Organic chocolate: Sweet deal for everyone
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The U.S. consumes more cholate than any other country in the world. But German and British chocolate lovers outpace US chocolate consumers with their per capita consumption. Each citizen of those two country, according to the May/June 2000 issue of Sierra magazine, devours seven pounds of the stuff per years.
Cocoa beans, from whence comes chocolate, are a tropical crop. And European and American's insatiable craving for the stuff is just one more insult to ravaged tropical ecosystems, according to Sierra and the July/August issue of E Magazine http://www.emagazine.com .
Before plant breeders developed zero-shade varieties of the cocoa tree cocoa, like coffee, grew under the shade of larger tropical trees. The mix of cocoa trees under a variety of larger trees was good for fragile tropical soils, wildlife diversity, and the small farmers who made a living from cocoa production.
But when the big companies whom most chocolate consumers buy their cholate sweets from, a their seet's chocolate, started planting zero-shade cocoa plantations the devil was released from the genie's bottle. Zero-shade plantations are subject to a huge variety of diseases and pests. So the company's use a panopoly of fungicides, insecticides, and herbicides to get their cocoa between your lips and on your tongue. But tropical ecosystems are not pampered by this destructive cocoa culture. Birds and wildlife become refugees. The thin soils, parched by the sun, are then washed away by the monsoons. And the small farmers who farmed and lived in the diverse forests, like the wildlife, are forced from their homes.
With chocolate there's a second way. You can have your chocolate and eat it too. You can stand up for the rain forest, tropical bird life, and small farmers by eating organic and fair trade chocolate.
From the Endangered Species Chocolate Company http://www.chocolatebar.com, which promotes tropical biodiversity throughb its organic dairy free Belgian dark chocolate Bug-bites to Newman's Own Organics chocolate peanut butter cups you can get your chocolate cchemical free.
But my favorite is Rapunzel. They've got fine organic chocolate bars weighing in at three ounces. That's good. But their Eco-Trade program assures that the farmers that grow the cocoa get a fair price. Rapunzel not out to wring as much profit from the rain forest and its people as possible. They want to see a cocoa culture that's sustainable and co-exists naturally with the forest, wild life, and people of the tropics. Their chocolate bars, made with organic sugar, taste mighty sweet as a result.
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