Beginning
today, we’re all on a diet. It’s not about calories or carbs or anything like
that.
Beginning today, we all have to limit our consumption of chocolate or we
are going to run out – and I’m not talking about what’s left of our Halloween
candy. The world is running out of chocolate.
Mars,
Inc. and Barry Callebaut chocolate are both warning the world that we’re simply
eating too much to keep up with supply. Farmers can’t grow chocolate as fast as
we’re eating it.
Chocolate
deficits, whereby farmers produce less cocoa than the world eats, are becoming
the norm.
Already, we are in the midst of what could be the longest streak of
consecutive chocolate deficits in more than 50 years. It also looks like
deficits aren’t just carrying over from year-to-year—the industry expects them
to grow.
Source: Washington Post
There
are a few major factors, it seems. Climate change is
causing the chocolate growing West African nations to be too hot and dry. There
has also been a fungal disease that
is ravaging cocoa trees. In fact, the International Cocoa Organization puts the
casualties at 30 percent to 40 percent of production.
Then,
there’s the fact that we’re simply eating too much chocolate. Dark chocolate,
which has the highest concentration of cocoa, is often touted as a health food on
a number of fronts, including its antioxidant content, its heart benefits and
its feel good effects.
Most
experts advise about an ounce of dark chocolate a day, and that is quite a bit
more than we are consuming. Americans consume only
about a 1/2 ounce per person per day. We aren’t even in the top 10 as far as
per capita chocolate consumption, though. Switzerland has about double our
consumption, followed by most of Western Europe, Canada and Australia. The U.S.
is only 15th in per capita consumption.
That
doesn’t mean it’s time to hoard chocolate though (of course, you have know way
of knowing that I’m not saying that to keep more for myself). Scientists are
working on a cure, so to speak. Unfortunately, that cure could involve GMOs and
less tasty chocolate.
Wendy is one of the luckiest people on the planet. She
actually gets to make a living out of two of her greatest passions, writing and
politics. When she's not writing, she's hiking with her dogs, riding her bike
or cooking a great meal with her friends or loved one. Follow Wendy on Facebook, Twitter or Google Plus.