Biodiversität

Theyo-Tacheles: child slavery and organic chocolate

Theyo-Tacheles: Kindersklaverei und Bio-Schokolade
Chocolate is great, chocolate is delicious, we could eat chocolate every day (and we do). BUT: Neither people nor the environment should have to suffer for our enjoyment. Point. That's why you can find out here how we try to fight against child slavery and deforestation with our products.

Enjoyment without child slavery

Our most important concern is to only offer 100% slave-free chocolate in our Theyo shop. What is it about child slavery in the chocolate sector?
An example: more than two million children are still working on West African cocoa plantations alone. Many of them perform the worst kind of child labor, for example using dangerous tools like machetes or chemicals. The miserable pay, the poor working and living conditions and the dependence on their superiors make their work child slavery. At Theyo, we have made it our mission to sell good chocolate that not only tastes good, but is also socially and environmentally good. We position ourselves very clearly against any form of child slavery, forced labor and discrimination.

How do we control that?

All of these social standards, which are based on the UN SDGs, are anchored in our Theyo Code. Sure, we're still at the beginning. But right now we are making personal connections to build a direct trading system. So we do our best to establish the standards anchored in the Codex. Nobody should have to suffer for our chocolate. Our chocolate should give people opportunities - then it tastes even better for us and for you! By the way: You can find a (although not quite complete) list of companies that produce vegan and child slavery-free chocolate products here . You can read more about child slavery on cocoa plantations and why you should rather buy from small producers here.
By the way: We think initiatives like the Belgian Bean-to-Bar Charter are great! The charter covers issues such as fairness, transparency and defines which ingredients have absolutely no place in chocolate. You can find out more about bean-to-bar and how to recognize good chocolate here .

fair cocoa beans for good chocolate fair cocoa beans for good chocolate

organic chocolate

There are numerous seals for products from organic farming that are intended to create trust: Trust in high-quality products, the absence of pesticides and regular controls. We at Theyo stand behind all of these points. And yet you will only find a few products in our online shop that are officially certified organic. Why is that? Official third-party certification is often expensive, and the process is complicated and lengthy. Especially for small farmers or chocolate manufacturers, with whom we like to work, certification is usually too time-consuming and expensive. In addition, the organic standards often do not go far enough for us. Huge farms that use approved chemical aids can be certified organic. However, sometimes they do not correspond to our philosophy. We want to support small farms, know exactly where our cocoa has grown - and then buy small batches of wonderful chocolate from wonderful manufacturers. Or process them into delicious 'Cool Beans'.
Topics such as the preservation of biodiversity and species diversity, the conservation of resources such as water and the avoidance of pesticides are anchored in our Theyo Codex. We are still at the beginning of our mission and are building a personal network in the chocolate sector. In this way, we want to develop trust and sustainable relationships in order to ensure long-term compliance with the Codex and the quality of our products - sometimes even without an official organic seal, but super tasty and still sustainable!

Biodiversity is good for chocolate and important for the environment Biodiversity is good for chocolate and important for the environment ©Unsplash

Of course there is a lot of fair trade and sustainably grown chocolate here .

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