A clandestinely shot, deep-access account of how the clothes we buy are…
Nothing Like Chocolate
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
NOTHING LIKE CHOCOLATE tells the powerful story of Mott Green and the Grenada Chocolate Company he founded, which is a farmers' and workers' cooperative. This tree-to-bar factory, claimed to be the smallest in the world, turns out luscious creations that are organic and ethical.
In a world saturated with industrial chocolate--often made with cocoa harvested by exploited child labor--this solar-powered workers' co-op provides a viable model for creating sustainable communities in the global South and beyond.
Also featured are Michael Pollan, Vandana Shiva, and Christian Parenti.
'A deeply layered, subtle, and visionary film...Will deepen your understanding about the ethics of the chocolate you eat. What really sets this movie apart though is the focus on real people and how it shows the way forward...Offers a thoughtful assessment of the fair trade movement and compelling vision of how globalization can work if thoughtful ethical principles inform sustainable economic activity...This movie will make you think about the food you eat. It will also help inspire a new generation of global farmers and social entrepreneurs who will find more ethical and human pathways for global trade.' Michael A. Santoro, Professor of Business Ethics, Rutgers University, co-Author, Wall Street Values: Business Ethics and the Global Financial Crisis
'This film is unique in both the depth and breadth of its analysis of the cocoa industry. At its heart is a compelling story of sustainable, artisanal chocolate production in Grenada and a cooperative that is revolutionizing the connection between cocoa farmers and the finished product. However, the film also explores the complexity and contradictions of fair trade certification while providing important perspective on the child slave labor, which produces much of the conventional chocolate that consumers enjoy. The final message is a positive one: you can vote with your dollar and support viable, small-scale economic development a world away.' Sarah Lyon, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Kentucky, Editor, Anthropology of Work Review, Author, Coffee and Community: Maya Farmers and Fair Trade Markets
'Nothing Like Chocolate is not just an advocacy piece--It address controversial issues such as the pros and cons of fair trade; cooperatives are not always the solution; and forming collective action is difficult, challenging, filled with hurdles and complications, and is costly. Using this film, teachers can build an enlightened and engaging discussion around developing the understanding of collective action and its importance to farmers who 'control their own destiny' through collective action. This film has many lessons and could be used as a teaching instrument for several types of courses and modules and would be of interest to general audiences.' Michael L. Cook, Robert D. Partridge Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, Executive Director, Graduate Institute of Cooperative Leadership, University of Missouri
'Offers insight into one of our most beloved substances - chocolate - and the slavery epidemic that plagues cocoa bean harvesting. Child slavery, especially in Cote d'Ivoire, needs to be rectified; if large corporations (such as Hershey's) are not going to address it, Bhavnani hopes to inspire viewers to act.' Pamela Schembri, Newburgh Enlarged City Schools, School Library Journal
'This documentary focuses on real peole and tells the powerful story of anarchist chocolate maker, Mott Green...We see globalization at its best and sustainability, which has the potential for long-term maintenance of well-being and involves ecological, economic, political and cultural dimensions...Suitable for high school and college students as well as all adults, and libraries.' Susan Awe, University of New Mexico, Educational Media Reviews Online
'[Mott Green] discovered that the Ivory Coast chocolate plantations used child slave labor. This upset him so much that he decided to create an alternative in Grenada, a place that he had always loved for its revolutionary past as well as its widespread network of organic farmers, including those growing cacao...Ideal for classroom use...Bullfrog Films does outstanding work and would help progressive-minded teachers in college or high school get the message across about global warming, food safety, and indigenous peoples to their students.' Louis Proyect, Counterpunch
'Highly recommended, especially for public, high school and college library educational DVD collections.' The Midwest Book Review
'Nothing Like Chocolate takes an intimate look at the people behind 'the world's smallest chocolate factory.' It also leads viewers on an informative trek into the global chocolate economy...The film succeeds in striking fine balances between being entertaining and educational, disturbing and inspiring-a winning concoction the is poised to change the chocolate-consuming habits of its audience...Fascinating and pleasurable viewing.' Wendy Guymer Tutt, Alternatives Journal
'This challenging documentary may make chocolate lovers think twice about their passion. Recommended.' Video Librarian
'Mixing the bitter with the sweet, the factual and the idealistic, the documentary Nothing like Chocolate gives a macro and micro perspective on the beloved sweet stuff. Smartly directed...' Josef Woodard, Santa Barbara Independent
'An engaging movie that provokes both the brain and the taste buds.' Brent Simon, Shockya.com
Citation
Main credits
Bhavnani, Kum-Kum (Director)
Bhavnani, Kum-Kum (Screenwriter)
Bhavnani, Kum-Kum (Producer)
Malavenda, Cristina (Screenwriter)
Malavenda, Cristina (Film editor)
Pettey, Ryan (Film editor)
Pettey, Ryan (Screenwriter)
Green, Mott (Interviewee)
Sarandon, Susan (Narrator)
Other credits
Photography, Skye Borgman; edited by Ryan Pettey, Cristina Malavenda; music, Erik Lohr.
Distributor subjects
Anthropology; Central America/The Caribbean; Community; Cooperatives; Developing World; Economics; Environment; Ethics; Fair Trade; Food And Nutrition; Geography; Globalization; Health; Labor and Work Issues; Local Economies; Marketing and Advertising; Renewable Energy; Sociology; Sustainability; Sustainable Agriculture; Sustainable DevelopmentKeywords
WEBVTT
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[music]
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Who doesn’t love chocolate?
But there’s more to this
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decadent product than we know. Most
of us eat industrial chocolate
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produced by large chocolate companies who get
their cocoa beans from all over the world.
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Much of this cocoa comes from
Ivory Coast in West Africa,
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where there is a history of using child
slave labor to harvest the beans.
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This cloud of child slavery has haunted the
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chocolate industry for many decades. But in
the Caribbean, on the island of Grenada,
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the chocolate revolution has begun.
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[music]
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Yes. Yeah. So what we’re doing
here is roasting cocoa beans.
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I like to do this. I break the beat under my nose like way
those things that you break on the people’s nose when they
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pass out and I smell the gases that
come out, when I first break it.
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You want to see it run? Yeah. I’m gonna
turn it on just for a moment. Very loud.
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You see that Chocolate waterfall? Yeah.
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You know, how they say uh… like waterfall
chocolate. Chocolate and water
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don’t mix because the whole process of making chocolate
is trying to get all the moisture out of the chocolate.
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And these are our homemade cocoa
butter presses that… Oh, really?
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Yeah, we, yeah, we… we invented them
actually. This is cocoa liquor, very bitter.
