November 8, 2010

A Chocolate Crisis? Do Not Want!

Via Treehugger:

In a world that takes for granted the availability of delicious and affordable chocolate, it's easy to forget that the popular product actually comes from trees -- not magical elves or free-flowing cocoa rivers, sadly. But, some experts are predicting that in a matter of decades a drop in production due to changing weather and agriculture incentives may make chocolate 'as expensive as gold'. "In 20 years chocolate will be like caviar. It will become so rare and so expensive that the average Joe just won't be able to afford it," says one researcher. And if I know Joe as well as I think I do, this won't go over well.
You have no idea how sad it would make me if I had to find a new vice to replace candy and baked goods. It would be traumatizing. 

It turns out, growing chocolate is kind of a sucky, thankless, labor-intensive job that turns very little profit. The article suggests things like the Fair Trade Initiative to solve the problem. This would be awesome, because it would mean that farmers would get treated better, AND I could still have my candy bars. Fingers crossed for the continued existence of candy at college-kid prices!

1 comment:

Jennifer Casey said...

That can't be!! The world NEEDS chocolate.