How MrBeast and Feastables are fighting child labor in West Africa

MrBeast has shared three critical actions his chocolate company, Feastables, is taking to fight child labor in cocoa farms across West Africa. The announcement comes less than two months after the world-renowned YouTuber appeared on a podcast, where he spoke passionately about his mission to make chocolate sourcing more ethical and sustainable.

The chocolate industry has long faced criticism for relying on cocoa sourced from farms where child labor is common. There is a growing pressure for large chocolate brands to take responsibility for their supply chains. MrBeast is hoping to use his influence - and his chocolate company Feastables - to break the status quo.

In the video, MrBeast opens with two hard-hitting facts: over 1.5 million children are currently in child labor, and in cocoa farming communities, 45% of children are involved in illegal labor.

The statistics MrBeast references in the video are from an October 2020 report by NORC at the University of Chicago. The report found that nearly 60% of the world's cocoa is produced in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, and that an estimated 1.56 million children are engaged in child labor in those two countries alone. A staggering figure.

The report also references a survey from 2018/2019 relating to Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, that estimated 45% of children were working in child labor on cocoa farms; 34% in Côte d’Ivoire and 55% in Ghana.

According to MrBeast, Feastables have started three initiatives to help kids in cocoa farms in West Africa.

The Living Income Reference Price is a benchmark created by Fairtrade to reflect the amount of income a farmer needs to afford a decent standard of living, including food, housing, education, and healthcare, which MrBeast mentions in his video. It also takes into account local costs, household size, and average farm yields.

The Living Income Reference Price for cocoa in both Ghana and Cote D'Ivoire was increased in Jan. 2025 and will take effect in October 2025:

While MrBeast did not share the figure in the video, the data is available on the Fairtrade website.

MrBeast explained in his video that 100% of cocoa used to create Feastables chocolate is Fairtrade certified. Fairtrade products signify that the product has been deemed to be ethically produced with fair treatment and fair compensation to the farmers and workers. Fairtrade products are fairly common in Europe (e.g. Germany, France, U.K) and North America.

You can spot a Fairtrade product by the following symbol:

The third and final point MrBeast mentioned in the video relates to Child Monitoring and Remediation Systems (CLMRS). This is perhaps the most obscure reference if you're not familiar with the topic.

These systems aim to not only find and identify child labor, but also try to resolve the root issues causing it such as poverty or lack of education. Once a child laborer is found, a CLMRS - for example Nestle's CLMRS - can aid in giving them school supplies, necessary transport, money for school fees or even family training for alternative sources of income.

Systems such as these are incredibly important to end the cycle, and proof that MrBeast has a long-term vision for tackling a major problem in cocoa farms, especially in West Africa.

MrBeast has raised the issue of rampant child labor in the chocolate industry before, and seems to be a topic close to his heart. Back in February, MrBeast appeared as a guest on the Diary of a CEO Podcast with Steven Bartlett, where he shared a shocking statistic.

“I realized 46% of West African labor on cocoa farms is child labor. I was like, that can’t be accurate,” he said. “Then I started digging deeper and deeper, and was like... holy sh*t, almost half of labor is just child labor.”

He also recalled a meeting with a major U.S. supplier. When he asked if they could pay more to ensure child-labor-free cocoa, the answer was simply “No.” That response, he said, “pissed me off,” and only deepened his determination to change the system.

"What we need to do in my head, is reach a billion dollars a year in revenue as fast as possible while also being ethically sourced, and being profitable," said MrBeast in February. "A big part of it is we have to be profitable while doing it so I point and say 'we achieved scale ethically and we're making money, it's not that you can't do it, it's just you don't want to'."

MrBeast closed the topic by saying he hoped he could shine a light on the issue using his platform.

Feastables is a chocolate brand co-founded by MrBeast and former RxBar president Jim Murray. While it initially launched in the U.S., it has since expanded to the likes of the U.K., Canada, Australia, Malaysia, and India.

You can learn more about Feastables’ ethical sourcing efforts on their official website, or support ethical chocolate by looking for the Fairtrade label when you do your next weekly shop.