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Whoa! Whoa! The chocolate finish
is being made. It’s a liquid.
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And we carry the liquid upstairs in buckets and
we pour it into a tank that we have upstairs.
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And then after we do that, it comes out here into the
molds in the right amount and then the molds cool
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on these racks and become
the chocolate bars.
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Well, we’re all sort of Oompa Loompas.
Mott Green takes a different and
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revolutionary approach to chocolate.
Living in Grenada, he is the founder of
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the Grenada Chocolate Company Co-operative.
This co-operative set up the
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world’s smallest chocolate factory. And
makes chocolate with ethics and love.
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I started this chocolate project
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as a result of being in Grenada for years
and seeing cocoa in decline. You know,
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I didn’t know much about chocolate that time but I was told Grenada
has the best cocoas in the world. And, you know, it just seems
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so obvious to me, what… what this place
needs is a chocolate factory, you know.
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The idea of revolutionizing the connection between
cocoa farmers… And when I say cocoa farmers,
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not just the owners of cocoa farmers, but
the actual laborers. And the finished
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final product which is
usually so detached by
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so many different levels, you know, cocoa beans get exported and
made in (inaudible) other places of distribution and so on.
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And by changing that whole
system, uh… far been exciting
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and… and maybe the only viable way for
cocoa farmers to really be empowered.
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When we started this
project, they were very…
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very few Artisanal chocolate companies
doing what they call now bean to bar.
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And uh… it’s really wonderful thing
to be able to combine a culinary arc
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without engineering sort of science.
So simple technology,
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appropriate technology, it’s
about finding clever solutions
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to offer that are appropriate
in the environment.
00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:19.999
I’m sort of like, uh… political
activist version of what we want or,
00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:24.999
you know, so I have that wildness quite on, in
the, in the kind of political activist sense.
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[music]
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Nelice Stewart is an independent
cocoa farmer in Grenada.
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Though the Grenada chocolate company
is well known throughout the island,
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Nelice has not been introduced to Mott
Green or the chocolate co-operative.
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She, like other cocoa farmers
who are not involved in the
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Grenada chocolate cooperative is only
able to sell her beans to the government.
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[music]
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[music]
00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:09.999
On the morning like this,
it’s all about timing
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because the rain is about to fall.
Here come some kids. Morning.
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So we have to do this fast but I can’t,
I… I can’t keep this forever waiting.
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[sil.]
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Mr. John, how are you?
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How’s the back? Good, after noon. Yeah.
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[sil.]
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That was, this was yesterday? Yeah.
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Each bags weighs about 80 pounds.
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You know, this is wet cocoa, it loses more than
half its weight when we turn it into dry cocoa
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by fermenting and drying. The
beginning of this project
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was inspired by the horror
that goes on with chocolate.
00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:24.999
This news came out, I guess, they had
discovered a ship full of trafficked children
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probably from Mali off the coast of Ivory Coast
and it was big news. And umm… it unraveled
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the fact that so much cocoa grown
in the Ivory Coast is dependent
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on this child slave labor. And
it’s not something that is
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just gonna go away just like that. It
was certainly a motivational factor
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to be able to create a chocolate that is
absolutely ideal for this possible thing
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from child slave labor indeed the opposite
of cooperative of farmers equally
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benefiting along the chocolate makers.
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Those(ph) that have become known as the slave
ship docked in the early hours of the morning
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but the mystery of the schools of children
believed to (inaudible) only deepened.
00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:14.999
But the slave trade in West Africa does
exist. There are often sold by their parents
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as little as 200 pounds each to work in
mines, and cotton, and cocoa plantations.
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Seventy percent of all cocoa, the
wrong ingredient for chocolate,
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comes from West Africa and 40% of world
supply comes from one country, Ivory Coast.
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West Africa, Sam Pedro, the Ivory
Coast, he’s kept out of school
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to work. They were sold for a few dollars
locked up, beaten, if they tried to escape.
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Thousands of children live
like this scarred illiterate.
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The numbers aren’t an issue.
This is trafficked children,
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this is forced child labor, there is
really no point in debating the numbers.
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Unlike with grapes and wine, chocolate
lovers have no idea exactly
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where the cocoa for that chocolate comes
from. It’s uh… not only a scandal
00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:09.999
that it’s still going on today but it’s our
particular that it seems to be growing.
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That means, that the scale of slavery in the
21st century seems to be getting larger.
00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:19.999
In the 1970s and 1980s,
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Ivory Coast was convinced to invest
heavily in the production of cocoa.
00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:29.999
And the government of Ivory Coast
believed that it would be able to prosper
00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:34.999
and get rich on cocoa trade.
In 2001, it was found that
00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:39.999
children were being trafficked
from neighboring countries
00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:44.999
such as Mali and Burkina Faso
to participate in cocoa harvest
00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:49.999
in Ivory Coast. We had investigators who traveled
to Ivory Coast and… and to Mali in 2002,
00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:54.999
and they interviewed youths
in Mali, who had escaped
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from cocoa farms. They’d been locked
up, they had been kept on farms
00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:04.999
that were surrounded by barbed wire so they were
unable to escape, they were threatened with severe
00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:09.999
punishment if they refused to
work on the cocoa harvest.
00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:14.999
We believe it still happens, we understand
anecdotally it still happens but
00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:19.999
to what extent, is impossible to tell.
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Currently 20,000 children are trafficked to
work in the cocoa harvest in West Africa.
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When this situation came to the attention
of the large chocolate manufacturers,
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they agreed to a voluntary protocol
that their chocolate would be
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slave free by 2005. This
has not yet happened.
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It is this very injustice
that inspired Mott Green
00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:49.999
to champion a new process of chocolate
making in his adopted home in the Caribbean.
00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:54.999
Although, the island of Grenada is a world
away from West Africa on the Ivory Coast,
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the bitter effects of child slavery
are an ever present reminder of
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the global inequalities that surround
chocolate. However, to chocolate manufacturers
00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:09.999
around the world, the issue of
ethical production on a large scale
00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:15.000
presents many complexities.
00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:28.000
[sil.]
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This is my favorite.
00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:39.999
Nice paste.
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Wow!
00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:49.999
(inaudible) inside of my mouth.
Relish(ph), good.
00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:54.999
I grew up in the city, well, San Francisco that is. I born
and raised there so it’s been tough for me to get away.
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Our chocolate company is 139 years old,
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always in the family. So I remember playing Simon says with
my brother running around the factory, running up and down
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the stairs of this old brick building. And he had worked there.
And I had, and he was like 12 and I was probably 9 or 10.
00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:14.999
So he knew where the liquor, choco liquor
was in, where the vats for that was.
