Enlightened Indulgence: Organic Chocolate Companies Help Make Calories Count Toward Conservation
By Roxanne Khamsi, E Magazine July/August 2001 Issue
Whether you have found yourself ogling the assortment of gourmet
truffles at a confectioner's shop or grabbing the nearest candy bar in
the supermarket checkout aisle, you know that cravings for chocolate
demand immediate satisfaction. But chocoholics beware! Your sweet tooth
could be taking a bite out of the rainforest.
Chocolate, like many tropical understory crops, has shady origins. The
cacao tree, which produces pods containing cocoa beans, needs
protection from the sun to thrive -- especially during the first three
years of its life. Its scientific name, Theobroma cacao, means "food of
the gods," and people have long found its taste heavenly.
In 1519, Aztec Emperor Montezuma presented Spanish explorer Cortez with
a drink of hot cocoa at a special ceremony. Soon afterward, Europeans
-- at least the nobility who could afford it -- lavishly enjoyed the
beverage as creative minds experimented with its possibilities. The
Dutch darkened it, and the Swiss added milk. Today, we find chocolate
sliding down scoops of ice cream, speckling our pancakes and frosting
our black forest cakes. We're stretching chocolate to its culinary
capacity, and unfortunately, our growing global appetite may be
exhausting tropical ecosystems.
The Plantation Problem
Large cocoa plantations represent a significant part of the problem.
Because of increased exposure to the sun and other elements, the plants
require more fertilizer, fungicide and pesticide than those grown on
small-scale farms. "In the long term, a plantation will die," says
Stephanie Daniels, development coordinator at Organic Commodity
Products (OCP), a national chocolate supplier in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. "The soil and whole health of the plant are
compromised." In an effort to promote sustainable cultivation
practices, OCP pays small farmers in Central America, South America and
West Africa premium prices for their cocoa crops and provides technical
aid.
With row after row of cacao trees vulnerable to attack, plantations
provide ample breeding grounds for pathogens. Diseases such as witches'
broom, (which leaves pods brown and dry) and black pod (a cousin of
potato blight) thrive in the humid climate of the rainforest. "The
tropical environment is very conducive to the development of disease,"
explains John Bowers, a U.S. Agricultural Research Service plant
pathologist.
These diseases have the potential to devastate the chocolate industry.
According to a report published by the American Phytopathological
Society, the production of cocoa beans in Brazil dropped from 400,000
to 100,000 metric tons in just a decade as a result of a particular
fungus. Bowers and his fellow scientists investigate ways to reduce the
need for pesticides through increasing the effectiveness of biological
control agents, such as local strains of natural bacteria and fungi,
for farmers to spray on their crops.
But advances in agricultural science don't always make it from
laboratory to field. The six million small farmers who grow more than
85 percent of the world's cocoa generally can't afford the pricey
sprays developed by researchers. For this reason, the American Cocoa
Research Institute established the World Cocoa Foundation, a nonprofit
organization devoted to providing low-cost technology transfer to
increase the quality and yield of cocoa on farms on several continents.
The foundation teaches grafting and pruning techniques and supports
cocoa tree rehabilitation programs in areas such as the Dominican
Republic, where Hurricane Georges destroyed thousands of acres of
farmland in 1998. But while these researchers and environmentalists
work to develop alternative farming solutions, we continue to empty our
snack machines of their chocolate contents.
Sweet and Sustainable
If you feel like taking a stand for the rainforest the next time you
sit down to enjoy a sweet treat, you won't come up short on options for
indulgence. A growing number of companies have decided to dip into the
sustainable chocolate market, and that means a wider selection of
products for consumers. Jon Stocking, president and founder of the
Endangered Species Chocolate Company, recently decided to add Bug Bites
to his candy line-up. These playful, 0.35-ounce organic Belgian milk
chocolate and organic, dairy-free Belgian dark chocolate squares
promote the positive role of insects in ecosystems. Priced at 39 cents,
each Bug-Bites' wrapper contains a trading card featuring a particular
critter.
"We use chocolate as a medium for an environmental message," says
Stocking. Each year, he donates at least 10 percent of the company's
profits to conservation organizations such as the Jane Goodall
Institute and the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Inspired by Joe Whinney, president of OCP, Newman's Own Organics
decided to create a scrumptious assortment of chocolate products. The
company, headed by Peter Meehan and Paul Newman's daughter, Nell, now
offers a wide variety of bars ranging from classic milk chocolate to
orange-flavored dark chocolate ($1.79 each). Newman's Own Organics also
has the ever-essential chocolate peanut butter cup (79 cents per
package).
If it's bite-size satisfaction you crave, Edward & Sons Trading
Company has recently introduced Edward's Organic Fine Confections
($2.89 per box). Both the fruit and mint varieties of these
chocolate-dipped fruit jellies are vegan. To match the restrictions of
certain diets, Rapunzel Pure Organics produces five dairy-free and
soy-free dark chocolate bars ($2.49 each). Rapunzel combines imported
Swiss gourmet organic chocolate with organic, unrefined evaporated
sugarcane juice and refuses genetically engineered soy lecithin.
Following the idea that food products can supply vitamins and nutrients
and taste good at the same time, Functional Foods created
SmartChocolate bars, which mix organically grown chocolate with various
botanical extracts. The SmartChocolate Energy Bar contains ginseng --
which many herbalists claim relieves stress -- and the Serenity Bar
contains the potentially uplifting St. John's Wort (each $1.99).
The truly adventurous chocoholic need not look further than Dagoba
Organic Chocolate (online at $2.50 each). "I saw a real lack of
creativity in terms of what flavors are presented to consumers,"
confesses Frederick Schilling, the company's founder. "I got tired of
chocolate with hazelnuts and chocolate with almonds." To amend this
problem, he created a sweet citrus Organic Lime Chocolate Bar (not
surprisingly, the world's first) and a Chocolatte´ Bar, infused with
organic espresso beans and cinnamon.
To organic chocolate companies and suppliers, sustainable cocoa farming
remains the only viable option for the future. Growing chocolate any
other way would yield only bittersweet results.