Bextaboo

I recently read an article  by Gregory Myers, that provided random facts about chocolate.  Beware, what you’ll find there is depressing.  From slave labor to fraudulent products, the cons of the chocolate industry are pretty heavy.
Slave labor in food production, like chocolate, is not something newly discovered.  Cattle farms in Brazil and sugarcane producing Latin America have both been known to use forced labor or even child slaves…and people have been deceiving others over the quality of their product or services for centuries.

One of the listings explained that chocolate manufacturing companies in America tried to convince the FDA to allow them to replace cocoa butter with Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (HVO =Trans Fat, which has been known to increase risk of coronary heart disease).  In 2007, a petition was brought to the FDA by people representing the Chocolate Manufacturers Assn. (which includes Hershey, Nestlé, and Archer Daniels Midland), the Grocery Manufacturers Assn., the Snack Food Assn. and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Assn. as well as several more, that requested to basically blindside the public…

According to their petition on file at the FDA:

“Consumer expectations still define the basic nature of a food. There are, however, no generally held consumer expectations today concerning the precise technical elements by which commonly recognized, standardized foods are produced. Consumers, therefore, are not likely to have formed expectations as to production methods, aging time or specific ingredients used for technical improvements, including manufacturing efficiencies.”

As Myers points out in his article, in more simplified terms, they’re saying we really wouldn’t notice if they used something lesser in quality than cocoa butter.

What these people attempted to do was/is incredibly wrong and I firmly believe if their petition had passed, we’d be that much closer to a Soylent Green future.  But what is even more unfortunate than that revelation, is that the people who created the petition are fairly correct.  I can’t help but think about the fact that the average American typically does not like to question where our favorite foods and luxuries come from.  We don’t like to feel guilty…it’s just such a pesky emotion.

When a person first discovers the awful truth about the production and manufacturing methods (sometimes the ingredients) of something they enjoy (perhaps it’s brought to us by slave labor, animal cruelty, wars, etc) they are faced with just a couple of choices.
They can stop using the controversial item, sacrificing the joy and convenience they get from said item and accept that this may also cause your family and social circle to think of you as pretentious and a “Debbie Downer” or the newly enlightened person can continue to use the item, eat the delicious snackies and refuse to accept/acknowledge the facts, while the awful truth battles on as they embrace sweet denial and claim blissful ignorance.  It’s possible they may also not want to upset the applecart, share the miserable guilt of the truth….because no one likes to be the messenger when the message contains bad news (except people on the news…they can’t get enough bad news).

Links:

*Chocolate facts by Gregory Myers: http://listverse.com/2013/02/18/10-fascinating-facts-about-the-world-of-chocolate/

*Like Oil For Chocolate by Kerry Trueman: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kerry-trueman/like-oil-for-chocolate_b_46693.html

*Soylent Green:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070723/

*Is There Slavery in Your Chocolate? by John Robbins:  http://www.johnrobbins.info/blog/is-there-slavery-in-your-chocolate/

*13 products by Ryan McCarthy:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/18/child-labor-products_n_798601.html#s210960&title=13_Carpets

*Slave Labor in America by Leonard Doyle:  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/slave-labour-that-shames-america-765881.html

*END IT Movement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=11d5Z_hPlto

*I’m With Lincoln: http://slaveryfootprint.org/#sthash.HkHxgny0.dpbs

*Monsato Abuse by Anthony Gucciardi:  http://naturalsociety.com/monsanto-abusing-illegal-workers-in-slave-like-conditions/

*Hershey Still using forced labor by Tom Hals: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/02/hershey-child-labor_n_2060702.html

*Hershey to End Use of Slaves by 2020 by Andri Antoniades:  http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/10/06/hershey-vows-stop-using-child-slave-labor-eight-more-years

*Importation of Slavery by The Food Power Project:  http://www.foodispower.org/importing_slavery.php

Some of you know my lack of affection for Seth MacFarlane….however, today, I’m actually going to come to his defense.
It’s not easy hosting an event that is notoriously boring and predictable, sexist and racist (I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch the Oscars in over a decade, relying on video clips and transcripts from the evening’s events is plenty enough Oscar time for me).
So I appreciated Seth’s off-color humor, for the most part that is….some of his jokes were certainly cringe-worthy.  But it was still better than that train wreck from 2011’s ceremony  *flashes a side eye of disapproval in the direction of James Franco*

In regards to MacFarlane’s song “We Saw Your Boobs”, I applaud him.  For the people who were watching and were offended by this number, I say suck it up.
I don’t understand why any of those actresses were affronted by his song anyways. He simply just pointed out the facts, that these “ladies” signed the Hollywood “Nudity Clause” and flashed their goods for a movie.
Those actresses took their clothes off for money but claim it was for the artistic development of their character or because it was a necessity to the movie plot (please, you’re nothing more than a glorified stripper with a script and famous friends).
If anyone should be chafed, it’s the women watching these movies.  Many of these actresses masquerade as strong female characters, but typically they always fall into the same stereotypes women have been subjected to for years (such as, our bodies and faces are more important than our abilities).  They nip and tuck, plump their lips with collagen, turn their faces into emotionless boards via Botox, take off their clothes for a role and then demand to be taken seriously.  Heaven forbid a woman be expected to depend on their talents alone.
But, Hollywood isn’t exactly known for appreciating women.  In the 85 years of the Oscars, only four women have ever been nominated for Best Director and just one woman has won the coveted award (Kathryn Bigelow for “The Hurt Locker”).  Someone please explain to me why Kimberly Peirce wasn’t nominated for “Boys Don’t Cry” in 2000 or why Patty Jenkins didn’t get a nod for “Monster”.  In my opinion, Mary Harron deserved a nomination for “American Psycho”….but the Academy failed all of these women.

It’s not just women the Academy fails either.  No African-American has ever won Best Director and only two have ever been nominated (both men).  Spike Lee has been directing since the 1970’s, and yet none of the 50 titles he’s directed has ever received a nomination.  Out of the 19 times a black man has been nominated for an Oscar, only four have won and out of the 10 black women who have been nominated, only one has won, Halle Berry.  Interestingly enough, out of all the black women ever nominated for Best Actress, she’s the only one who’s ever taken her clothes off for a role, and it was for the movie that won her the Oscar, Monster’s Ball (Coincidence?  Not likely).  How was Whoopi Goldberg’s supporting role in “Ghost” Oscar worthy (she won) and her leading role in “The Color Purple” not?  I like Sandra Bullock, she did a great job in “The Blindside”….but she didn’t deserve to win Best Actress in 2010, Gabourey Sidibe should have won for “Precious”.

So you see, though Seth MacFarlane may have come off as insensitive, perhaps sexist or racist….he was really just carrying on the Academy’s traditions….and we movie goers have been supporting those disgusting traditions with our money for years, whether we intend to or not.

Bravo MacFarlane.  I actually respect you more today.

“NEVER lie to someone who trusts you, NEVER trust someone who lies to you.”

If only these words were spoken to me before….

Dammit D, your sense came too late.