What to know

No More Chocolate in 40 Years!

climate change is dangerous to the cacao plant and pose a threat to chocolate

The scariest thing is happening, we might lose the Cacao plant, hence chocolate, within 4 decades.

Chocolate is one of the most popular foods in the world. Everyone loves it, young and old, rich and poor, tall or short, yes, everyone. But there’s one problem with the source of chocolate, the Cacao plant, which could lead to its extinction.

Don’t freak out just yet, we are sure that the world’s best scientists are working around the clock trying to prevent the unspeakable.

However, here’s what the problem is:

cacao plants

The fruit on a Cacao plant.

Chocolate comes from the cacao bean, a bean found inside the cacao fruit, that grows on the Cacao plant.

To make chocolate, the cacao beans need to be roasted, cracked, de-shelled and crushed. These nibs are then ground into a paste before becoming the delicious treat we know it as.

To make a kilogram of chocolate you will need between 400 and 500 cacao beans. That mean a lot of Cacao plants.

cacao bean

Cacao beans.

However, the Cacao plants grow only under certain conditions – in rainforests within 20 degrees of the equator. But climate change is causing changes in temperatures, rainfall and humidity, posing danger to the plants.

If the climate continues to change at the rate and direction as it is today, it will be so hard for farmers to grow Cacao plants and produce chocolate by 2050 that it might not be as readily available as it is today.

Save the climate, save the planet. If not for your children, then do it for chocolate!

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