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And so he took a big uh… you know, finger full and
he put it in his mouth, he’s like \"Hmm… Good.\"
00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:24.999
And uh… so I went by and I
taken even that, horrible.
00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:29.999
He knew what was coming, I didn’t, so he
uh… he could fake it, I… I… I couldn’t.
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I spend most of my day tasting chocolate
00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:39.999
in many different forms, whether it’s
nibs, butter, and or just choco liquor,
00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:44.999
and that’s great, that’s a great life.
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And our business is a grinding business, once
we get the fermented cocoa bean as I say
00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:54.999
our job is to process that in the
chocolate without affecting,
00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:59.999
it’s really inherent natural flavor.
After that Bean is roasted,
00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:04.999
we break it up. In that center that
that nib, you know, that’s roughly
00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:09.999
uh… 50% fat and 50% solid and when that’s
ground up, it’s just like grinding peanuts.
00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:14.999
When you grind peanuts, you get peanut butter, and
when you grind this, you get chocolate liquor,
00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:19.999
unsweetened chocolate. And
uh… that is really the basis
00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:24.999
uh… for making chocolate. We buy from
countries such as uh… Venezuela,
00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:29.999
Trinidad, Costa Rica,
the Dominican Ecuador,
00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:35.000
Peru, Guatemala, West Africa, uh…
from the Ivory Coast and Ghana.
00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:49.999
We can’t. Yeah, we can’t.
Yeah, yeah, we can’t.
00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:54.999
Uh… You could not buy from Ivory Coast
00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:59.999
but we do have customers that
uh… would… would might specify
00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:04.999
that particular kind of flavor.
Ivory Coast has very good
00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:09.999
uh… cocoa. It would be tough
to get me behind an idea of
00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:14.999
boycotting Ivory Coast, whom…
00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:19.999
whom I boycotting? Am I boycotting the
social structure of West Africa and
00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:24.999
demanding that they change their social
cultural structure? What am I, what am I,
00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:29.999
what am I boycotting? I love the
ideal, I love the thinking,
00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:34.999
but it’s not real. We’re looking
at it from Western eyes.
00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:39.999
You know, everything to
me is umm… big picture.
00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:44.999
The candy industry or the… the… the industry of
growing chocolate has always been troublesome.
00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:49.999
The first world manufacturers of chocolate
are so far away from the third world
00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:54.999
producers of chocolate. There’s never been
a lot of contact between the producers of
00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:59.999
chocolate and the growers that pick out.
00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.999
[music]
00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:09.999
The island of Grenada with
a population of 1,00,000
00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:14.999
is nestled between Florida and
Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea.
00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.999
In 1979, the Prime Minister,
Maurice Bishop shifted
00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:24.999
public consciousness towards national
suffer alliance and sustainability.
00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:29.999
Focusing on agriculture, Bishop boosted
the economy from the inside out.
00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:34.999
Today, Grenadines retain a strong desire to
00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:39.999
foster the growth of their economy through
local initiatives. It is within this climate
00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:44.999
that Mott Green and his business partner
Doug Brown found a perfect home
00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:50.000
for the Grenada Chocolate Co-operative.
00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:59.999
[sil.]
00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:04.999
I met Doug, maybe about 10 or
00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:09.999
11 years ago in Oregon we hit it off right
away because he’s a… a real tinkering type.
00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:14.999
Well, first time I met him, we chatted
about all different kinds of devices
00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:19.999
that had very strong uh… personality
characteristics. And every single person
00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.999
that knew him would, you know, have
the same experience because he was
00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:29.999
so extremely quiet, so extremely
stoic, extremely gentle,
00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:34.999
extremely mellow. I’m not any of
those things really, inherently,
00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:39.999
personality wise. And the… the two
of us were great match. You know,
00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:44.999
of course, like everywhere, I’ve, I travel, I would
probably talk about Grenada a lot. One year,
00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.999
I finally got him to visit. As he describes it,
we were in the bamboo house up at my place
00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:54.999
in the woods and we were drinking cocoa tea, very
strong cocoa tea that I would drink several times
00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:59.999
a day and it gives you this wonderful feeling
of inspiration, a kind of a subtle glow,
00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.999
it sort of get subtle and beautiful. And he described it
that we were drinking this cocoa tea and we were talking
00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:09.999
about the possibilities in life. So I was telling
him about this idea, you know, of making chocolate
00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.999
out of the cocoa right here. How it could benefit the
farmers in the neighborhood and how cocoa has been
00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:19.999
such declining in Grenada and the price for the beans
the farmers get so low. This is very pure form of
00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.999
activism and very enticing for people like Doug
and myself because it’s, the idea of entering
00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.999
into a kind of engineering challenge.
So over this cup of…
00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:34.999
of cocoa tea, he said to me, \"This is a great idea, you
know, I think, you could use a partner. And, you know,
00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:39.999
you’re gonna need money, I think, you know, at least to
start this.\" And, you know, we decided to pick the name
00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.999
\"The Grenada Chocolate Company Ltd,\" which in a
way was symbolic as probably, it’s a small place
00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.999
and we were gonna be the only chocolate company, probably.
Indeed, you know, we probably always will be in Grenada.
00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:54.999
We was really the three of us, uh…
my third partner Edmund. Doug…
00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.999
Doug and myself did pretty much everything. So we, you
know, renovated this whole building and, you know,
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.999
wired everything and assembled machines that we had
built in the US and brought here. Got other machines
00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.999
and it just went on and on and on. There
was a very special time of my life
00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
that’s for sure because it was just
this great promise for the near future.
00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.999
The chocolate factory has a
long history and a long story
00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.999
Because it started from the
mountains And my brother met Mott
00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.999
in St. George’s and he brought him to the country he
liked the country a lot, especially the hermitage area
00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.999
Me and Mott became really good friends.
He liked to drink the cocoa tea. A lot
00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:39.999
With these ideas they said they were going
to try to organize a small chocolate factory
00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.999
I was here and he said let’s get together We
have to do a little course in chocolate making.
00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
I got my passport and got everything organized
So I can have a little trip overseas
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
And have a little experience
how to make chocolate
00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
You’ve got to get it really roasted, like
nuts. You have to keep tasting every batch
00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
It takes us three days to
make one batch of chocolate
00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
[sil.]
00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
I think we’re very attracted to
autism of products right now
00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
because in a society where everything
is so big and anonymous, and mediocre,
00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
the stories of individuals doing something
better. These products have more of a voice,
00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
there is more of a… a vision, a passion
behind them. They seem less cynical to us.
00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
They seem about something
more than just making money.
