The Greenest Chocolate, by Amanda Blue Zheutlin

So here is another long trail of production which has many places for unfortunate eco-acts to occurs: from the cacao plant to the chocolate bar in the store. "Most chocolate sold in the U.S. comes from cocoa farms where farmers work in unsafe conditions, receive below poverty wages, many of them children under 14 years old who are forced to work and denied education," said editor Tex Dworkin of the Global Exchange Fair Trade Online Store. "Chocolate companies are not held accountable for sourcing practices, and despite their knowledge about the travesties that occur on cocoa farms, they lack the will to change."

While chocolate giants like Hershey's and M&Ms are fueling this industry, there is a much better option: buy fair trade chocolate. Less than 1% of the $60 billion chocolate market is fair trade, so it is especially important to support it. One of the companies I found particularly inspiring was Original Beans. Their chocolate is extremely expensive, but it's to cover all the seen and unseen costs of production, which is an amazing example to set.

Their price reflects the "true cost" which means to them, "We leave the Earth to next generations as we found it, and perhaps even healthier." How do they do that? They look at every step. In order to grow the cacao plants, they need an immense amount of rain which only comes in places where they are intense rainforests -- thus, Original Beans protects and plants all the trees it uses for the rain. They also use a fully naturally degradable, non-toxic packaging with recycled paper, soy ink, and natural glue. And lastly, they pay their workers high prices for "ecological conservation and quality processing." That's pretty sweet chocolate right?

It's all about taking responsibility. The first step you can take is by joining Get Green Music and learning tons of tips to live every day greener than before. You can also download your music here where some of the proceeds go to a green charity.