Valentine’s Day almost qualifies as a national holiday. Love’s in the air and more than $1 billion in candy is flying off U.S. shelves, most of it women’s number one favorite–chocolate. But how much do we know about this sweet we treat ourselves to on a near-daily basis?For instance, few may know that cocoa contains nearly twice the disease-fighting antioxidant value of red wine, three times that of green tea. Chocolate improves blood flow and calms stress. No wonder it makes us feel good!

Yet there’s a dark side to this seductively rich indulgence. And we’re not talking calories, or the flavor of the bar.

Sixty countries supply cocoa beans for the $60 billion annual retail chocolate business. But six, Africa’s Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil and Cameroon, account for more than 80 percent of production. And the Ivory Coast, where 43 percent of beans originate, relies on the servitude of more than 200,000 children, all of whom should be in school instead of pressed to labor under dangerous conditions.

Impoverished cocoa farmers around the globe struggle to survive on $30 to $110 a year while traders and manufacturers typically claim 92 to 94 percent of profits. So farmers must push to maximize production, clearing forest and liberally using pesticides at great personal and planetary cost. Thank goodness we’ve a solution at hand for this far-from-sweet situation. We can simply buy only chocolate that carries both “Fair Trade” and “Certified Organic” logos.

Since 2000, fair trade groups like TransFair USA have been working directly with cocoa farmers and local chocolate cooperatives, educating communities on sustainable agricultural practices, prohibiting child labor and paying growers a fair-market guaranteed price. They track each unit of product from local producers through importers, manufacturers and distributors.

“Where other farmers get about $160 per metric ton of beans, fair-trade farmers selling through cooperatives typically are paid $225 to $300 per ton,” reports J. Ganes Consulting. Profits can benefit local communities, supplying potable water, sanitation facilities and schools.

Fair trade chocolate, though still just one percent of world sales, signals a wake-up call for manufacturers. “The bigger companies feel obligated to make a least a token effort [to curb abuses], which we regard as a huge success,” says Rodney North of Equal Exchange.

A Fair Trade 70+ percent cocoa product costs about the same as designer chocolates,

at $3 to $3.75 a bar. But oh, the rewards. A healthful one-inch square satisfies so completely that a single bar easily lasts a week.

Sources: www.CoopAmerica.org, www.Grist.org, www.USAToday.com, International Institute of Tropical www.Agriculture, VegetarianTimes.com.

Test of a Good Chocolate Bar

Eat chocolate at room temperature. Don’t refrigerate.

Snap in half and watch for a clean break.

Inhale the aroma along the break. Fine chocolate smells like cocoa.

Taste a small piece at a time. Placed on the tongue, pressed against the roof of the mouth, it should begin to dissolve.

Chew and swallow. Enjoy the smooth feel. Good chocolate leaves no wax behind.

Appreciate the slightly fruity aftertaste.

Repeat to heart’s content.

Favorite Gourmet Chocolate Brands

Art Bars
www.IthacaFineChocolates.com

Dagoba Organic Chocolates
www.DagobaChocolate.com

Divine Bars
www.DivineChocolate.com

Ecco Bella
www.EccoBella.com

Equal Exchange
www.EqualExchange.com

Green & Black’s
www.GreenAndBlacks.com

Omanhene Cocoa Bean Co.
www.Omanhene.com

Rapunzel
www.Rapunzel.com

Shaman Chocolates
www.ShamanChocolates.com

For more, see www.FairTradeFederation.com