from SLATE: >Confectioners Issue Dire Warnings About World Chocolate Supply
>The world's confectionary kingpins are going cuckoo over cocoa, the >primary--and increasingly scarce--ingredient in chocolate. With Americans >addicted to their daily mochas and people in China and India increasingly >aping Americans' taste for sweet snacks, the world is consuming more chocolate >than ever. But cocoa hasn't become any more lucrative for farmers in West >Africa, who do backbreaking work for 80 cents a day in an attempt to harvest a >frustratingly finicky crop (cocoa can be grown only within 10 degrees latitude >of the equator). "Chocolate consumption is increasing faster than cocoa >production--and it's not sustainable," a researcher told attendees at the >annual conference of Britain's Academy of Chocolate. (In other news, Great >Britian has an Academy of Chocolate.) Cocoa production is slowly picking up in >some other areas, including South America and Asia, but experts say it won't >be enough to prevent prices from skyrocketing over the next two decades. "In >20 years chocolate will be like caviar," a Ghana-based researcher said. "It >will become so rare and so expensive that the average Joe just won't be able >to afford it." [but the cocoa farmers might do better.] >Read original story in The Independent >[http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/chocolate-worth-its-weight-in-gold-2127874.html] > | Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2010< -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
