Our "Next Level" Responsible Chocolate™ Protocols
While there are programs such as the Rainforest Alliance® certification, some of these have faced challenges and we have crafted our own additional set of "best practices" some of which utilize our own in-house technology.
Benefits For Workers On Participating Responsible Chocolate™ farms
1) GPS coordinates of our farmers are logged - this enables us to confirm workers' time on-site.
2) Workers are paid "digitally" and directly, after each shift (prior methods involved cash payments which did not assure workers of full payment for hours worked).
3) Workers "credential" in to their work sites, even in remote areas, via GPS timestamps. (Coming Soon)
4) Our biodiversity requirement of participating farmers means more work more often for more people.
Participating Responsible Chocolate™ Farm Owners' Requirements & Benefits
1) Farm owners provide assurance of no forced labor or child labor to become part of the Responsible Chocolate™ program and network of farms.
2) Farm owners are trained in planting techniques to reduce the water consumption of their cocoa plants.
3) Farm owners are trained in enhanced biodiversity techniques to augment the current approach of planting corn (to eat) in between cocoa plants.
4) These enhanced biodiversity techniques that we teach:
- improve the health of each species on the property and the surrounding ecology
- increase the yield and revenue of the farmers land
- employ more workers more often (cocoa is harvested just once per year; all biodiversity crops are harvested every 60 to 90 days)
- farmers that implement these techniques receive a financial bonus for each harvest
- we perform spot-checks via drone from time to time to ensure compliance of participating farmers
5) Farmers place sensors on their farm to monitor crops which will improve yield and in turn revenue; "alerts" are sent to their smartphones to include tips and timing for planting, pruning, spraying, tilling and harvesting as well as soil testing/monitoring to reduce the unnecessary use of water for irrigation. (Coming Soon)
6) By participating in our Responsible Chocolate™ program, farmers are able to show their community, country and the world that they are part of a leading-edge organization within the centuries-old cocoa industry that is moving the sector forward in innovative ways which leads to a premium being paid for their particular cocoa beans and the good/products the help to make.
Participating Processor Responsible Chocolate™ Requirements
1) once harvested, our beans are sent to processors who provide assurances of no forced labor or child labor.
2) we spot-check all of our approved processors from time to time to make sure the guidelines are being adhered to
3) we segregated our beans at processing locations so they are not co-mingled with "non-responsibly sourced" beans
4) we utilize 100% recycled and bio-degradeable packaging and paper goods
5) each pallet and package for Responsible Chocolate™ good and products contain RFID chips and are "checked-in" and "checked-out" via blockchain to establish and irrefutable chain of custody (Coming Soon)
6) temperature-sensors within our containers assure freshness when shipments of products that benefit from refrigeration require
7) each shipping container of Responsible Chocolate™ goods and products has a real-time Cocoa-Tracker™ affixed to it so our customers and wholesale purchaser can see when a shipment is arriving - this ensures freshness.