We want more Chocolate!

Delectable. Caffeinated. Healthy. Chocolate has become a major sweet-tooth saver in our day-to-day lives, according to The Wall Street Journal’s article, “Satisfying World’s Chocolate Fix.” The article discusses the projected surge in Chocolate demands, which are expected to increase by 25%, to about five million metric tons, by 2020.

We’re going to need a lot more cocoa trees.

Researchers, such as the agronomist Fredy Pinchi Pinchi, are on a search to find varieties of trees that will be stronger, bigger, and more able to meet the supply.

When chocolate first started booming in the 1970s and 80s, acres upon acres of rain forest were terminated to make room for cocoa farms, which now stretch about 18.3 million acres. Now that the chocolate market is about to boom again, hopefully more of the rainforest will not be sacrificed in order to make room for harvesting plots.

According to the article, more expansion [in the rainforest] isn’t an option due to “widespread opposition to further deforestation in the tropics—the only places cocoa can thrive.” I hope that this public pressure continues.

I think this scenario is a great example of the effects and dynamics of globalization. Chocolate is a commodity that has become a part of a major industry that profits from sales all over the world. Companies, such as Mars Inc., and Blommer Chocolate Co., depend on a very specific source in order to create their product—the cocoa tree. This tree flourishes in a particular region of the world—the rainforest. In order for the chocolate market to take-off, these corporations had to appropriate the only land that would produce their product—causing a huge environmental impact, and perhaps greatly affecting the lives of the indigenous peoples and locals of the area.

Moving forward, there are other questions to be asked. Who is working in the fields? Are those people treated fairly? Are the plants treated with chemicals that harm the water or the workers? Let’s not forget the effects of globalization on agriculture, environment, and the locals in Costa Rica, which we read about in the Thompson and Toro article.

Chocolate is such a huge consumer item in the U.S. now, and will continue to be, and I think that it is important to ask these questions. As this article says, the corporations are not planning on cutting down more rainforest because of opposition from the public to do so. This proves that citizens and consumers can and do make a difference in the decisions of these corporations.

Also, it is important to keep in mind the economic effects of the rising demand of chocolate.  According to commodities specialist Kona Haque, prices [of chocolate] will most likely rise 50% in the next 10 years. In order to meet the rising demand without raising prices, the chocolate companies would have to cut down more rainforest in order to have more cocoa trees (unless they find the superhuman cocoa bean that produces way more chocolate than the current trees are capable of). It would be horrible to cut down more rainforest in order to have these cocoa farms. So, the next time prices of chocolate go up, at least we’ll be offsetting the demands in order to save the rainforest.