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Chocoholic

Thursday, 12 February 2009

I'm not sure I would want to live in a world without chocolate. I find it hard to not think about chocolate on a daily basis, let alone face a lifetime without it... especially when I haven't fulfilled my dream of spending the day under a chocolate fountain!

But according to the Nature Conversation Research Council (NCRC) in 20 years chocolate will become like caviar... Very expensive and available to only a select few... The problem comes down to unsustainable farming practices in countries like Ghana where cocoa plants grow (they are limited to a range of only 10 degrees from the equator)... Cocoa is traditionally a rainforest tree that lasts 75-100 years... Because of increased demand rainforest is being cleared to plant cocoa in open fields where it only lasts 30 years. After 30 years the land is so degraded that more rainforest must be cleared to plant more cocoa... A vicious and never ending cycle.

Chocolate, however, remains one of the most delicious, in demand, smartest foods on earth... Fortunately EarthShare has stepped in and is working with Cadbury and the farmers to create a more sustainable future for chocolate... And companies like Cocoa Farm have begun sustainably growing cocoa and producing chocolate in Queensland.

Until then I will try to breed a super cacao tree that grows in Melbourne (my backyard), produces sweet cocoa beans (perhaps graft it with sugar cane?) and is available all year round... A super plant if you will. Hopefully cadbury will purchase it from me for the cost of my liposuction should I succeed!

Labels: chocolate

posted by genloz at 8:02 PM