Go Fair Trade with Your Treats to Protect Farmers and Children
The scariest thing at Halloween should be the little ghosts, ghouls and goblins that come to your door asking for treats. Unfortunately, if you are handing out chocolates you picked up from the local grocery store, the treats you are giving out may be what’s truly scary.
Big Chocolate = Big Problems
That’s because most chocolate comes from the west coast of Africa, where farmers are paid very little money for their cocoa, and child labor and deforestation is rampant. It’s possible that the chocolate you are handing out to a little kid comes from cocoa harvested by another child who is not much older. And, the cocoa trees may have been doused in pesticides, poisoning the land and the workers.
Major chocolate companies take in billions of dollars in sales, while farmers and families that make the crucial raw material go deeper and deeper into poverty and the land is destroyed.
Green America is a partner in the International Chocolate Scorecard, and the 2025 Edition found that several major Halloween faves were sub-par or sad:
Shift Your Halloween Chocolate from Exploitation to Fair Trade
Green America and our allies actively work to get the giants of the chocolate industry to improve labor conditions on cocoa plantations and improve environmental sustainability, and thanks to tens of thousands of consumers like you speaking out, we are seeing progress.
If you want to make sure that the chocolate you hand out this Halloween promotes fair labor, and is either organic or non-GMO verified, make sure to pick fair trade options this Halloween.
Equal Exchange is a certified member of Green America’s Green Business Network with delicious, fair trade options for Halloween treats.
Equal Exchange is a long-time leader in providing fair trade chocolates from farmer cooperatives around the world. They have Organic Chocolate Minis (($42 plus shipping) that features 150 bite-sized chocolates (either Dark Chocolate or Milk Chocolate). That way you can give tasty ethical chocolates to kids.
Tony’s Chocolonely is a leader in Fair Trade chocolate that pays farmers a living income premium on top of the Fairtrade premium – so famers are getting a fair deal. Tony’s sells pouches with 14 pieces of milk, caramel, and mixed chocolate for $6.99 each plus shipping.
Alter Eco provides chocolates that are Fair for Life certified and USDA organic. Their Silk Velvet Truffles come individually wrapped and are $54.99 for 60 pieces. And they offer many more flavors of truffles.
Get your Halloween Chocolate Early
Make sure to order your fair trade chocolate early so it arrives on time, and order extra because you and your family will want to sample these Halloween treats yourselves. After all, the more you eat or give away, the more you benefit farmers.
All Year Long
For the rest of year, check out all these brands of fair trade, direct trade, organic chocolates.
And for which brands to avoid, this chocolate scorecard reveals all.
--Written by Todd Larsen, Executive Co-Director for Consumer & Corporate Engagement
