Chocolate is associated with pleasure, comfort, and celebration. But behind every bar is a complex global supply chain involving cocoa farmers, workers, chocolate makers, businesses, and consumers.

Join Marcus Booth-Remmers (Red Cacao), Dr Katherine Christ, and Patrick Ninson in asking what it really means for chocolate to be ethical. Who holds power in the cocoa supply chain? What does "ethically sourced" actually mean? Who bears the cost of keeping chocolate affordable? And how can consumers distinguish meaningful ethical practices from marketing claims?

Together, they will explore the often-hidden social and economic realities of cocoa production, including labor conditions, contemporary slavery risks, supply-chain transparency, and the responsibilities of producers, businesses, governments, and consumers.

Enjoy a free guided chocolate tasting featuring a range of chocolate styles, while learning how differences in ingredients and production shape flavour. This is a chance to taste, compare, and connect the chocolate in your hand with the ethical questions behind how it was made.

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Marcus Booth-Remmers is the chocolatier behind Red Cacao in the Adelaide Hills. He has studied chocolate in Germany and visited cacao plantations in Indonesia. Marcus brings a chocolate maker's perspective on sourcing, production, craftsmanship, and the challenges businesses face when responding to ethical concerns.

Dr Katherine Christ is a Senior Lecturer at Adelaide University. Her research focuses on modern slavery risk and how businesses identify, manage, and report on modern slavery within their operations and supply chains. She is also the founder of the South Australian Modern Slavery Research and Practitioner Network.

Patrick Ninson is a PhD candidate at Adelaide University. His doctoral research focuses on modern slavery in the Ghanaian cocoa industry, examining ethical and social concerns within one of the industries at the center of the global chocolate supply chain.

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Drinks available for purchase.

What is Ethos?
Ethos is a place for you to have conversations about future-focused ethical issues relating to research, technological development and the broader social context. Each forum focuses on an object as the starting point.

Want more?
Come from 5:30pm and explore BEGINNINGS, the current exhibition at MOD. in which we think about how we start things in the present to create positive change for the future.

What to expect?
We are likely to see 50-odd participants attend this relaxed, but interactive evening event. You can expect conversation with friends and strangers, sharing perspectives and (hopefully) some laughs too.

The launch component will include drinks and talking, followed by what is a typical night at Ethos: an activity, a break with drinks, then a short panel and group discussions.

This event is – as is all of MOD. – wheelchair accessible and while participants are standing for the launch, they are then seated for the entirety of Ethos. The Multi-Access Suite is available if you need a quiet space.

Contact the host of Ethos: Unwrapping the Ethics of Chocolate