Climate Change News
Reinventing Chocolate
This news story includes the following topics:
· Extreme Storms
· Biodiversity
· Health
Many people enjoy chocolate. It is a food that has been consumed and enjoyed by humans in a wide variety of ways for approximately 5000 years. Climate change is a threat to cocoa beans which chocolate is derived from. More than half of the global supply of cocoa beans comes from two African countries, Ivory Coast, and Ghana. Both of these countries are just north of the equator and are facing extreme weather events driven by climate change.
The cocoa plant is very susceptible to climate change. Recently, both Ivory Coast and Ghana received record rainfall prior to the autumn cocoa harvest. That produced fungal tree infections and rotting cocoa fruit, and the global supply of cocoa beans dwindled. Big chocolate manufacturers stockpiled beans, and the price for raw cocoa tripled.
Sara Marquart and her brother Max Marquart, both of Munich, Germany, founded a company called Planet A Foods to create a chocolate substitute based on other foods like oats and sunflower seeds. They have been successful. This story, both in text and audio form, documents their work.
Here is a link to the story: Reinventing Chocolate
News Story Source: Morning Edition show of National Public Radio (NPR). NPR is the public radio network of the United States. Based in Washington, D.C.
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