @closet-keys said that Tony's does not ensure a living wage for cocoa workers, citing an 2020 report from Voice Network. This is an old report, however. In the most recent 2025 report, Voice Network ranked Tony's as NUMBER TWO in providing a living wage for its workers. And that income increased 58% last year and seems to be steadily increasing over time.

@watchanddream Sure! This got a bit lengthier than I intended, but I wanted to try and be thorough.

Put far too simply, xenia is the practice of hospitality, but it's also a ritual and in a sense a contract between guest and host. When a stranger arrives at your doorstep, you're expected to feed them and give them a gift as the host. Typically, you're not even supposed to ask them their name until they've finished their meal. Once you've done this as the host, the guest is now expected to share stories and information about themselves, and not burden you or your household. Typically, people focus on how hosts violate xenia, but guests can also violate xenia.

This is called a guest-friendship, and once it's established, you are expected to offer the same to your host should they ever visit. It's a ritual of hospitality, yes, but it's also used to establish alliances and can be passed down through generations. For example, in the Iliad, when Glaucus and Diomedes discover that their grandparents were guest-friends, they decide not to fight, but rather exchange armor.

Theoxeny is a common story you see in myth where a god (typically Zeus) disguises themselves as a mortal and requests to be hosted by someone. Should the host follow the rules of xenia, they'll be rewarded, but if they fail, they'll be punished or killed.

This is important to the Odyssey, as it comes up multiple times, but in particular, the cyclops, and the suitors. In both these instances, Odysseus arrives disguised and gives a false name, the practices of xenia are failed, and Odysseus reveals himself and punishes the one that failed to follow xenia. The suitors in particular fail xenia, as they both fail as hosts, AND as guests, for burdening Odysseus's household.

MR. SPIRO: Do you give these lectures at all of your depositions? MR. BANKSTON: I do, and you can watch them.

is ESPECIALLY hilarious to me having listened to multiple depositions Mark has had to take in the Sandy Hook case, where he has needed to lecture EVERY. SINGLE. ATTORNEY. at some point in the case about how they're violating Texas Rule XYZ, because they all, to a one, did something seriously ethically questionable during the deposition.

This, too, is a trashed bathroom; young queer people living through hell and having precious little control over their circumstances or the world in which they exist can affect something by using the language of social justice as a cudgel on their would-be allies, as well as getting a brief feeling of power over someone else by doing it.