00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
Decentralized artisanal production is
vital because artisanal production,
00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
both generates dignified work,
00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
quality is enhanced, but the
most important part of it is
00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
you know what the production system is like.
Artisanal production does bring the human being,
00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
and the freedom, and human rights of
the human being back at the center.
00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
When I grew up in Geneva,
Switzerland, we had piles of
00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
chocolate, bars, truffles.
Chocolate has been a family,
00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
I feel for sure, and it keeps going out which
is really nice with my kids. A lot of people
00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
think that chocolate is a… is a candy. I… I… I don’t
call it candy, it’s impossible to call it candy.
00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
Candy is just sugar. A chocolate is a
fruit. It’s… It is a healthy product.
00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
A lot of cheap chocolate has
cocoa, butter, and then
00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
they adds palm oils, or hydrogenated oils
and this is what is bad, this is what
00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
ruins chocolate really. We are very strong about
not having any chocolates from the Ivory Coast.
00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
Most of all is to labor which is
terrible so it’s pure, clean,
00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
and delicious. Tasting the raw,
00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
all the roasted bean, the
energy that it produce
00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
into your body is absolutely amazing. It is the
food of the gods. It… It makes you feel good.
00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
When the Spaniards came
toward the Americas,
00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
how they were given the
seeds as payments, and
00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
the Spaniards really didn’t have a clue what
to do with. And but what… what is fascinating
00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
is that the Indians knew
exactly how valuable it was.
00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
It’s almost a drug, you know, it’s a
legal drug, but it’s good for you.
00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
When caffeinated plants hit,
00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
you’re up in the 1500s, and then really took off in
the 1600s, they all arrived around the same time.
00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
Coffee migrated up from
northeastern Africa.
00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
Tea came from the Orient through the
explorations of the Asia. Cocoa
00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
which we’ll talk about today came from the
Americas, via Columbus and his crews.
00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
The chocolate is one of those pieces of the
landscape because it’s all over the place
00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
and its various manifestations.
Our society has become
00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
so habituated to their presence and their
use that we’ve lost connection with
00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
what powerful stimulants they are, and as
Dale Pendell also says in his book, uh…
00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
these were the perfect
drugs for capitalism.
00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
Like any plants, the chemistry of
cocoa was very complex, you know,
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
there are hundreds of different kinds
of chemical molecules in there.
00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
The most famous components of
cocoa are things like theobromine
00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
and caffeine which are very closely
related molecules, both of which act as
00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
stimulants in our brain. And there are other interesting
molecules like, anandamide in smaller quantities,
00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
and anandamide is actually a
neurotransmitter in our brain that
00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
stimulates the same
receptors as do some of the
00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
chemical components of cannabis and
marijuana. These substances that we call
00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
chemicals are really essential
parts of a far more complex entity
00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
which is the plant. These substances do have a
kind of sacredness to them, and that it would…
00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
it would be to I believe our benefit
to maintain that sacred relationship.
00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
One something is sacred, it’s respected
00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
so much that its use is
very, very restricted.
00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
I think so much of what has led
to a culture of exploitation
00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
is based on the sacred of
particular cultures being taken
00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
out of context. I do
think we need to return
00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
the sacredness to cocoa, rather
than as a new global addiction.
00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:45.000
[music]
00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
Mott is a dynamic and smart, you
know, charismatic great guy.
00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
And he brought this whole
organic concept to me.
00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
Of course, I knew about organic, I knew, of
course, it’s good to… to grow and eat organic,
00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
but we were not practicing organic
agriculture yet here at Belmont.
00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
It’s a 400 acre estate, and it’s
historically was a sugarcane plantation.
00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
And in the 1800s, cocoa and nut bags
were introduced. And so I always
00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
give Mott credit for that because he’s the
one who brought organic to Belmont, and
00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
helped us to get certified, and got us on
this new organic philosophy and culture
00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
that has become a part of our
ethos here at Belmont estate.
00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
(inaudible) Doug came up
to South San Francisco
00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
where our first factory was and visited, it was… it was
really lovely to talk to two guys. We were just, you know,
00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
announced their intention to build the chocolate
factory, a great idea because I looked in Grenada
00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
and I thought, wow, they’re right there, there’s… there’s
good cocoa to be developed. And they seem to be,
00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
you know, really sort of kindred
souls to us. As far as I know Doug
00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
grew up rather shy, he got married right
out of college, and it was… I think
00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
it kind of felt kind of safe for him and he… he… I
think he, and he definitely enjoyed the solid feeling,
00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
I think of being married in comfort, and
he was pretty contented seemed like.
00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
Problem was their relationship was kind of
doomed though and here in Grenada actually
00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
they ended up breaking up and then getting divorced
subsequently. And so I think this project was
00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
very, very good for Doug making that transition. It
was very, very good because it was really hurt him,
00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
I mean, that really threw him
for a loop, that’s for sure.
00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
Doug was pure wisdom and pure calm,
00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
and I was everything else.
00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
A multifaceted room and it
functions in… in various ways.
00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
It’s where the crew puts their
sort of outside clothes.
00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
It’s also my home. I
sleep here on this bed.
00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
My books that I’ve sort of been reading
the last year or so are spread here.
00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
It’s also our tool library, so
this is the DIY department here.
00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
These are the invoices that
we give all the cocoa farmers
00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
as they bring in their cocoa to our
(inaudible). It becomes their records
00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
and our records, and also tells us how much to pay
them a few days later when we write the checks.
00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
We have an equal salary policy.
In the end, it roughly ends up
00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
being about US $2 per dry
pound of cocoa, which is
00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
some of the most expensive cocoa in
the world which is we’re proud of.
00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
Today is a… a typically hectic day. Now there is
two kinds of overwhelmness, there’s the sort of
00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
happy overwhelmed where things are sort of working
well, but I’m just sort of very busy. Now I feel
00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
overwhelmed in the sort of other more darker
sense because I’m… I’m also worried sort of…
00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
sort of overwhelmed and worried now because we’ve got
cocoa at risk, we’ve got financial issues, we’re spending
00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
a $10,000 to $15000 per week on cocoa from the co-operative.
It’s great that we’re getting that much cocoa,
00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
but our sales aren’t quite keeping up. And
we have a huge stock by the chocolate
00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
in the United States and we haven’t really found distribution for
that yet properly, and some of that sort of coming together,
00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
but it’s probably over a month before we see
any money from that maybe… maybe much longer.
00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
Um.
00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
I just need a little break, I just um…
00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
I don’t want to be on camera. I’m
feeling stressed cause I’m feeling…
00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:20.000
[sil.]
