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They should call it trip or treat, our 4-year-old quips, struggling with the tail of her hand-me-down mermaid costume, while her baby brother trips over his duck costume. More safety pins to the rescue, is my standard trip or treat fix-it. My husband prefers duct tape.

I wish all solutions were as simple. As parents, wed like to preserve a simple childhood tradition of greeting neighbors and enjoying treats. But as citizens, we must weigh the dark side of those sweets. Concerns about child labor, slavery and exploitative conditions in the African cocoa trade make trick-or-treat bittersweet. How can we avoid tripping into moral perils while enjoying holiday traditions?

More chocolate is sold at Halloween than at any other time of year. Chocolate sales were $14.4 billion in 2004, as Americans consume nearly 12 pounds of chocolate per person per year. Chocolate consumption in rich countries should be good news for the worlds poor. The cocoa beans that make chocolate can be grown only in a narrow band near the equator, a slice of the planet home to many of the worlds poor. Yet chocolate profits go predominantly to manufacturing and marketing companies in the first world, rather than cocoa farmers in the developing world. Instead of benefiting from the cocoa trade, many cocoa growers suffer exploitation.

Africa leads the world in cocoa production, growing over 76 percent of the planets total output. Four of the five top cocoa-growing countries are in Africa: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria. Ivory Coast alone is responsible for 43 percent of world cocoa production, yet the country is extremely poor and becoming poorer. More than 44 percent of Ivorians have incomes below the poverty line, and the country ranks near the bottom in the report released by Tulane University lauds the progress on other fronts.

In a meeting of the African Cocoa Summit last month, Ghanas President John Agyekum Kufuor told a different story. Although countries have now ratified the International Labor Organizations Raise Money Right program, groups can raise money for their organization and raise awareness about fair trade as a way to fight global poverty. Winners of the C.R.S. Raise Money Right contests earn prizes, including trips to Ghana to visit the cocoa cooperative themselves.

As we prepare for the onslaught of the trip or treaters, we can use the holiday to stand in solidarity with children in poverty around the world and make chocolate a sweeter experience for people on both ends of the global supply chain.

This article appears in October 22 2007.

Dr. Maryann Cusimano Love is an Associate Professor of International Relations in the Politics Department of The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. She is also a Fellow at the Commission on International Religious Freedom. She teaches graduate and undergraduate International Relations courses at Catholic University and the Pentagon, such as Security, Just Peace, Terrorism, Globalization, and The Problem of Sovereignty. Her recent books include Beyond Sovereignty: Issues for a Global Agenda (4th Edition, 2010), Morality Matters: Ethics and the War on Terrorism (forthcoming at Cornell University Press), and "What Kind of Peace Do We Seek?" a chapter on peacebuilding to appear in Notre Dame University's volume on The Ethics and Theology of Peacebuilding. She serves on the U.S. Catholic Bishops' International Justice and Peace Committee, the Advisory Board of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network, and the board of Jesuit Refugee Services.

Dr. Love lives on the Chesapeake Bay outside of Washington, DC, with her husband Richard and three young children, Maria, Ricky and Ava, who inspired her New York Times best-selling children's books, You Are My I Love You, You Are My Miracle, You Are My Wish, and Sleep, Baby, Sleep.