After embarking on the Great American Chocolate Tour in Hershey’s Chocolate World in Hershey, Pennsylvania, I declared the company’s Milk Chocolate Bar to be my favorite candy. I was six years old at the time. Over a decade has passed and I must admit that my preference remains the same. I am not alone in my affinity for the treat—the Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar has been the worldwide choice of candy for over a century. The chocolate became popular for its affordability, good taste and lasting freshness. With over six billion dollars in sales every year, the Hershey Company is one of the largest producers of chocolate in the world. According to Bloomberg statistics, nearly 250 million Hershey Bars were sold in 2013. The chocolate bar is highly mass-produced, sold in over 70 countries, so it surely has a large impact on the environment and on human health. It also raises much ethical debate and other concerns in its lifespan. One 1.55-ounce Hershey Bar can typically be purchased for 89 cents, a price that seems unreasonably low considering its externalized costs. This price certainly does not reflect the salaries of the thousands of laborers harvesting the cocoa or the costs of transportation. I chose to explore the production, distribution, consumption, and disposal of a Hershey Bar because it is a candy so prevalent and so affordable, and it surely has costs beneath the surface. I have also wondered to what extent Hershey Bars impact human physical and mental health. As an avid consumer of the “Great American Chocolate Bar”, I aim to expose the harsh reality of the impact of the wildly popular treat and discuss courses of action to solve the many problems with its existence.
Production
Chocolate production starts with harvesting cocoa in a forest. Native to South and Central America, cocoa trees are currently grown on commercial plantations in Malaysia, Brazil, Ecuador, and West Africa. West Africa currently produces nearly three quarters of the world’s 75,000 ton annual cocoa bean crop. Cote d’Ivoire produces 40 percent of the harvest and Ghana produces 20 percent. The harvest process is extremely labor intensive, as tools such as machetes are used to split the cocoa pod in order to extract the cocoa beans. Each cocoa pod can contain anywhere from 20 to 50 beans, and around 400 beans are needed to produce one pound of chocolate. After the beans have been extracted, they are laid out to dry in the sun for several days in order to acquire the flavor needed for chocolate. The beans are then packed into bags and sent out for shipment.
There are several major ethical problems with cocoa production, many of which Hershey blatantly neglects. At least half a million workers from Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana are child workers. They are usually somewhere between 12 and 15 years old, with some as young as five years old. Many work in hazardous conditions on the plantations, which include tasks such as applying pesticides, working with sharp objects like knives and machetes, and working without safety equipment in environments full of snakes, insects, and other dangerous animals. According to Jef Feeley of Bloomberg, Hershey officials refused to ensure that all its West African cocoa suppliers honored international child-labor restrictions. Some retailers additionally noted the company’s failure to remedy child labor problems in the supply chain. As the global sales of sweets head toward a record in 2014, candy makers process more cocoa, so there is increased pressure to manufacture chocolate in an ethical matter.
Political instability, rising food prices, and diminishing supplies of cocoa trees have upped production costs of Hershey’s chocolate in the past few years, thus increasing the price of the individual candy. Cocoa prices have risen eleven percent in 2014 to 3,014 dollars a metric ton as of May 2014. The global cocoa sector may suffer a one million metric ton shortfall by 2020 because of increasing economic and environmental pressures on cocoa farms around the world. Yields are declining across the cocoa plantations of West Africa as soils become increasingly degraded due to over harvesting, which renders the land incapable of supporting crop retreats. The problem lies in the fact that cocoa is naturally a rainforest plant that grows in shady conditions surrounded by a high biodiversity, but recently hybrid varieties have been grown on cleared land as mono-cultures and in full sun. While this will give higher short term yields, it quickly degrades the soil, and the lifespan of plants can be cut from 75 or 100 years to less than 30. When the trees die and the land is exhausted the farmers must move on and clear more rainforest to plant cocoa, and the cycle continues.
Despite Hershey’s many ethical problems, the company has been placing an increasing amount of emphasis on reducing its environmental impact. Chocolate production requires an enormous amount of water—two pounds of chocolate typically uses 17,196 liters of water. Hershey is making efforts to mitigate this as it has cut its normalized water consumption in manufacturing operations by 58 percent from 2009 to 2012. Hershey also hopes that by the end of 2014, 100 percent of the palm oil it obtains from suppliers is sustainably sourced and traceable. The company also announced that it had established a new set of requirements for its palm oil suppliers. In addition to complying with local laws, Hershey’s partners have agreed to mitigate their contributions to deforestation and peat land expansion.
Another key ingredient of Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bars is milk. Hershey is one of the only large-scale chocolate makers in the world to still use fresh milk. The company works with dairy cooperatives which supply milk from farms that are local to Hershey, Pennsylvania. In under 72 hours, the milk is transformed into chocolate. Although Hershey’s process has never been made public (many spokespeople have declined to reveal its techniques), experts speculate that Hershey’s puts its milk through controlled lipolysis, a process by which the fatty acids in the milk begin to break down. This then produces butyric acid, which has a distinctive tang-like taste that Americans have grown accustomed to and now expect in chocolate. It is cheaper to manufacture in other countries, as Hershey does in India, China and Brazil, but when it comes to making chocolate, access to fresh milk is a crucial factor in production. Their West Hershey plant consumes between 300,000 and 350,000 gallons of milk a day — mostly from a 90-mile radius surrounding the plants in order to shorten commutes for products to retailers.