00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:20.000
[music]
00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
[music]
00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
Cocoa farmers in Grenada sell
their beans to the government
00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
through the Grenada Cocoa Association
who can then export the dried cocoa
00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
and keep some for domestic use.
This market at Belmont estate
00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:50.000
is where the farmers except for those in the chocolate
co-operative sell their beans to the government.
00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:08.000
[sil.]
00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
Shackled by a heavy burden,
00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
won’t you
00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
let it heal your soul,
00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
won’t you let the savior
that you come on and shout,
00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
it (inaudible) turn easy role.
He touched me,
00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
Oh yes, He touched me,
00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
and oh, the joy that rub my soul!
00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
Something happened
00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
and now I know, he touched me
00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
and he made me whole.
00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
Amen, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord
00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
Okay. He tracks every movement
in the market, analyzes yields,
00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
weather cycles, potential ad breaks of crop
disease, Nick has never been on my cocoa farm
00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
but he’s owned more cocoa than the world’s
biggest chocolate companies use in a year.
00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
We could make $100,000 a really good
day, $300,000 and half a million
00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
depending on the… on the size of the trade
that we have on. At the moment we own
00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
50,000 metric tons of cocoa, but in the past
we have owned as much as 500,000 metric tons.
00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
Half a million tons of cocoa. Half a million
tons of cocoa, yes. So you sit here
00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
and gamble on the price with a whole lot of other
people. Yes. This is legalized gambling right here.
00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
This is our casino. And
we bet on the price of
00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
cocoa rising or falling. So
right now cocoa is straight in
00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
2,856 or 2856 as we say here.
And I will purchase
00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
20 tons of cocoa. So you (inaudible) 20 tons.
Yes. And I’m actually making money now.
00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
I’m making $20 on the 20 tons of cocoa
that I just bought. It’s gone up.
00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
It’s gone up. It’s gone up. Sixty dollars. So
you’ve made $60 in less than a minute, and $80
00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
Well, if I’m able to sell it at this price
right now, yes, I could make it $80.
00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
In less than a minute? In less than a minute.
What are you gonna do? I’m gonna hold on to it.
00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
I’m gonna go for $100.
00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
He knows traders who’ve made a million
in a day. But whatever profits
00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
the traders make, they don’t trickle down
to the cocoa farmers of West Africa.
00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
Do you care about the quality of the bean?
No, we don’t care about the quality of
00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
the bean at all. Do you care
about how it was harvested?
00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
No, we don’t care how it was harvested. Do you care about
whether there was child labor involved in the beans?
00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
Personally, we do, but on a
business standpoint of view,
00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
no, it doesn’t matter who’s harvesting the
beans. We just care what the price is
00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
gonna do for our bet that we have made.
Bean’s a bean. A bean is a bean.
00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
Cargill(ph) made $2.3
billion profit last year,
00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
and they control a huge part of the trade. They’re
not in the business of developing (inaudible)
00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
and keeping children out of… out of poverty that is
fundamentally not what they’re about. And it’s very simple,
00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
what could happen, they could agree to
regulations of their industry that would
00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
translate into price controls for farmers, and they
don’t want to do that because what they are about is
00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
fundamentally making as much money as they possibly
can. And if that force is independent farmers to take
00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
their children out of school, so be it.
In any product,
00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
it could be chocolate, it could
be clothing, the minute you get
00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
a global control over the commodity.
And you get
00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
giant businesses being
able to dictate terms.
00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
They create conditions for slavery
of the primary production.
00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
Show me one product that’s globally
traded today, that’s available cheap
00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
which isn’t based on
someone being enslaved.
00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
I grew up in a pretty conventional,
00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
very intellectual New York family.
And my father was a physician,
00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
my mother is a clinical psychologist.
And we were groomed
00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
in the typical way uh… to
become American intellectuals.
00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
I always wonder how different my life would be, and
if there would be no Grenada chocolate company
00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
if I had chosen to go to MIT. Instead, I went to a much
more sort of conventional university in Philadelphia.
00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
And everything changed
in 1988 ‘cause I had met
00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
a set of young, they like to call
themselves anarchist kind of dropout kids,
00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
some of them were very intellectual, some of them were… and I got to
know them over the summer, you know, I got involved in their activism
00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
and incredibly intrigued. Political consciousness
was something that… that developed
00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
for me at that time. When I announced that I
was dropping a college after a few years,
00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
my father in particular was so disturbed.
He absolutely
00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
could not understand at all what I meant by political
consciousness, but it didn’t take him too long
00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
umm… to come around. You know, after all I wasn’t
a heroin addict breaking into jewelry shops,
00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
I was living in squats running soup kitchens,
helping homeless people opening up new buildings,
00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
taking a radical approach to trying to
alleviate suffering that was around me,
00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
and he obviously was proud of that.
00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:13.000
[music]
00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
Smilo is the name of our local cocoa powder
00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
that we make that sold all over Grenada for
chocolate which is very, very popular.
00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
They drink hot cocoa in Grenada like,
they drink coffee in a lot of countries.
00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
Revolutionary leader Maurice Bishop
used to say in speeches, we should stop
00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
importing everything and, you know, just make
everything locally everything because that was
00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
the inspired part of the revolution, a sense of
independence and for… for the rest of the world.
00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
Smilo has also wasn’t my
idea, actually become
00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
my nickname in the village, and that’s actually
something that developed over the last couple years.
00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
But actually, pretty much every one of my colleagues
and friends in a village called me Smilo.
00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
Umm… Isn’t that ironic? Life and
00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
language and nick names are full of
such erroneous. And Grenadians are so
00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
uh… clever and so understated, wouldn’t
surprise me at all if my lack of smiling
00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
is one of the reasons that I was coined
as soar. One of the reasons that it
00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
umm… that it stuck better.
Smilo make chocolate.
00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
You’re making trouble today?
00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.999
Yeah, show me how to bat.
00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:18.000
[music]
00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
There are many times that I crave having
a family, having uh… more company,
00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
uh… perhaps the thrill of raising a child one
day. Umm… On the other hand, it’s funny.
00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
So many people I know who have that,
envy me so much uh… for not having
00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
the incredible freedom to umm… to decide
to maybe have that one day or not,
00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
uh… but in the mean time, umm… really much freer I think that
than most people are. And that’s certainly an advantage.
00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:10.000
[music]
00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:25.000
[music]
00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
Don’t forget the Sabbath.
00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
The Lord has, God has blessed.
00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:48.000
[music]
00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:38.000
[music]
00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:08.000
[music]
00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:20.000
[music]
00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:30.000
[music]
00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
[music]
00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
When I talk about how
opaque the food chain is,
00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
labor is a big part of that. Who is
harvesting the cocoa? Under what conditions?
