The human cost of chocolate

Seven years after the industry agreed to abolish child labor, little progress has been made. Seventy percent of the world's cocoa beans are grown in West Africa, where working and living conditions are brutal and many workers are underage.

By Christian Parenti. Photographs by Jessica Dimmock

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The International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) is a chocolate-industry funded NGO. The ICI has one staff member in all of Cote D'Ivoire and does not directly give money to communities that produce cocoa. They do fund an NGO that has a shelter, pictured here, that houses street children in Abidjan.

Last updated February 15 2008: 9:52 AM ET

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The human cost of chocolate

Seven years after the industry agreed to abolish child labor, little progress has been made. Seventy percent of the world's cocoa beans are grown in West Africa, where working and living conditions are brutal and many workers are underage.