rainforest research projects
Save Chocolate – Could Chocolate Become an Endangered Species?
Chocolate has been in my life as long as I have lived on the planet. In fact, chocolate has been enjoyed in the United States since the mid 1800′s. The earliest known chocolate consumption as was 1100 BC , with ancient people drinking a frothy beverage long before the Mayans and the Aztecs. However, there is real concern that chocolate may not be around in unlimited supply in the future.
Not many people know where chocolate comes from. Chocolate comes from seeds or beans of a cacao pod, football sized pods that are grow on Theobroma Cacao trees in locations close to the equator. In Greek, Theobroma literally means “food of the gods” and chocolate has been a divine food for 3,000 years.
Consumers around the world spend more than $20 billion a year on chocolate, but it may not be enough. Cacao trees can only be grown in an uncleared, natural rainforest environment. They cannot grow where the jungle has been cut down. Cacao trees need the shelter of the larger trees in the rainforest to survive. Unfortunately, many lumber companies are harvesting those larger trees, leaving the cacao crops to wither away.
Due to the huge demand for the cacao for cocoa and chocolate, there has been a huge pressure on the cacao farmers to plant the cacao trees in full, direct sunlight. Since the cacao tree is a low growing tree that prefers the shade of the larger canopy trees, extensive amounts of fertilization and pest control must take place for the cacao trees to flourish. This causes great stress in the cacao trees since it is not their natural environment thus making them more susceptible to pests and diseases.
Cacao is an extremely fragile crop. The flowers of the cacao tree need to be pollinated by local insects in the rainforest. Since the rainforests have become unbalanced over the past few decades, and in some areas nonexistent, many cacao farmers have resorted to pollinating the trees by hand.
The rainforest itself is fragile and houses more plants, animals and insect species than anywhere else on Earth. The cacao trees themselves are home to over 80 different species of birds including the macaws and toucans.
Personally, I have not paid much attention to the deforestation of the rainforest and have not gotten involved. Doing some research, I learned that nearly half of the world’s species of plants, animals and microorganisms will be destroyed or severely threatened over the next 25 years due to rainforest deforestation, including our precious cacao trees.
Remember….the less rainforests on the planet mean the less cacao trees which means less of a supply of chocolate. Experts have predicted the cost of chocolate will drastically increase if the rainforests aren’t saved. So, creating more of a demand for chocolate will really help save the rainforest! Please do your part: get interested in the rainforest and make a difference any way you can. In the mean time, eat more chocolate!
Get involved:
The primary goal of the Global Cocoa Project is to provide cocoa farmers around the world with the tools they need to improve the quality of their cocoa production.
Small farms on 25 acres or less constituted 99 percent of the cacao trees in the world. Approximately 2.5 million cacao farmers produce 90 percent of the world’s cocoa with their farms. Traditionally cocoa production is the family’s only source of income, thus it is an important income for developing countries to continue to grow and prosper. To assist these farmers go to www.globalcocoaproject.org
About the Author
Chef Sandra Champlain graduated top of her class from The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. In July 1991 she created The Kent Coffee & Chocolate Company, in northwestern, Connecticut. For the past 20 years she has been serving coffees, teas and wonderful chocolates at the shop and online at www.kentchocolate.com Sandra Champlain has recently become a chocolate activist. She has just recorded and released the humorous Law of Chocolate CD, an educational and inspiring history of chocolate, now available at www.lawofchocolate.com or on iTunes.
Maples not so sweet
Tuesday April 12, 2011 Michael J. Caduto As a farmer’s daughter in rural Maryland, Martha Carlson worked the land and developed a keen eye for nature. She now lives on Range View Farm in Center Sandwich, N.H. — 65-acres of field and forest that have been in her husband’s family since the Great Depression.
