Where this was said
The Cacao Child Labor Crisis — And How MrBeast Is Fixing It
At 2:30:02 · chapter starts 2:27:00
MrBeast pivots unexpectedly to a subject he says has consumed thousands of hours of his time: the cacao supply chain. He describes discovering after starting Feastables that approximately 46% of labor on West African cacao farms involves illegal child labor — and that when he went to major distributors asking if he could pay a premium to source ethically, no such system existed. Industry executives simply shrugged. [1] — MrBeast "Between 1.5 and 1.8 million children work in illegal child labor on West African cacao farms — and the chocolate industry has known about i…" 2:42:28 After learning from Tony's Chocolonely and spending years building relationships with Fairtrade-certified, democratically elected cooperatives in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, MrBeast launched a seven-month case study across five villages with a combined population of roughly 10,000 people. The baseline: approximately 550 children in illegal child labor. By guaranteeing a living income reference price to farmers (so they no longer need child workers to survive economically), auditing every farm, and — in villages where there was no school because children had only ever worked — literally building schools, Feastables reduced child labor by 90%, bringing the count down to roughly 50 children. He acknowledges this is just the start and expects Big Chocolate to push back publicly as he makes this issue more visible. Joe Rogan is visibly stunned throughout.
MrBeast lost 50 pounds between his first Joe Rogan appearance and this episode.
MrBeast's main YouTube channel hit 850 million unique viewers and 12 billion views in a single quarter. YouTube itself has over 3 billion monthly active users and is growing. The number one most-watched show on earth isn't on Netflix or HBO — it's a YouTube channel run by a 28-year-old from North Carolina.
MrBeast's main YouTube channel reached approximately 850 million unique viewers in the last 90 days, generating around 12 billion views.
There are approximately 4.5 to 4.7 million podcast shows globally as of 2026, up from 69,000 in 2009.
Approximately 200 to 300 million people globally identify as content creators as of 2026, with 8–12 million considered professional.
Between 1.5 and 1.8 million children work in illegal child labor on West African cacao farms — and the chocolate industry has known about it for decades and done essentially nothing. MrBeast's Feastables brand built an ethical supply chain from scratch, guaranteeing living income reference prices to farmers and auditing for child labor, and in seven months reduced illegal child labor in five villages by 90%.
Between 1.5 and 1.8 million children work in illegal child labor on West African cacao farms, a fact largely unknown to chocolate consumers.