Some problems with Hershey’s milk production process include the externalized costs of animal waste and the use hormones. The sheer quantity of cattle needed to produce the milk raises the issue of manure handling and disposal, which requires vast areas of cropland for manure dispersion and methane absorption. Insufficient acreage leads to air pollution because of the large amount of methane. Methane also contributes to climate change. Hershey uses growth hormones to maintain higher milk production. A study of cows treated with melengestrol acetate, which is one of the artificial growth hormones approved for use in the US that Hershey uses, revealed that residues of this hormone were traceable in soil up to 195 days after being administered to the animals.
Distribution
Chocolate manufacturers rarely buy directly from cocoa bean companies. According to the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative at the University of New Mexico, Hershey’s process of obtaining cocoa beans is conducted through one of the two world exchanges, either the NYSE Euronext or the Intercontinental Exchange. The cocoa bean supply chain is highly elaborate, as the cocoa bean goes through nearly twelve different stages before getting to the chocolate manufacturers, and the price per pound of cocoa beans changes significantly throughout the supply chain. By the time the beans reach the chocolate manufacturers, they are a mix of beans from hundreds of cocoa plantations. Hershey’s distribution network ships its products from its manufacturing plants to strategically located distribution centers, using common carriers to deliver products from there to retail outlets. Hershey leverages a staff of full-time sales representatives and food brokers in order to market and sell its products to consumers. The typical carriers of Hershey Bars include 25 percent supermarkets, 34 percent mass merchandisers, 15 percent convenience stores, 10 percent drug stores, nine percent wholesale clubs, five percent dollar stores and two percent specialty channels (Jeon).
I spoke with Richard Feldman, manager of Princeton, New Jersey’s Lindt Chocolate Shop, who stated that cocoa is usually transported by ships, which dock in a large and easily accessible port. Cocoa beans must be shipped at a certain temperature, anywhere from 60 to 68 degrees, so the use of heating and cooling is crucial to the quality of the cocoa. Because the ships are so large, much energy is needed to maintain the temperature, which is one of the biggest environmental problems with the distribution process. In order to travel overseas, the ship burns large amounts of fossil fuels—the total amount of fuel burned in the average year by ships is over 600,000 pounds. According to research provided by the shipping industry, carbon dioxide emissions from shipping are double those of aviation and increasing exponentially, which will contribute to and worsen the harsh effects of global warming. An International Maritime Organization study of greenhouse gas emissions has estimated that emissions from the global fleet would increase dramatically in the next 20 years due to increasing demand and globalization. If patterns continue as predicted and if nothing is done to regulate the ships, emissions from ships will increase up to 72 percent by 2020 (Crompton).
Consumption
One 1.55 ounce Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar contains 24 grams of sugar. The average recommended daily sugar intake is 25 grams to 37.5 grams, varying by individual build. There are eight grams of saturated fat in one bar, which is 40 percent of the recommended daily value, based on a 2,000 calorie diet. There are thirteen grams of total fat, which consists of 20 percent of the recommended daily value. Hence, it is no surprise that there are many health concerns that go along with the consumption of Hershey bars. The high amount of saturated fat in Hershey bars elevates blood cholesterol, which increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. The added sugar in chocolate has no nutritional value, which can cause weight gain and heart disease. Refined carbohydrates can cause spikes in your blood sugar, which can make your body resistant to insulin over time and may lead to Type 2 diabetes. Also, excessive consumption of chocolate contributes to childhood obesity rates.
Hershey’s Milk Chocolate is not organic, and the pesticides and insecticides can be detrimental to human health. Acute ingestion of such pesticides and insecticides can cause desensitization of the mouth, sensitivity to light, sound and touch, nausea, dizziness, nervousness, and confusion. Clearly the consumption of one Hershey Bar is not enough to experience said effects; however, it is better to try to avoid ingestion, especially with children, who are at a greater risk because of their small size and rapidly growing organs which are more susceptible to damage (Bruinsma).
Chocolate cravings are also a common effect of regular consumption. The hedonic appeal of milk chocolate—the fat content, the amount of sugar, the smooth texture and pleasing and prominent aroma—is likely to be a predominant factor in its psychological draw. When sweet and high-fat foods, including chocolate, are consumed, serotonin is released, making us feel happier. Another chemical called phenylethylamine has earned the nickname ‘chocolate amphetamine’. This neurotransmitter stimulates the brain’s pleasure centers, promoting feelings of attraction, excitement, giddiness and apprehension. Chocolate contains several biologically active ingredients, including methylxanthines, biogenic amines, and cannabinoid-like fatty acids, which can cause abnormal behaviors and psychological sensations like those of other addictive substances. Researchers at the University of Tampere in Finland found that self-proclaimed chocolate “addicts” salivated more in the presence of chocolate, and showed a more negative mood and higher anxiety. The researchers state that chocolate addicts show traits of regular addiction, because they exhibit craving for chocolate, irregular eating behavior, and abnormal moods (Bruinsma).
