Bitter Chocolate: Investigating the Dark Side of the World's Most Seductive Sweet
Aug 2010 · Vintage Canada
Ebook
336
Pages
About this ebook
Award-winning author and broadcaster Carol Off reveals the fascinating—and often horrifying—stories behind our desire for all things chocolate.
Whether it’s part of a Hallowe’en haul, the contents of a heart-shaped box or just a candy bar stashed in a desk drawer, chocolate is synonymous with pleasures both simple and indulgent. But behind the sweet image is a long history of exploitation. In the eighteenth century the European aristocracy went wild for the Aztec delicacy. In later years, colonial territories were ravaged and slaves imported in droves as native populations died out under the strain of feeding the world’s appetite for chocolate.
Carol Off traces the origins of the cocoa craze and follows chocolate’s evolution under such overseers as Hershey, Cadbury and Mars. In Côte d’Ivoire, the West African nation that produces nearly half of the world’s cocoa beans, she follows a dark and dangerous seam of greed. Against a backdrop of civil war and corruption, desperately poor farmers engage in appalling practices such as the indentured servitude of young boys—children who don’t even know what chocolate tastes like.
Off shows that, with the complicity of Western governments and corporations, unethical practices continue to thrive. Bitter Chocolate is a social history, a passionate investigative account and an eye-opening exposé of the workings of a multi-billion dollar industry that has institutionalized misery as it served our pleasures.
Whether it’s part of a Hallowe’en haul, the contents of a heart-shaped box or just a candy bar stashed in a desk drawer, chocolate is synonymous with pleasures both simple and indulgent. But behind the sweet image is a long history of exploitation. In the eighteenth century the European aristocracy went wild for the Aztec delicacy. In later years, colonial territories were ravaged and slaves imported in droves as native populations died out under the strain of feeding the world’s appetite for chocolate.
Carol Off traces the origins of the cocoa craze and follows chocolate’s evolution under such overseers as Hershey, Cadbury and Mars. In Côte d’Ivoire, the West African nation that produces nearly half of the world’s cocoa beans, she follows a dark and dangerous seam of greed. Against a backdrop of civil war and corruption, desperately poor farmers engage in appalling practices such as the indentured servitude of young boys—children who don’t even know what chocolate tastes like.
Off shows that, with the complicity of Western governments and corporations, unethical practices continue to thrive. Bitter Chocolate is a social history, a passionate investigative account and an eye-opening exposé of the workings of a multi-billion dollar industry that has institutionalized misery as it served our pleasures.
About the author
CAROL OFF is a Canadian journalist, author, and former host of CBC Radio's As It Happens, the network's flagship evening radio program. She has extensive radio and television experience covering stories in Canada and around the world. Off reported the fallout from the 9/11 disasters with news features and documentaries from New York, Washington, London, Cairo and Afghanistan. She has won numerous awards and accolades for her CBC documentaries in North America, Asia, and Europe, and is the author of four books. Her memoir All We Leave Behind won British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Nonfiction and was a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction and a Governor General's Literary Award. She has been shortlisted three times for the prestigious Shaughnessy Cohen Award for Political Writing and was a finalist for the National Business Book Award. She lives in Toronto.
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