Secondhand research of the cocoa industry grew stale last August for George Washington University students Maddison Bruer, Kelsey Desmond, Kerry Scanlon and Soizic Hagege.
Then they had a sweet idea. Why not travel to Ecuador and conduct on-the-ground research at cocoa farms?
“It made sense to see a cocoa farm because we were making all of these hypotheses and assumptions about what existed on these farms and why they operate the way they do,” said Ms. Bruer, a senior in the Elliott School of International Affairs. “We wanted to tour the farms, see how they worked, talk to workers and learn firsthand how cocoa is produced.”
Ms. Bruer and the team, each representing different disciplines and fields of study, independently secured $10,000 in funding and planned the trip, which included site visits to three cocoa farms—La Hacienda El Castillo in Guayaquil and Rio Muchado and a small family-owned farm in Canoa.
Nearly five months and 3,000 miles later, they arrived at the lush green La Hacienda El Castillo. The 100-hectare farm was the first stop on a 12-day excursion up the coast to investigate labor conditions and the sustainability of the cocoa trade’s supply chain.
In footage shot by Ms. Hagege—a second year Elliott School graduate student—, one of the 38 farm workers swung a straight edged machete into the top of a large red cocoa pod. The seeds revealed are the fuel for an industry that recently put Ecuador in the spotlight for out-producing Brazil.
The industry also is responsible for more than a century of forced child labor, according to the International Labor Rights Forum.
The team’s research will be compiled for an end-of-semester presentation to José Andrés and the ThinkFoodGroup, thanks to John Forrer, the associate director of the GW School of Business Institute for Corporate Responsibility and research professor of strategic management and public policy.
During the “World on a Plate” course last spring, Dr. Forrer challenged Mr. Andrés to sustainably source cocoa used by the ThinkFoodGroup. Once Mr. Andrés agreed to consider recommendations from the institute, that charge evolved into a research project to make a business case for sustainable cocoa.
Ecuador is responsible for 65 percent of the world market of fine aromatic cocoa. The students said that in their travels they discovered a wealth of sustainable cocoa practices in place in Ecuador to protect the environment and maintain the integrity of the supply chain.
Soon after, Dr. Forrer tapped the four students and GWSB junior Hudson Herring for a research team to examine every level of the ThinkFoodGroup’s cocoa trade procurement process, trace the supply chains and the certifications of the different farms.
“When you consider what makes a sustainable supply chain, you consider the labor issue—concerns of trafficking and forced labor and poor wages and conditions—and then you also look at the environmental aspects,” Dr. Forrer said.
“No responsible company would sell chocolate from a farm with forced labor.… We are looking at this issue from a business perspective and asking: ‘How does a company monitor and make an authentic claim about the sustainability of their supply chains?’”
According to Ms. Desmond, a senior in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, Ecuador emerged as a destination because it produces 65 percent of the world market of fine cocoa. She added that, from their perspective, the cocoa farms in Ecuador appear to be operating in a sustainable way.
Ms. Bruer said the farms were largely open to visitors. Ms. Hagege said that a highlight was the immersive experience of learning about permaculture and sustainable agriculture from workers at Farm Rio Muchacho.
“We have been doing a lot of comparisons between our experience in Ecuador and what we imagine things to be like in West Africa—it serves as a great counter-point,” Ms. Desmond said. “This trip is a great grounding point going forward in our research.”
Dr. Forrer said that watching the team conduct interdisciplinary research by applying their various study focuses has been rewarding.
“Looking at this process from different disciplines has really helped them see how difficult it is for companies to ensure a sustainable supply chain,” Dr. Forrer said. “Doing it this way has allowed for this process of discovery that they wouldn’t have gotten if they were learning in the classroom—I hope we can continue this ‘research abroad’ approach.”
Ms. Scanlon, a second year M.B.A. candidate, agrees.
“So much of the research out there is focused on West Africa and Ghana because that is where a lot of the problems are, so you hear that these local farms are impoverished,” she said. “We were able to talk to a friend of the farmer, and he told us that the family farm was doing well. I knew that farmers were better off in Ecuador, but I didn’t realize how much until this trip.”