This cute platypus 

You can see the current (2020) list of slave-free chocolate companies on their website at http://www.slavefreechocolate.org/ethical-chocolate-companies, or below if you don’t click links:

Aloha Feels Chocolate  

Alma Chocolate            

Alter Eco Chocolate

Amano Chocolate        

Askinoise Chocolate    

The Beach Chocolate Factory

Belicious                        

Black Mountain Chocolate

Cacaoteca

Cacao Medium

Caribeans Chocolate

Castronovo Chocolate      

Choquiero Chocolate      

ChoCoaque Chocolates

Chocolate and Love

Chocolate Cartel              

Chocolat Celeste

Chocolate Tree  

Chocolate Troubadour      

Choconat        

COCO Chocolate    

Compartes Chocolates      

Dandelion Chocolate        

Dark Forest Chocolate      

Denman Island Chocolate

Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate  

Diego’s Chocolate              

Divine Chocolate Co.        

Eating Evolved                  

Eat Your Hat        

Eclipse Chocolate                

El Ceibo                            

The Endangered Species    

Endorfin Foods                  

Enliven Cocoa                    

ENNA Chocolate                

Equal Exchange                  

Fairafric            

Fine and Raw Chocolate    

Fire Fly Chocolate                  

Forever Cocoa          

Fresco Chocolate            

Fruition Chocolate          

Gayleen’s Decadence    

GEPA Chocolate          

Giddy Yo Yo                  

Grenada Chocolate Company  

Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate

Guittard                            

Habitual Chocolate    

Hilo Shark Chocolate    

HNINA Gourmet            

Hogarth Chocolate  

Honest  Chocolate  

Hooray  Tuffles        

Indi Chocolate      

L.A. Burdick Chocolates

La Iguana Chocolate  

La Siembra Cooperative  

Lillie Belle Farms          

Madecasse                

Maverick Chocolate Company

Mayan Monkey    

Mayordomo        

Mexican Arabica Bean Company-Wholesale            

Mia Chocolate        

Montezuma’s Chocolates  

Nayah Amazon Chocolates  

Neary Nógs              

Newman’s Own Organics  

PARRÉ Chocolat          

Pasha Chocolate        

Purdy’s Chocolate      

Omanahene Cocoa Bean Company

Ombar                        

OpuLux Fair Trade Chocolate

Original Hawaiian Chocolate

Parliament Chocolate            

Montevérgine                

Patric Chocolate                

Plamil Organic Chocolate  

Potomac Chocolate            

Pure Lovin’ Chocolate        

Raaka Chocolate                  

Rain Republic                  

Rapunzel Pure Organics  

Ritual Chocolate              

River Seas Chocolate      

Samaritan Xocolata      

Sappho Chocolates            

Seed & Bean Chocolate        

Shaman Chocolates            

Sibú Chocolate            

Solkiki Chocolate         

 Sweet Impact Chocolate    

Taza Chocolate                  

Terra Nostra Organic        

Terroir Chocolate                

TCHO                                

The Xocolate Bar                

Theo Chocolate                  

The Original Chocolate Bar

Tobago Estate Chocolate  

TONY’S CHOCOLONELY 

Truffle Pig Chocolates    

Twenty-Four Blackbirds Chocolate

Valrhona Chocolate

Videri Chocolate Factory

Viva Cacao   Can

Vivani Chocolate        

Vosges                      

Wei of Chocolate      

Xocolatl Chocolate  

Zaks Chocolate        

Zotter   

Nestle’s net worth as of today is 10.46 BILLION dollars.

The largest, most prosperous of these slave-free chocolate companies (Vosges, which is also a female-owned corp if that matters to you!) is worth… $100 million.

That means that Nestle has $10,360,000,000 more dollars with which to pay its employees, INCLUDING AND ESPECIALLY the cacao farmers who are the backbone of their entire industry.

Talk to people when things go to shit.

I don’t just mean get it off your chest, although that’s good. I mean: Something’s wrong with your paycheck/you lost your job/you had unexpected emergency car repairs and now you’re broke so your credit card payment is late. Like, not just 15 days late. We’re talking, shit got crazy and now you’re 90 days late with compounded interest and late fees and the Minimum Payment Due is, like, $390, and you’ve got about $3.90 in your bank account. Call the credit card company. 

I know it’s scary. I know you feel like you’re going to get in trouble, like you’re gong to get yelled at or scolded for not having your life together. But the credit card company isn’t your parents; they’re just interested in getting money from you. And you can’t squeeze blood from a stone or money from someone who doesn’t have any. So what you do is you call them. You explain you’re experiencing temporary financial hardships, and you’re currently unable to bring your account up to date, but you don’t want to just let it get worse. Can you maybe talk to someone about a payment plan so you can work something out? Nine times out of ten you’ll be able to negotiate something so that at least it’s not just taking a constant, giant shit on your credit score.

- Can’t pay your power bill? Call the power company.

- Can’t pay your full rent? Talk to your landlord.

- Had to go to the hospital without insurance and have giant medical bills looming in your place? Call the hospital and ask if they have someone who helps people with financial hardships. Many do.