00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
How much were they getting paid? Organic
agriculture made a mistake when they decided
00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
that we… we don’t pay attention to labor, we only
pay attention to chemicals. I think that was
00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:19.999
a very short sighted view.
Sustainability, as a virtue must
00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.999
include more than chemistry. It
has to be uh… a process you can
00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:29.999
feel good about eating at the end of.
00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.999
Today, consumers turn to Fair Trade certified
products to support ethical labor standards.
00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.999
However, the complexities of
local markets, corporations,
00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.999
and governments can prevent even Fair
Trade certification from providing
00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:49.999
farm workers with higher wages.
Despite, the challenges facing
00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:54.999
Fair Trade, at its core, the movement is
a step in the right direction and along
00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.999
with cooperatives could help farmers
in West Africa. Well, Fair Trade is a
00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.999
global movement to alleviate poverty. Fair Trade
USA is a certifier of Fair Trade products.
00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:09.999
And essentially, we assure consumers and
businesses that the quality products
00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:14.999
that they buy improve lives and protect
the environment. Our Fair Trade standards
00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:19.999
assure that every purchase
that they make is
00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.999
actually going back to support
the farmers and the workers.
00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
Our efforts to provide sustainable development,
really does work and makes profound impact.
00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
We also however, know that Fair
Trade is not the only solution
00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
to sustainable development and is also
not the only player. We look forward to
00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
working with industry, producers, as
well as global NGOs that are investing
00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
millions of dollars in the developing world
to continue, to improve, and ensure that
00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
Fair Trade is a model that
works for all stakeholders.
00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
One problem with Fair Trade certification is that
there’s obviously a lot of internal unfairness,
00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
disparity of wealth within
the places they grow cocoa.
00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
So if the export of cocoa, say
in the Ivory Coast, are not
00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:14.999
the laborers on the field, the exporters
are probably wealthier people. And they’re
00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.999
the ones getting the Fair Trade price.
So it’s not necessarily
00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.999
affecting the people who are really suffering and the people who
are really doing the hardest work to create chocolate bars.
00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.999
You know, here in Grenada, we
have the opposite vision, and
00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.999
it’s been suggested that we become Fair Trade certified.
The great irony is the cost of Fair Trade certify,
00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
something that’s hard for us to come up with,
it would take away money from the whole project
00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
and therefore, take away money from cocoa farmers.
The other thing to be honest about Fair Trade,
00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
I think, it’s been a disservice because
most of the chocolate in public is only
00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.999
gonna research so much. So if they see this Fair
Trade certified symbol, they’re gonna assume
00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
that they’re doing the right thing by choosing
that chocolate bar. And this is ironic
00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.999
that our chocolate bar sitting right next to it
is not Fair Trade certified because in an effect,
00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:09.999
we feel that would perhaps almost discredit
us in a way. Because what we’re doing
00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.999
is creating a revolution in the connection
between laboring on cocoa farms,
00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.999
producing chocolate, and selling that chocolate
high value, all that money being shared.
00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:24.999
Fair Trade certification never
does anything like that.
00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:29.999
And certification therefore, like everything
else that’s done from a distance. Ends up
00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:34.999
being partially empty. We have to
replace the anonymous market in which
00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.999
a certification plays a big role
with an intimacy of direct contact.
00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.999
And I see no alternative to
injustice at the global level
00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
except co-operative arrangements.
What we need is co-operative treat.
00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
I think, it’s obscene that not all
trade is fair that unfair trade
00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
is allowed to be the rule and
fair trade becomes the exception.
00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
Well, we buy Fair Trade cocoa by the way.
Yeah, I mean, we do,
00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
in fact, we work a lot with Fair Trade. The
goal is to have traceability for cocoa.
00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
That’s being able to say, okay, this
cocoa came from this particular region.
00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
And that particular region was
looked at, it’s on the agenda
00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.999
to be checked out and it’s clear
of any child labor issues.
00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.999
That’s great and that sounds
wonderful but the issue is the
00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
structure of West Africa and the
infrastructure, the social infrastructure
00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
to be able to accomplished this
because this really is social change.
00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
We’re talking about changing a country,
changing the way people live than the way
00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
their families interact with one another. It’s a big
major change. And there are certain things that have to
00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
happen in a natural way and you can’t
force them. You can also influence them
00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
as much as you possibly can to
help guide the learning process,
00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
but in many instances, you
know, you have to have time.
00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:13.000
[music]
00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:24.999
Being a white person in a
black country like Grenada
00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:29.999
is very interesting. Philosophically,
I’m… I’m sort of against
00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:34.999
the idea of uh… being a missionary in any
sense. Obviously, in the religious sense
00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:39.999
because I’m not religious, I’m an atheist. But in the
broader sense of being a missionary, this idea of
00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.999
going and saying, well, I can help you
because we can teach you to do this, that,
00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:49.999
the other and you’ll be better if you learned the smart ideas
that we have. Umm… Which is kind of the same thing as say,
00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:54.999
well, your ideas are good enough and you’re floundering
around you don’t know how to live your own lives.
00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.999
That’s always an extremely distasteful for me.
Sure, I have a, I had, I have a deep interest
00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:04.999
in helping Grenadian cocoa farmers
but really on another level,
00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:09.999
it’s my love of chocolate, my love of cocoa
trees, my love Grenada, love a Grenadians.
00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:14.999
And that kind of helps me not feel like a
chocolate missionary. The distinction was
00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:19.999
very important to me. So here we
are in our new chocolate shop,
00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:24.999
which we call Bon-Bon chocolates. People didn’t know
it was a chocolate shop and they kept walking past,
00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:30.000
I’m thinking it was like our office or something.
So I responded by putting up their enormous sign.
00:51:55.000 --> 00:51:59.999
And she was so excited, you know,
we would be driving along,
00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:04.999
she’ll be talking to her friends on the phone, telling them
about how we have this new chocolate and that new chocolate,
00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:09.999
and it was just so clear. I mean, after all
here’s a person, umm… the main interface
00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:14.999
representing the entire Grenada
Chocolate Company to the public.
00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:23.000
Jazzy, I like your jeans.
00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:29.999
[sil.]
00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:34.999
See, I brought the chocolate van.
00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:39.999
[sil.]
00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:44.999
Real rain. Uh…
00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:49.999
You know to drive already (inaudible).
00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:54.999
[sil.]
00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:59.999
I have a feeling, everybody is gonna
know you drove the chocolate van now.
00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:04.999
(inaudible), we’ll tell them.
