Climate Change Chocolate

I came across this curious item while shopping at Shoreline's Central Market, and I figured I'd better bring some home with me and take a closer look.

In general, I'm suspicious of green marketing, especially when it doesn't have the slightest trace of subtlety. I also figured I should taste the stuff before I got snarky about it.

The chocolate itself was perfectly respectable, although I wish they had a variety with a higher cocoa content.

The inner wrapper had all kinds of helpful information to help you reduce your carbon footprint, like "Turn off the lights," and "Ride your Bicycle." (Gee thanks! I'd never thought of that.)

The chocolate bar is a collaborative effort between a New Zealand chocolate company named Bloomsberry, and the organization Terrapass, which sells carbon offsets, an arrangement where you invest in green projects in order to balance the damage your car is doing to the environment. The package says that for every chocolate bar you buy, Terrapass will purchase 133 miles worth of carbon offsets.

I went to their website and did the math. That's 66 cents worth of carbon offsets, out of the $5 cost of the chocolate bar. Now, I'll gladly pay $5 for a great chocolate bar, and this one certainly wasn't bad, but when I want to buy chocolate I'll buy chocolate, and when I want to buy carbon offsets, I'll buy carbon offsets.

Speaking of carbon offsets, a friend of mine likens them to the indulgences that the medieval church sold to sinners: pay this amount, and you'll be absolved!

It also struck me as odd that there wasn't a word on the package about the chocolate being organic or fair trade. Given the other heavy handed environmental claims, it's hard to imagine that they're using fair trade, organic chocolate and simply not saying so.

I buy plenty of chocolate that's not certified fair trade or organic. The way I see it, really fine chocolate takes love and care to produce, and it's not the kind of product that you can make with exploited workers or plantations that are so massive that you have to spray them heavily to keep the pests away. Still, it seems bizarre to me that these guys missed such an obvious opportunity to take their green marketing to a whole new level.