Chocolate Nations

Orla Ryan’s Chocolate Nations exposes the true story of how the treat we love makes it onto our supermarket shelves. From bean to bar – where does your chocolate come from? The very word “chocolate” hints of the forbidden and a taste of the decadent. Yet the story behind the chocolate bar is rarely one of luxury. From the thousands of children who work on plantations to the smallholders who harvest the beans, Chocolate Nations reveals the hard economic realities of our favorite sweet. This vivid and gripping exploration of the reasons behind farmer poverty includes the human stories of the producers and traders at the heart of the West African industry. Orla Ryan shows how only a tiny fraction of the cash we pay for a chocolate bar actually makes it back to the farmers, and she sheds light on what Fairtrade really means on the ground.