- Got super sick and missed half a semester of class because flu/pneumonia/auto-immune problems/depressive episode? Talk to your professor. If that doesn’t help, talk to your advisor.

You may not be able to fix everything, but you’ll likely be able to make improvements. At the very least, it’s possible that they have a list of people you can contact to help you with things. (Also, don’t be afraid to google things like, “I can’t pay my power bill [state you live in]” because you’d be surprised at what turns up on Google!) But the thing is, people in these positions gain nothing if you fail. There’s no emotional satisfaction for them if your attempts at having your life together completely bite the dust. In fact, they stand to benefit if things work out for you! And chances are, they’ll be completely happy to take $20 a month from you over getting $0 a month from you, your account will be considered current because you’ve talked to them and made an agreement, you won’t get reported to a collections agency, and your credit score won’t completely tank.

Here’s some helpful tips to keep in mind:

1. Be polite. Don’t demand things; request them. Let me tell you about how customer service people hold your life in their hands and how many extra miles they’ll go for someone who is nice to them.

2. Stick to the facts, and keep them minimal unless asked for them. Chances are they’re not really interested in the details. “We had several family emergencies in a row, and now I’m having trouble making the payments” is better than “Well, two months ago my husband wrecked his bike, and then he had a reaction to the muscle relaxer they gave him, and then our dog swallowed a shoestring and we had to take him to the emergency clinic, and just last week MY car broke down, and now my account’s in the negatives and I don’t know how I’m gonna get it back out.” The person you’re talking to is aware shit happens to everyone; they don’t need the details to prove you’re somehow “worthy” of being helped. They may ask you for details at a certain point if they have to fill out any kind of request form, but let them do that.

3. Ask questions. “Is there anything we can do about X?” “Would it be possible to move my payment date to Y day instead so it’s not coming out of the same paycheck as my rent?” The answer may be “no.” That’s not a failure on your part. But a good customer service person may have an alternate solution. 

“I won’t be available.”

Imagine you’re at work and your boss asks you to come in on Saturday. Saturday is usually your day off–coming in Saturdays is not an obligation to keep your job. Maybe you were going to watch a movie with a friend, or maybe you were just going to lie in bed and eat ice cream for eight hours, but either way you really, really don’t want to give up your day off.

If you consider yourself a millennial you’ve probably been raised to believe you need to justify not being constantly at work. And if you’re a gen-Z kid you’re likely getting the same toxic messages that we did. So in a situation like that, you might be inclined to do one of three things:

Tell your boss you’d rather not give up your day off. Cave when they pressure you to come in anyway, since you’re not doing anything important.

Tell your boss you’d rather not give up your day off. Over-apologize and worry that you looked bad/unprofessional.

Lie and say you’ve got a doctor’s appointment or some other activity that feels like an adequate justification for not working.

The fact is, it doesn’t matter to your boss whether you’re having open heart surgery or watching anime in your underwear on Saturday. The only thing that affects them is the fact that you won’t be at work. So telling them why you won’t be at work only gives them reason to try and pressure you to come in anyway.

If you say “I won’t be available,” giving no further information, you’d be surprised how often that’s enough. Be polite and sympathetic in your tone, maybe even say “sorry, but I won’t be available.” But don’t make an excuse. If your boss is a professional individual, they’ll accept that as a ‘no’ and try to find someone else. 

But bosses aren’t always professional. Sometimes they’re whiny little tyrants. So, what if they pressure you further? The answer is–politely and sympathetically give them no further information.

“Are you sure you’re not available?” “Sorry, but yes.”

“Why won’t you be available?” “I have a prior commitment.” (Which you do, even if it’s only to yourself.)

“What’s your prior commitment?” “Sorry, but that’s kind of personal.”

“Can you reschedule it?” “I’m afraid not. Maybe someone else can come in?”

2. They all wear the same shoes. Same boots, and same overpolished dress shoes.

3. They act different. Shifty eyed and always on their own.

4. They’re kinda really bad at their jobs. I’ve encountered plenty of “undercover” cops outside of bars that ask questions no regular person in their right mind would ever ask. “How are you getting home?” “Who did you come here with tonight?”

5. America is a police state on a budget. Most officers are poorly trained, fbi agents require a 4 year degree (I think), but lord knows how much training they actually get. And the dumb kids from your high school always become cops.

Always look at the watch, it’ll be expensive but in neutral tones (uniform standards strike again).

They will always sit where they can see their target and the nearest exit.

you all need to know i went to a lot of trouble trying to find this fucking video.

Because i need yall to know that there are these incredibly rare frogs that can be found by yelling ‘HEY FROG’ at them very loudly.

When I tried to talk about these things with other people, they always rationalized it away. (I told my dad once that my caseworker was reading my e-mails as I wrote them, demonstrating extreme disrespect for my privacy, and he said, “Well, she’s probably making sure you don’t use the internet to goof off.” I was 22 years old.)

 People tend to mock the idea that telling an adult when to go to bed, when to eat, etc., is a human rights violation, even though they would find it outrageous and absurd if anyone came into their lives to do the same thing to them.