Disposal
Every Halloween I can expect to always find candy wrappers in the cracks of my neighborhood’s sidewalks, even weeks after the festivities have ended. I have always wondered what happens to the waste—would the wind carry it to another location? Would it be left to decompose? Would people pick it up and throw it in a garbage can? If so, it would simply be relocated to a landfill to decompose elsewhere. It takes approximately one to three months for a candy wrapper to degrade. The disposal of the candy wrapper is not environmentally conscious whatsoever. Hershey Bar wrappers are generally laminated foils which are prepared by coating a paper base with wax, bonding a thin metal foil layer with an adhesive and dampening with a plastic solution. An IBISWorld report states that because these wrappers are made up of mixed materials, the recovery of useful materials when recycled is difficult and expensive. According to Annie Leonard, unlike higher volume recyclables like plastic bottles, candy wrappers do not account for a large amount of waste presence or volume, so it would be highly expensive to sort them.
Recommendations and Conclusion
As a young child I was conditioned to view chocolate as a reward, an after-dinner delicacy. Its high sugar and fat content gave it the “forbidden” appeal, making its consumption more fulfilling. Through the years my views changed; I began to notice that my affinity with milk chocolate consumption varied greatly depending on stress levels. I have personally discovered the direct relationship between stress and higher chocolate consumption, and I have confirmed this proposition through my research. After thoroughly researching chocolate’s effect on human health and Hershey’s Chocolate’s effect on the environment, I have decided to significantly reduce my intake of chocolate in general, particularly avoiding Hershey because of its ethical concerns. As a frequent chocolate consumer I consider the complete avoidance of the candy to be an unreasonable goal. I am certain that this would be the case for the majority of consumers. I can thus conclude that the first option the consumer can take to mitigate the problems of Hershey’s Chocolate is to transition to more sustainable manufacturers. There are many environmentally conscious chocolate brands on the market. Theo produces fair trade and organic chocolate that is prevalent in grocery stores and other vendors. I spoke with an employee at Labyrinth Books in Princeton, New Jersey (who wishes to remain anonymous) to find out why the store chooses to carry Theo as opposed to Hershey’s. She stated that the store “supports environmentally conscious brands as much as possible”, and she believes that Theo Chocolate “tastes better than Hershey because it is organic”. She personally prefers organic chocolate because she can identify and pronounce every ingredient on its label, which makes her feel more comfortable consuming the product (“Labyrinth Books”). Other options include Newman’s Own chocolate bars, which are organic and Rain Forest Alliance certified and can be found in many grocery stores. Additionally, the Dove Company takes pride in its sustainable cocoa agriculture. The popular company held the world’s first International Workshop on Sustainable Cocoa Farming, and it also works with its cocoa farmers to help them have sustainable lives.
It is just as crucial for consumers to advocate for change in chocolate production. Global Exchange, an “international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice around the world”, is among several groups working with schools, churches and community groups to get leading chocolate companies to promise that their products do not exploit or endanger workers on African cocoa plantations. Their Fair Trade Campaign actively challenges the entire cocoa industry to stop the use of child labor and start using Fair Trade certified cocoa. One of Global Exchange’s corporate campaigns is dedicated to Hershey, the Raise the Bar campaign. Consumers are urged to sign a petition asking Hershey to source Fair Trade cocoa, host a screening of The Dark Side of Chocolate, a documentary on child slavery in cocoa fields, and stay informed by joining Global Exchange’s Fair Trade National listserv.
Production of cacao for Hershey bars holds many externalized costs such as resource depletion and soil depletion. There will be a shortage of chocolate by 2020, so prices will soon skyrocket. This will directly affect the entire population of chocolate consumers, so this blog post serves as a wake-up-call for change. I hope that the readers of this post will join me in pushing Hershey to change its ethics, reducing consumption of chocolate and avoiding Hershey in particular, and seeking alternative, fair-trade and organic chocolate bars. It is crucial to keep informed with what really goes on behind the bar so that you can make the right decisions.
Works Cited
Bruinsma K, Taren DL. “Result Filters.” National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2014.
Crompton, James (2014). IBISWorld Industry Report 32611. Plastic Film, Sheet & Bag Manufacturing in the US. Retrieved 14 November 2014 from IBISWorld database.
Jeon, Hester (2014). IBISWorld Industry Report 31135. Chocolate Production in the US. Retrieved November, 14 2014 from IBISWorld database.
“Labyrinth Books Employee Discusses Organic Chocolate.” Personal interview. 3 Dec. 2014.
Leonard, A (2010). The story of stuff. New York, NY: Free Press.
“Lindt Chocolate Manager Discusses Distribution Process.” Personal interview. 3 Dec. 2014.
Vidal, John. “CO2 Output from Shipping Twice as Much as Airlines.” The Guardian. N.p., 3 Mar. 2007. Web. 4 Dec. 2014.
“21st Century Cocoa: Hershey’s Cocoa Sustainability Strategy”. The Hershey Company. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.
The Story of Stuff: Case Studies 