00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:09.999
He is just the most adorable,
00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.999
smartest boy that I know in a very long
time. And yeah, that says a lot ‘cause the
00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:19.999
Grenadian kids are amazing in general.
And umm… we just sort of bonded, umm…
00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:24.999
which has been really fun.
00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:33.000
[sil.]
00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:39.999
So I sort of got to know Esther umm…
better and then uh… in this kind of
00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:44.999
uh… euphoric magical way, I guess, I could say,
Esther and I became umm… very strong friends.
00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:49.999
We’re sort of inseparable for the
first couple months of that.
00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:58.000
What can I say? Umm…
everybody has fantasies.
00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:09.999
Fantasies could become
realities, umm… well, you know,
00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:15.000
if I got the chance, I wouldn’t mind
helping bring up Jazzy, that’s for sure.
00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:34.999
Intense loneliness umm… is I won’t deny it,
00:54:35.000 --> 00:54:39.999
umm… more like the a byproduct uh… you can call
it, certainly a disadvantage of such a lifestyle.
00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:44.999
If I had a family, they might find
that I was not around enough. Umm…
00:54:45.000 --> 00:54:49.999
I don’t know, I think such a balance uh… could be
wonderful and could be created, but it’s certainly been
00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:54.999
the advantage over the last 10 years, umm… that I had
this kind of freedom umm… to pour in the kind of work,
00:54:55.000 --> 00:54:59.999
umm… kind of a 24 hour, umm…
a day sort of umm… schedule.
00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:04.999
And umm… it’s a home.
00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:13.000
[music]
00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:34.999
Kidney cancer notoriously is hard
to detect. And he was symptomatic
00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:39.999
for a very long time. Started
to get these nighttime fevers,
00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:44.999
a little bit like symptoms that could be anything, you know,
cold, food poisoning, anything, but it… it continued.
00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:49.999
One day, I got an e-mail that said, you know,
they said that, they found cancer in that,
00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:54.999
they were about to move one of his kidneys. And then if
it’s caught in time, he’d be okay, you know, and uh…
00:55:55.000 --> 00:55:59.999
but he wasn’t. Actually, he sort of very, Doug
like, sad thing to me. Right after the operation,
00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:04.999
he said, \"Well, one thing about getting incredibly
sick like this is it’s the first time my parents
00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:09.999
have tolerated each other in the same room in 10 years.\"
Radiation and all different kinds of chemotherapy,
00:56:10.000 --> 00:56:14.999
and trial drugs and… and he was you know
what, you know, how these things are.
00:56:15.000 --> 00:56:19.999
It’s just always bad news, you know, there wasn’t
any good news. I was driving him to hospital
00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:24.999
umm… you know, for these radiation treatments every day which
were terribly painful for him and the only palliative.
00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:29.999
You know, it weren’t really designed to cure him or anything
but I think it probably improve the quality of his life.
00:56:30.000 --> 00:56:34.999
Doug didn’t really wanna have too many visitors or guests.
He was kind of embarrassed how he looked and he just didn’t,
00:56:35.000 --> 00:56:39.999
most of that he just felt it was awkward and, you know,
people feel sorry for him. And, but we have developed
00:56:40.000 --> 00:56:44.999
this reporter over the years of this project. You know, they
only have with someone that’s just about your closest friend,
00:56:45.000 --> 00:56:49.999
you know, you can sort of sit around and say
nothing for hours and feel each other’s presence
00:56:50.000 --> 00:56:54.999
or you are not feel it but just feel totally
comfortable. So I was traveling with a Grenadian friend
00:56:55.000 --> 00:56:59.999
around Europe doing chocolate promotion. And one of
the things that we wanted to do was go to Lourdes
00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:04.999
and uh… it’s funny, the woman who is an atheist
like myself. And when we checked into this
00:57:05.000 --> 00:57:09.999
little hotel in (inaudible) and I mentioned her we’re
going to Lourdes, and she was like, \"Why?\" And I…
00:57:10.000 --> 00:57:14.999
and I explained that umm… my Grenadian friend who I’m
traveling with comes from a very Christian family.
00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:19.999
Her mother persuaded us to go to
Lourdes to get holy water and then
00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:24.999
for me to bring it to Doug because I was planning
on going to Doug’s right after that anyway.
00:57:25.000 --> 00:57:29.999
I called out Doug about one week before actually when
he was obviously weakening really terribly and but we
00:57:30.000 --> 00:57:34.999
even discussed the nature of fixing a certain machine that that
I knew was problematic from talking to the Chocolate Factory.
00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:39.999
And he gave some clever advice, even though he was
extremely weak and could barely talk. And then I mentioned
00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:44.999
to him on the phone, \"Well, I’ll be back to
Grenada in a week and then I’m gonna immediately
00:57:45.000 --> 00:57:49.999
straight to California to see you, I already
have my ticket.\" Umm… A ticket which I ended up
00:57:50.000 --> 00:57:54.999
using but for his funeral.
00:57:55.000 --> 00:57:59.999
I think it might have been the same night
that Obama won the election actually.
00:58:00.000 --> 00:58:04.999
The news was that Obama
had won and Doug died.
00:58:05.000 --> 00:58:09.999
[music]
00:58:10.000 --> 00:58:14.999
Life without Doug, it’s uh…
I know just developing it,
00:58:15.000 --> 00:58:19.999
you know, it hasn’t been, hasn’t
been that long. I feel like it’s
00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:24.999
only me now in terms of the bigger picture.
From that point of view,
00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:29.999
I feel totally abandoned.
00:58:30.000 --> 00:58:34.999
[sil.]
00:58:35.000 --> 00:58:39.999
I grew the corporate
00:58:40.000 --> 00:58:44.999
rather quickly the last few years. Now it seems
like we’re turning a corner, it seems like
00:58:45.000 --> 00:58:49.999
we’re just about able to market all that we’re making.
Which means, if we keep improving we should be able to,
00:58:50.000 --> 00:58:54.999
you know, market more. So we’re just
getting ready now to probably take on a
00:58:55.000 --> 00:58:59.999
few more farms for the
first time in a few years.
00:59:00.000 --> 00:59:04.999
Morning Miss. Nelice. Well, I understand
00:59:05.000 --> 00:59:09.999
you might be interested in joining us. Yes,
I’m interested. Doing your cocoa farm.
00:59:10.000 --> 00:59:14.999
Umm… I’d love to see the land.
00:59:15.000 --> 00:59:19.999
And this cocoa farmer cooperated, which I’m
hoping you might join, I started more recently,
00:59:20.000 --> 00:59:24.999
about five years ago.
