Food and slavery

Paying attention to food laws
Every day we pay attention to the food laws from Leviticus 11. Many of us have discovered the joy of being dedicated to God and His perfect laws for life and we do not feel a burden to apply these laws in our lives. On the contrary. And still living in a Western country and keeping these laws does not always mean that we eat kosher, I think.Children in slavery
Slavery is at this moment being used in the world by the growing greediness of people. It is illegal, but it is being used in even greater way that ever. Innocent children and women are being brought into unwilled slavery. 10 million children are working as slaves, while even greater numbers are being used every day.
Particularly I want to talk about the circumstances of people being in slavery in the cacao plantation. They work in cocoa plantations in countries as Ivory Coast. Food that seems to be right can become impure by the way it is being produced with the misuse of  human lifes.We love chocolate
In Europe in one year per person is eaten 9,9 kg chocolate. This accounts for the countries: England, Belgium and Switzerland. In the U.S.A. this is: 5,4 kg per person. In Holland: 4,7 kg per person. I think that we have to combine Biblical kosher food with rules of food that is ‘society responsibility’ food-rules.
For I think that food can loose its kosher stamp if it is gained with misuse of human lives and resources.

Business with a conscience
You might have heard of the term: ‘Doing business with taking responsibility for society’? This means that we are watching closely to the ways we are treating our employees and the circumstances they are working for us. By watching this we often can improve living-circumstances of our fellow humans.

Chocolate Criminal

A certain Dutch man named Teun van de Keuken was shocked by the slavery of children who were abducted from their homes and being enslaved for the produce of cocoa. He called himself a “criminal in the chocolate industry”. He wanted a court justice verdict about the issue of slavery in order to show the world that this form of producing cocoa was criminal and that he was a chocolate-criminal. It was a long route. Mr. Van de Keuken had hire lawyers in order to show the world the terrible situation of this form of child slavery. In January 2008 Teun van de Keuken got the international recognition having a chocolate brand named: “Brand with a conscience”. He received a price for it. This same price was received 2004 by Max Havelaar. Read more on Mr. Van de Keuken’s website: www.chocolonely.nl
To watch a shocking movie about this form of slavery:

Watching closely our brands
To my surprise this brand Tonychocolonely has not received a official ‘kosher’ certificate from the rabbinate in Holland, however the ingredients are pure. We as believers in Yeshua prefer a brand with pure ingredients with a conscience above a brand with only pure ingredients with the certificate: kosher. Maybe this has shocked you as much as it shocked me. It made me aware of watching my shoplist even more!Fairfood
Eelco Fortuyn lives in The Netherlands. He started the organization Fairfood. Fairfood is a non-profit campaign and lobby organisation that encourages and enables consumers to eat and drink sustainable products. These are products whose production and trade contribute to the eradication of hunger and poverty in developing countries, and to the sustainability of production chains. In short: eat fair, beat hunger. Go to: www.fairfood.org