Sales of the Divine brand fair-trade chocolate are set to increase 15 per cent over the holiday season, suggesting that consumers extend the season of goodwill to cocoa farmers around the world, as well as their own families.

While the Ebenezer Scrooge figures in this world bemoan the "rampant consumerism" that has become part of Christmas in the Western world, let's not forget that intelligent shopping choices help support some of the poorest labourers in the world.

Chocolate munchers in the US and Europe are often blissfully unaware that African cocoa farmers often spend most of their days cultivating the crop for a mere pittance...

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