The billion-dollar chocolate industry starts with workers like Abdul. Abdul holds the yellow cocoa pod lengthwise and gives it two quick taps, opening it to show/talk about the white, milky cocoa beans. During a (act of asking questions and trying to find the truth about something) for CNN's Freedom Project to start (doing something) - an (act of asking questions and trying to find the truth about something) that dug deep into the cocoa fields of Ivory Coast - a team of professional CNN editors discovered that child labor (illegally moving things from one place to another) and slavery are common in an industry that produces some of the world's best-known brands. After a series of news reports surfaced in 2001 about egregious violations in the cocoa industry, U.S. lawmakers put enormous pressure on the industry to change. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay “How many people in America know that all that chocolate they eat – the candy and all that wonderful chocolate – is produced by terrible child labor? » But after intense efforts (to convince lawmakers) by the cocoa industry, lawmakers failed to pass a law. What they got were rules of conduct (something you choose to do, but it's not required), signed by the leaders of the chocolate industry, to end the worst forms of labor children “as a matter of extreme importance”. One of the main objectives was to certify that the cocoa trade was free of child labor. “It was about (achieving or effortfully obtaining) an end to child slave labor in the cocoa fields,” Engel said. UNICEF estimates (figures) that almost half a million children work on farms in Ivory Coast, which produces almost 40% of the world's cocoa production. According to the (service company/government unit/power/operation), hundreds of thousands of children, many of them (illegally moving things from one place to another) across borders, are involved in the worst forms of child labor. “I think the situation has gotten better (more and more over time),” said Rabola Kagohi, country director of the International Cocoa Effort to Start (Do Something), the chocolate industry's response to combat child labor and (illegally moving things from one place to another). “I would have liked you to speak to some planters.” None of the farmers CNN spoke with in the heart of the cocoa growing zone said they had ever been contacted by the International Cocoa Effort to start (doing something), the government or the chocolate companies. about a child (illegally moving objects from one place to another). He cannot clear the cocoa fields without cutting himself. During the harvest season, he works day after day chopping cocoa pods. But they could do better.” One of the main players in the Ivorian cocoa trade is, as expected, the Ivorian government. But government leaders blame the cocoa industry's problems on politics and war. “Thirty years (without having a stable and trustworthy government) has caused a lot of damage to our (process of making, selling and buying things) in general, and to the agricultural part/area in particular, and more particularly at the..