Examine the map of North American mountain ranges. A map titled Major Mountain Ranges of North America. One mountain range is from Washington to California. The second mountain range is from Montana to New Mexico. A third mountain range is in Arkansas. The fourth mountain range is from Maine to Tennessee.

Which mountain range is located closest to North America’s east coast?

Cascade Range
Andes Mountains
Rocky Mountains
Appalachian Mountains

Chocolate has an unfortunate, frustrating, and surprising background. When taking a bite of a kitkat bar, a hershey's chocolate or a chocolate cake, the chocolate being used was most likely a product of child labor. Child labor in the chocolate/cocoa industry is something that has gone on for quite some time. Only recently was it brought to the attention of the public about West African cocoa farming and the trafficking that went on there.

West African child trafficking is a big part of the cocoa industry. Children are trafficked around places like Ghana and the Ivory coast in order to farm cocoa. This labor is forced labor. Bryan O'Keefe says that from the information gathered from the International Labor Organization, that around 5.5 million out of the 21 million people in forced labor are children (5). He also gathered that "there were roughly 12,000 child laborers in Ivory Coast who had been trafficked" in Ivory Coast alone in the year 2002 (5). With most of the children's lives spent working, most children "have never been to school" (O'Keefe 1).

Children forced to harvest cocoa in the West African region have been exposed to many things. From using machetes and blades to "hauling 100-pound bags of beans", conditions are not easy for these kids.(O'Keefe 2) They work in extreme heat with no rest most days and are beaten if they do otherwise. These kids work for little or no pay on top of it all. Some were sold into labor from their families while others do it for the little pay or by force.

Child labor has lead to several movements, legal actions, statements, and political leads since news came out. There were several attacks toward chocolate companies throughout the world about how they were getting their cocoa as "more than 70% of the world’s cocoa is grown in the region (Western Africa), and the vast majority of that supply comes from two countries: Ivory Coast and Ghana, which together produce 60% of the global total" (O'Keefe 1). With this came several sustainability programs launched from many companies such as Nestle who also helped build schools in the Lakota and Ivory Coast areas (O'Keefe 7). Other companies such as Hershey's and Mars have also launched such programs.

Awareness and improvement has definitely come from the amount of coverage and education to the public about this issue and has improved conditions in many places. Although there are many who are still being victimized from child labor, it is something that has become more known and talked about as well as looked to stop. Things seem to be improving rather than declining in recent years from the help of the chocolate companies' sustainability programs and other movements. The help is going into the right direction.

Explanation:

Edgenuity