Chocolate nations

I think the strength of this book is that it introduces the reader to the complexity of the issue. Politics and poverty interlaced with human need, greed, and the rights of children are not easy issues and the problems are clearly not going to be solved by buying one particular brand of chocolate over another. Which leaves the reader with an uneasy feeling, particularly if they are supporters of the Fair Trade initiative. My criticism of the book lies with the writing, which is sometimes amateurish, surprising for a journalist with experience. Maybe the book form is not her strength. And Orla Ryan does not always present the facts and the examples clearly, resulting in confusion over what is happening and what the causes of the problems really are. However, it's good to have the information she has researched, and gives the reader something to think about. Perhaps the next book to read on the subject is Carol Off's Bitter Chocolate published by University of Queensland Press.

Thanks very much to Zed Books for supplying the review copy. ( )

This book was interesting, but I thought it was poorly written. For example, the author mentions that farmers don't necessarily sell their cocoa beans to Fair Trade organizations because there are an abundance of buyers, and at the end of the book she says that there are very few buyers and that this is a bad thing for farmers. Which is it? Also, she alternately calls farmers smallholders, producers and farmers. I knew smallholders was a synonym, but until the end of the book I thought the term producers referred to a completely different entity in the world of cocoa, which is not very well explained in this book. Finally, the writing itself was poorly executed, especially for a journalist. Several times while reading a sentence I would think to myself "didn't I just read that?" and sure enough, almost the same exact wording was used in a similar sentence earlier in the paragraph.

Chocolate Nations brings up a lot of issues but gives them relatively short space, which makes sense for a book that isn't super in-depth. This does, however, make you want to know more about something only for the topic to change. An entire chapter is devoted to child slavery which in essence said "it doesn't really exist and children only work because people are in a lot of poverty."

I guess this book would have been better off as a short article (and better suited to the author who is primarily a journalist for Reuters) or else a long, well explained, in-depth look into the cocoa industry. For now, I have a slightly better understanding of the issues than I did before, but more lingering questions than answers. ( )

I received this book as part of the LibraryThing early reviewers program. I'd heard a little bit about the chocolate trade and the issue of child labour and slave labour associated with it through worldvision and our unshackled group at church so I was pleased to be able to get a copy of this book written by a journalist with first hand experience in West Africa.

Orla Ryan gives an excellent overview of the history of the chocolate trade and the politics and systems in these countries. As always power, the grabbing for and the holding onto, are a large motivation behind the injustices perpetrated in these countries. While fair-trade has been beneficial in some areas, the real answer in long term action and empowerment of the farmers who make a living growing chocolate. Highly recommended to gain further insight into a complex issue. ( )

One I got through Early Reviewers; apologies for this very review being late.

This was not a long book, but interesting. It covers enough different aspects of the subject to render the reader well informed in a general sort of way, though a heavier volume could get into much more depth on any of these aspects. Not being particularly well informed about the history of West Africa, I found it to be at a great level.

Ryan also endeavors not to spend too much time moralizing. The issues of agriculture, trade, land ownership, and conflict are complex; she not just acknowledges but declares that problems won't be solved by buying only fair trade, or by boycotting particular corporations.

Well referenced and with a good index. Including a few maps might have been beneficial -- the text describes geography, migration, cities, and the reader is left responsible for finding the visual aid.

We have all heard opinions and not so welcoming stories of the fast food industry, various toy industries, and clothing companies. However, how many of us know much about how chocolate comes into the United States? How many consumers know that a farmer only makes around 4 percent of the price of a small chocolate bar? This insightful and fascinating story tells the tale of political strife in Ghana and how peasant farmers are affected.