Opinion: Chocolate Should Cost Consumers More
The first major threat to chocolate supply is disease. Currently one-third of the annual crop of cacao (the substance from which chocolate is made) succumbs to diseases. This is the tragic result of growing a monoculture on vast plantations, where a single disease can ravage the entire lot. Currently 70 percent of cacao comes from West Africa, which creates added vulnerability.
Secondly, cacao trees like a very particular climate. They will not grow outside of a narrow geographical band that measures 20 degrees north and south of the equator, and this is threatened by climate change. One solution is the development of hybrid varieties, but with increased resilience comes loss of flavor.
Growing cacao in a diverse forest would offset both of these problems, but this requires a third problem to be addressed as soon as possible – lack of compensation for cacao farmers.
Marc Poppleton