Much less chocolate
They now predict
The future is bleak
For a chocolate addict
Near the equator
This special tree grows
Yielding its crop
Then away it goes
It’s hard to imagine
No chocolate to eat
Without a dessert
No meal is complete
It raises endorphins
This comfort food sweet
You won’t feel as good
When you’re eating meat
In the next twenty years
When it costs a lot more
You’ll find candy bars
Locked up in the store
At least there’s vanilla
Cake and ice cream
And eating chocolate
Will just be a dream
By, Randee Saber 11/9/10
The Cocoa Research Association produced the latest round of data, but big players like Hershey and Mars have already sequenced the cocoa genome to hunt for ways to create more resilient, higher-yielding trees.
Cocoa can only be grown close to the equator, mostly in West Africa, and farmers there lack incentives to replant the trees as they die. Cocoa trees take three years to mature. Small-scale producers of the delicious stuff earn just 80 cents a day selling to the mega-corporations that control the market.
Combine that with ever-more gluttonous choco-habits and you've got a shortage. Indeed, the price of chocolate has doubled in the last six years.
Says John Mason, founder of the Ghana-based Nature Conservation Research Council: "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."
Glenn Beck be damned: Don't buy gold bars; buy chocolate.
Posted By: Cameron Scott (Email, Twitter, Facebook) November 09 2010 at 10:47 AM
They now predict
The future is bleak
For a chocolate addict
Near the equator
This special tree grows
Yielding its crop
Then away it goes
It’s hard to imagine
No chocolate to eat
Without a dessert
No meal is complete
It raises endorphins
This comfort food sweet
You won’t feel as good
When you’re eating meat
In the next twenty years
When it costs a lot more
You’ll find candy bars
Locked up in the store
At least there’s vanilla
Cake and ice cream
And eating chocolate
Will just be a dream
By, Randee Saber 11/9/10
The Cocoa Research Association produced the latest round of data, but big players like Hershey and Mars have already sequenced the cocoa genome to hunt for ways to create more resilient, higher-yielding trees.
Cocoa can only be grown close to the equator, mostly in West Africa, and farmers there lack incentives to replant the trees as they die. Cocoa trees take three years to mature. Small-scale producers of the delicious stuff earn just 80 cents a day selling to the mega-corporations that control the market.
Combine that with ever-more gluttonous choco-habits and you've got a shortage. Indeed, the price of chocolate has doubled in the last six years.
Says John Mason, founder of the Ghana-based Nature Conservation Research Council: "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."
Glenn Beck be damned: Don't buy gold bars; buy chocolate.
Posted By: Cameron Scott (Email, Twitter, Facebook) November 09 2010 at 10:47 AM