00:59:25.000 --> 00:59:29.999
Yeah, very much, you know, it’s
organic cocoa farmers co-operative,
00:59:30.000 --> 00:59:35.000
so the main thing is people have to
agree not use any chemicals in the lab.
00:59:40.000 --> 00:59:44.999
When… when what was the last time you
think chemicals got used in the land?
00:59:45.000 --> 00:59:50.000
Never, yeah, well, that’s encouraging.
Which way we’re going?
01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:04.999
Since like, since like all the best farmers
in the cooperative are… are (inaudible),
01:00:05.000 --> 01:00:13.000
you don’t like to sit down?
01:00:20.000 --> 01:00:24.999
To me, it seems like all the
agriculture in Grenada is almost gone.
01:00:25.000 --> 01:00:29.999
Now it’s just maybe there’s some interest in bringing it
back, but to me, it’s been pretty much completely destroyed.
01:00:30.000 --> 01:00:34.999
So for… so for me cocoa is
01:00:35.000 --> 01:00:39.999
what I’m hoping can… can turn
everything around with agriculture.
01:00:40.000 --> 01:00:48.000
But we pay $2, a pound weight.
01:01:00.000 --> 01:01:04.999
Wet cocoa? Yeah, because we want to encourage
people to go organic, we’re making chocolate bars,
01:01:05.000 --> 01:01:10.000
so we can add all that value and then bring that value back
to Grenada, you know, and share it with all the farmers.
01:01:15.000 --> 01:01:19.999
I never say by the grace of God, I
always say by the grace of chocolate.
01:01:20.000 --> 01:01:25.000
Yeah, I don’t believe in God but
I do believe in chocolate. No.
01:01:35.000 --> 01:01:39.999
Yeah, we will try to do it.
If you umm… decide to…
01:01:40.000 --> 01:01:44.999
For too long have we thought of industrialization as
progress, for too long have we thought of corporate
01:01:45.000 --> 01:01:49.999
takeover of production system as
inevitable. I think, humanity
01:01:50.000 --> 01:01:54.999
will not be able to get out of these
multiple problems that we face
01:01:55.000 --> 01:01:59.999
without recognizing that
corporate control over anything.
01:02:00.000 --> 01:02:04.999
Is an aberration that neither democracy
nor human life should tolerate.
01:02:05.000 --> 01:02:09.999
The sustainability to be
something that works,
01:02:10.000 --> 01:02:14.999
everybody has to be a winner. You have the farmers,
you have industry, and you have consumers.
01:02:15.000 --> 01:02:19.999
If one of those pillars is not satisfied,
01:02:20.000 --> 01:02:24.999
is… is not successful. Then,
you can’t have sustainability,
01:02:25.000 --> 01:02:29.999
no matter how you close it or how you make it
look. We are consumers but we’re also citizens.
01:02:30.000 --> 01:02:34.999
We bring our values to our consumer
decisions. We often will pay
01:02:35.000 --> 01:02:39.999
more to express our values, to
express our outrage over… uh…
01:02:40.000 --> 01:02:44.999
over system, or our desire to support one
way of making things and not another.
01:02:45.000 --> 01:02:49.999
And… and this whole food movement going on
here is really about bringing other values
01:02:50.000 --> 01:02:54.999
to these formally narrow consumption
decisions. It doesn’t replace
01:02:55.000 --> 01:02:59.999
voting with your vote, it’s obviously very important
but sometimes you can achieve great change
01:03:00.000 --> 01:03:04.999
by voting with your fork(ph).
They cremated Doug
01:03:05.000 --> 01:03:09.999
and a little bit of the ash, his sister
sent to a company to do this thing.
01:03:10.000 --> 01:03:14.999
I had never heard of, to make these
beads with some decorations, sparkles
01:03:15.000 --> 01:03:19.999
and this white dust which
is uh… Doug’s ashes.
01:03:20.000 --> 01:03:24.999
One tries to have a sense of humor about the most painful things
in life but I, you know, sometimes I, you know, glance over
01:03:25.000 --> 01:03:29.999
and I’m, you know, thinking, brainstorming about how to fix
something here, bring it up thing you wanna be nice to (inaudible),
01:03:30.000 --> 01:03:34.999
what he had thought about it, I look over and like, you know, realize
well. You know, Doug’s in a particular quiet mood today kind of…
01:03:35.000 --> 01:03:39.999
When I get these, you know,
moments of sadness and uh…
01:03:40.000 --> 01:03:44.999
also moments of inspiration, it just
seems like life is so transition. And…
01:03:45.000 --> 01:03:49.999
and as Doug like to say, we’re all, you know,
we’re all dying. Just embrace every moment
01:03:50.000 --> 01:03:54.999
and you… you really don’t know what’s happening next.
You know, in Grenada there is this expressions,
01:03:55.000 --> 01:03:59.999
if you asked someone how they are, they’ll
tend to say they’re good for the time.
01:04:00.000 --> 01:04:08.000
We’re so far.
01:04:20.000 --> 01:04:24.999
[music]
01:04:25.000 --> 01:04:29.999
And it turns out in 2010, we sold well
over a million easy dollars of chocolate
01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:34.999
including our local and export sales. Blows one’s mind, that you can
make a million dollars of chocolate in that little building in a year.
01:04:35.000 --> 01:04:39.999
It’s been my dream for
years to deliver chocolate
01:04:40.000 --> 01:04:44.999
sustainably from island to Island on a sailboat(ph). It’s
also been my dream to sail across the Atlantic one day.
01:04:45.000 --> 01:04:49.999
Relatively recently, a few months ago, I
ran it to these brilliant Dutch fellows
01:04:50.000 --> 01:04:54.999
and have an amazing company called Fair
Transport. They’re coming to Grenada
01:04:55.000 --> 01:04:59.999
in early March and they’re picking up about
eight tons of chocolate bars and me.
01:05:00.000 --> 01:05:04.999
And we’re selling right into New York City, which is
gonna take two or three weeks and we’re gonna drop off
01:05:05.000 --> 01:05:09.999
by the year’s worth of chocolate for
the whole North American market.
01:05:10.000 --> 01:05:14.999
And then, we’re gonna sell across the Atlantic
30 days at sea. And we’re gonna deliver
01:05:15.000 --> 01:05:19.999
the UK whole lot of chocolate to
Portsmouth, England to our UK importer.
01:05:20.000 --> 01:05:24.999
Then we’ll have every single
bar sustainably distributed
01:05:25.000 --> 01:05:30.000
after being made with cocoa
sustainably growing right outside.
Distributor: Bullfrog Films
Length: 68 minutes
Date: 2012
Genre: Expository
Language: English
Grade: 10 - 12, College, Adults
Color/BW:
Closed Captioning: Available
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