A Hershey Bar
The Hershey bar, an American classic. First, we will talk about the additives in a Hershey bar. Soy lecithin which is made from soybean oil is added to Hershey's chocolate to keep the cocoa and cocoa butter from separating. Hershey exports from Brazil, Argentina or the U.S. Brazil is the worlds largest soybean exporter but in 2017 soybean prices took a record low forcing soybean workers to hoard their produces in hopes for a price rise in the near future. PGPR, or polyglycerol polyricinoleate, is made from castor bean oil and added to chocolate to keep it thick and soft its used as a cheaper option than using cocoa butter.
Hershey gets its Vanilla bean extract from Madagascar, the largest producer of vanilla beans in the world(followed by Indonesia). Together, Madagascar and Indonesia produce 90 percent of the worldās vanilla. In Madagascar Farmers have been protecting their farms from thieves the crime wave has been going strong for two years(just after the luxury bean shot up to a record $635 per kilo from just $100 two years earlier). For many farmers, this is their only source of income and they have started taking dangerous risks in protecting their crops, making homemade pistols, spears, and traps.
Hershey gets its milk from farmers in Pennsylvania, they pride themselves on only using farmers that work 100 miles away from the Hershey factory in Hershey, PA. The factory consumes 300,000-350,000 gallons of milk per day. The American farmers arenāt dealing with the same problems as their Brazilian and Madagascan counterparts.
Hershey imports their cocoa beans and butter from West Africa(Ghana and the Ivory Coast). As of 2015 Hershey came under controversy due to the plantation like conditions in the West African cocoa bean fields and for child labor allegations. Hershey has refused to realize information on their cocoa sources to labor rights organizations and Hershey has yet to acquire fair-trade certification. The top producer of sugar cane is Brazil with the US as second and Mexico as third. Hershey has moved its sugar plants to Mexico to outsource production prices. Mexican sugarcane sectors employ about two million people.
Basically the only thing āAmerican madeā in a Hershey bar is milk and the workers in America fair better than the workers in other countries and with their shady refusal to use a fair trade organization as consumers we can only assume that their cocoa source uses unethical labor.
