Don’t let your Chocolate Scare you this Halloween!

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Halloween has always been my favorite time of year; I remember dressing up with elaborate hair and make-up with friends, all in preparation for the nighttime candy hunt around the neighborhood. As chocolate obsessed preteens, our goal was to fill our pumpkin shaped buckets with as much candy as possible, and sort through them directly after to see who had won the chocolate jackpot. This year, rather than celebrating Halloween by counting, I have decided to commit to chocolate that is not only delicious, but also organic and fair trade…specifically from Equal Exchange.

           Cacao beans are the main ingredient of chocolate; they go a long way before they turn into that perfectly wrapped chocolate. Cacao turns into cocoa beans, cocoa beans go through a series of winnowing (which produces cocoa nibs), cleansing, roasting, and grinding before milk, sugar, and other sweeteners are added. While all chocolate goes through these processes, there is an inherent difference between organic and industrial chocolate: industrial chocolate production uses pesticides to grow and maintain cacao and non-organic sweeteners and flavor enhancers are added to complete the production.

           These practices make the idea of Halloween chocolate quite scary. Methyl bromide and glyphosate, pesticides (endocrine disrupting chemicals) are both used in the production of non-organic chocolate. Also, if the milk used to create “milk chocolate” comes from cows exposed to Zeranol, which is a very popular growth promoter linked to breast cancer, and fed with GMO grain, the chocolate product created is non-organic, and therefore an unsafe choice. Eating chocolate should be an all-around good experience, not another way to be exposed to environmental toxins that disrupt our endocrine systems.

           This Halloween, Protect Our Breasts has partnered with Equal Exchange as their chocolate is both a safer and a smarter choice; the cooperative not only creates yummy organic chocolate in a variety of flavors, it fosters a safe and equal environment for workers (yay fair-trade!). Visit http://shop.equalexchange.coop/chocolate.html to find the perfect safe alternative chocolates to satisfy your sweet tooth!

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