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REAL LIFE NEWS: CHOCOLATE CRISIS APPROACHING

by Hazed

I have written before about the terrible news in the world of chocolate growers: the world’s supply of cocoa beans is under threat from disease. This could lead to a drastic shortage, rising prices, and my inability to feed my addiction. Disaster!

Now a leading scientist has given a talk which highlights exactly what the risks are. Fortunately, he’s also explained what can be done to avoid the cataclysm.

Professor David Guest of the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Agriculture and Environment has given a talk called The Chocolate Crisis.

In the talk, he warned that, “We’re in a situation where chocolate manufacturers are anxious about meeting demand, as there’s rapidly increasing chocolate consumption in developing economies, paired with instability in cacoa growing areas.”

The solution, he says, is to improve crop and soil management and to select different genotypes of caco. He has travelled to the cacao-growing regions in Indonesia, Papula New Guinea and Bougainville to promote the sustainable farming practices he thinks are necessary to preserve the chocolate supply.

“We’ve found it’s really effective to explain to farmers that disease is caused by microorganisms similar to those that cause human disease. Showing farmers how the pathogens survive and spread helps their understanding and leads them to realise that they can reduce disease with improved management. Otherwise cacao farmers tend to blame nebulous factors like climate change or more virulent pathogen strains, which they feel powerless to do anything about.”

He explained that the global demand for chocolate means that production will need to increase by one million tonnes a year from the year 2020. One reason for this rising demand is that Chinese interest in chocolate is likely to continue to rise. If this extra demand is going to be met, then farmers need to act now.

“While controlling disease is relatively straightforward in theory, changing farming practice to become more sustainable and rewarding is a much more complex challenge involving social, economic, political and environmental factors,” he said.

We here at the Fed2 Star have our fingers (or equivalent) well and truly crossed that the prof’s efforts succeed!

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/17/global_chocolate_crisis/

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