[MPWG] In Twenty Years Chocolate Will Be A Rare Delicacy

Fri Nov 12 12:09:43 CST 2010

I admit I haven't been keeping more than a casual eye on current events in
the chocolate industry these days, so thank you for the clarifications,
Elizabeth.

Jean -- A few years ago, Pauline Tiffin, one of the founders of the Fair
Trade Federation, was working as a consultant for World Bank on a project to
enable supply chain access via co-marketing and co-shipping of cacao for
small farmers in the Caribbean region. I'm not exactly sure where that
project stands now, but the fair trade chocolate market has been growing
modestly and steadily over the years, more so in Europe than here in
America. The British-owned Cadbury brand announced their intentions to
source 100% fair trade but was quickly caught up in a bidding war between
Hershey and Kraft, a bit of a hostile take-over by Kraft in the end and now
no one sees press about a major label going fair trade anymore. I am not
sure how Kraft or Hershey intend to do business with farmers but they do
move a huge amount of product sustaining who knows how many? hundreds of
thousands of farmers. The certified or registered "fair trade" label isn't
very welcome here in the US. I hope US chocolate companies can earn a
reputation for independently doing good business.

On Fri, Nov 12, 2010 at 12:48 PM, Jean Giblette <hfg at capital.net> wrote:

> Jennifer, good point.  But I did not disavow the possibility of a benign
> contribution or intervention on the part of plant scientists.  What bothers
> me is how we all seem bedazzled by more abstract (and expensive)
> technologies -- and the entities who profit from them -- at the expense of
> humbler, less costly methods.  Even if we do diversify cacao through tissue
> culture (and I hope so), where are the resources to convey those gains, to
> help those farmers stay on their land?  That's a social problem.  Follow the
> money -- and money flow is always preceded by Qi (including attention,
> focus, intention and will) -- it's going to the wrong places.
> Jean
>
> On Nov 12, 2010, at 11:51 AM, Jennifer Chesworth wrote:
>
> Jean, in the case of cacao you are mistaken.  Several years ago, chocolate
> manufacturers experienced a crisis when they discovered the stock of almost
> ALL global plantations (and small holdings) of cacao were descended from the
> seed of a single cacao plant brought to Martinique by the French in 1660.
> All plantations were similarly resilient or not to any number of diseases,
> and a single plague could devastate the entire industry. "Maintaining
> resilience" of cacao requires tissue culture, something most small holders
> cannot achieve on their own.
>
>
> On Fri, Nov 12, 2010 at 11:47 AM, Jennifer Chesworth <cafesombra at gmail.com
> > wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Nov 12, 2010 at 11:27 AM, Jean Giblette <hfg at capital.net> wrote:
>>
>>>  Thanks, Robin.
>>>
>>> Quoted from the Independent article:
>>>
>>> "Despite price rises on the trading floor, precious little reaches the
>>> smallholders who make up 95 per cent of growers, according to Mr. Lass, a
>>> former Cadburys trader and ethical sourcing advisor who has co-authored a
>>> book on the cocoa industry.
>>>
>>> "These smallholders earn just 80 cents a day," he says. "So there is no
>>> incentive to replant trees when they die off, and to wait up to five years
>>> for a new crop, and no younger generation around to do the replanting."
>>> Note the main thrust of these articles, which is to celebrate the genome
>>> sequencing in hopes that a genetic engineering "solution" will be found,
>>> when all we have to do is incentivize the farmers to replant on a regular
>>> basis and to maintain/enhance the resilience of the small holdings.
>>>
>>> These articles portray the microcosm of what's wrong with medicinal plant
>>> production worldwide:  the growers are neither adequately compensated nor
>>> rewarded for good stewardship.  At the same time, industrial ag (including
>>> its ultimate manifestation, genetic engineering) displaces the growers.
>>>  These dynamics are based on social constructs, and social constructs can be
>>> revised.
>>>
>>> Meanwhile, Mother Nature is waiting to reward us with chocolate and all
>>> the abundance of the fertile earth.  All we have to do is follow her lead
>>> and cooperate with her.  Why is this so hard for us to understand?
>>>
>>> Jean
>>>
>>>
>>> On Nov 12, 2010, at 10:50 AM, MoonBranch Botanicals wrote:
>>>
>>> Chocolate Black Hole; Chocolate consumption is increasing faster than
>>> production, meaning the future will probably be less chocolaty....
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-11/future-chocolate-will-be-rare-delicacy-analysts-say
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/chocolate-worth-its-weight-in-gold-2127874.html
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-09/sweet-breakthrough-scientists-led-candy-company-sequence-chocolate-genome
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Robin Alton Suggs
>>> MoonBranch Botanicals
>>> 5294 Yellow Creek Road
>>> Robbinsville, North Carolina 28771
>>> USA
>>>
>>> Telephone: 828.479.2788
>>> Email: moonbranch at earthlink.net
>>>
>>> www.moonbranch.com
>>>              &
>>> www.localharvest.org/store/M16074
>>>
>>> Member:
>>> Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project; Farm Partner
>>> Green Products Alliance
>>> North Carolina Consortium on Natural Medicines
>>> North Carolina Goodness Grows/NCDA&CS
>>> Southwestern North Carolina RC&D Council
>>> United Plant Savers
>>>
>>> “If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines
>>> they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of
>>> those who live under tyranny.”
>>>
>>> - Thomas Jefferson
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> PCA's Medicinal Plant Working Group mailing list
>>> MPWG at lists.plantconservation.org
>>>
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>>> Disclaimer
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>>> reflects ONLY the opinion of the individual who posts the message. The
>>> information contained in posts is not intended nor implied to be a
>>> substitute for professional medical advice relative to your specific medical
>>> condition or question. All medical and other healthcare information that is
>>> discussed on this list should be carefully reviewed by the individual reader
>>> and their qualified healthcare professional. Posts do not reflect any
>>> official opinions or positions of the Plant Conservation Alliance.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>  Jean Giblette, Owner
>>> HIGH FALLS GARDENS
>>> Box 125 Philmont NY 12565
>>> 518-672-7365, hfg at capital.net
>>> www.highfallsgardens.net
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>
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>>>
>>> To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to
>>> MPWG-request at lists.plantconservation.org with the word "unsubscribe" in
>>> the subject line.
>>>
>>> Disclaimer
>>> Any advice given on this list regarding diagnosis or treatments etc.
>>> reflects ONLY the opinion of the individual who posts the message. The
>>> information contained in posts is not intended nor implied to be a
>>> substitute for professional medical advice relative to your specific medical
>>> condition or question. All medical and other healthcare information that is
>>> discussed on this list should be carefully reviewed by the individual reader
>>> and their qualified healthcare professional. Posts do not reflect any
>>> official opinions or positions of the Plant Conservation Alliance.
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> Jean Giblette, Owner
> HIGH FALLS GARDENS
> Box 125 Philmont NY 12565
> 518-672-7365, hfg at capital.net
> www.highfallsgardens.net
>
>
>
>
>
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