巧克力巨头拯救西非供应链

    可可产量的提高还能以其他方式造福当地社区。例如，可可树会消耗土壤营养成分，因此与其他作物间种时长势更好。这意味着，与可可树健康生长有利益关系的厂商需要与当地政府和非政府组织合作，从整体上去鼓励可持续农业，而不是只盯着可可。

    扶持当地社区的教育事业也会帮助巧克力厂商。世界可可基金会总裁比尔•古伊顿表示，可可种植者的平均年龄大概是50岁。在理想情况下，教育计划可以保证，20年之后将有整整一代可可种植者为这些公司效力。

    教育是双向的。“坦率地说，我们在西非的实际存在没有达到应有的水平，”好时公关副总裁麦克科米克称，不过，可可链中就包含了在西非设立研发中心的计划。“为了研制新的产品配方，我们对可可进行了许多研究。我们将会用好旗下的种植园，使我们的科学家能与农民和土地更紧密地联系起来。”

慈善与企业利益能否兼得？

    对巧克力厂商来说，上述措施显然具有商业上的价值，可对当地农民来说，究竟有多大帮助呢？巧克力行业在西非的历史并不光彩。世界可可基金会成立之际，也就是2000年左右，美国国会获得的报告显示，西非可可种植园存在严重违反反童工法的现象。某些案例中，有第三方用卡车将儿童成批运地送到生产可可的地区。据报道，许多儿童遭到压榨，被迫工作却拿不到报酬。还有一些从事可可种植的家庭鼓励孩子一起到园中工作，挥舞砍刀、接触农药，往往使孩子们置于危险的境地。

    仅靠巧克力厂商确保反童工法颇为困难，但它们有义务为此付出努力。“企业应该在童工问题中发挥一定的作用，他们也确实在这么做，”盖伊顿说。“这是企业与非洲各国政府以及存在问题的地区共同的责任。”

    不过，共担责任可能会使标准的推行相当困难。如果当地政府没有满足美国标准的反童工法律，情况就更为复杂了。消费者和非政府组织对企业提高透明度的呼声越来越强烈，因此大公司（在这方面）的投资对公司有好处。从生意角度来看，这些公司承担不起诉讼和负面报道的后果。

    尼日利亚大学（the University of Nigeria）经济学教授、布鲁金斯非洲增长中心（the Brookings Africa Growth Initiative）的研究员奥斯塔•奥格布指出，财富500强中那些渴求可可的公司可以成为有益的力量。他说：“一切有助于提高可可种植者生产效率，既能提高农村居民收入，同时又致力于解决环境问题的东西我们都欢迎。”

    此外，成功推行慈善事业也要求营利性组织、非政府组织、当地人民和政府通力合作，而这正是巧克力行业追求的。

    不过，只有巧克力厂商拓展思路，不再局限于帮助农民，而是开始在当地生产巧克力，可持续发展才能取得真正的进展。奥格布指出，只有这样才能为西非国家带来更多利润，创造更多就业机会。“有没有可能，可可种植者的子女不再当农民，而是在巧克力工厂工作？”他认为，那将标志着真正符合可持续标准的Kiss问世。

    译者：小宇

    Improving cocoa yields can help communities in other ways. For example, the crop depletes the soil of nutrients, so it grows best on plots with other plants. This means that companies with a vested interest in healthy cocoa need to work with governments and NGOs to encourage sustainable farming in general, not just for cocoa.

    Companies also benefit from supporting education in local communities. The average age of cocoa farmers is about fifty, says Bill Guyton, president of the World Cocoa Foundation. In an ideal situation, education programs can ensure that there is a generation of cocoa farmers for these corporate players to work with 20 years from now.

    Education goes both ways. "Candidly, we don't have as big of a physical presence in West Africa as we should," says Hershey's McCormick. But part of COCOALINK involves setting up research centers in West Africa. "We're doing a heck of a lot of cocoa research for future product formulations," he says. "We're going to use our farm to get our scientists closer to the farmers and the farm."

Philanthropy vs. taking care of business: room for both?

    There's clearly a business case for companies, but how far will these efforts go towards helping farmers? The chocolate industry has an ugly history in West Africa. Around 2000, when the WCF formed, Congress received reports of serious violations of child labor laws on West African cocoa farms. In some cases, third parties were trucking children in to cocoa-producing regions and reports said that many kids were exploited and forced to work without pay. In other cases, cocoa-farming families encouraged children to work with them in the fields, often putting them in dangerous situations: wielding machetes, exposure to pesticides.

    It can be difficult for companies alone to enforce child labor laws, but they will have to push to do so. "Companies do need to play a role in the child labor issue and they are," Guyton says. "It's a shared responsibility with the African governments and also the communities where it happens."

    But sharing responsibility can make it difficult to enforce standards, especially when governments don't have child labor laws that meet U.S. standards. Big corporate investment could deliver benefits because of increased transparency demands from consumers and NGOs. From a business standpoint, these companies can't afford lawsuits and bad public exposure.

    Fortune 500 cocoa-hungry companies stand to be a force for good, says Osita Ogbu, an economics professor at the University of Nigeria and a fellow with the Brookings Africa Growth Initiative. "Anything that improves the productivity of cocoa farmers that increases the rural income, and at the same time addresses environmental scarcity, is welcome," he says.

    And successful philanthropy often requires for-profit organizations, NGOs, local people and governments to work together, a path that the chocolate industry is pursuing.

    But the real step towards sustainability will come when companies expand their thinking beyond helping farmers and start to manufacture chocolate locally. That's where you'll start to see significant profit margins for West Africans and job creation, says Ogbu. "Is it possible that the sons of daughters of cocoa farmers will not be cocoa farmers but will work in chocolate factories?" That, he says, will mark the beginning of a truly sustainable Kiss.