Shortages of cocoa beans invariably leads to higher prices for the beans and that usually means even higher prices increase for chocolate.
Whilst chocolate is made from cocoa beans, other ingredients come too. The cocoa beans themselves, after fermenting and drying, roasting and crushing, are finally ground to separate the oily part of the bean from the mass. The former is the coco butter and the later the cocoa solid or powder. These two are then recombined along with sugar, sometimes milk and various flavourings.
One way in which manufacturers can reduce costs is by replacing some of the cocoa butter with palm oil. Palm oil is cheap to buy (although its cost in terms of damage to the environment is high) and it easily replicates the melt-in-the-mouth texture of cocoa butter. It is also a more tolerant ingredient and makes the ‘tempering’ of the chocolate easier.
However using palm oil rather than cocoa butter doesn’t reward the cocoa farmer.
For those of us who can afford to do so, we can be selective in choosing which chocolate we eat. Ethical Consumer regularly updates its rating of different chocolate manufacturers.
Allwood in his book Promise the Earth (1) advises that we not only reduce our consumption of meat and dairy but also of rice in order to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. (2) Traditional rice growing in flooded paddies produces both methane and nitrous oxide – both powerful greenhouse gases which have a particular high impact on temperatures rises in the short term. Emissions from rice growing have doubled in the last 60 years. (3) Work is ongoing to develop rice growing techniques that reduce emissions and ensure more sustainable water usage.
Shaping our diet to be both healthy and environmentally friendly does prompt us to think – and investigate – about where our food comes from and its impact on the environment and its contribution to the wellbeing of those who produce it.
For example choosing to eat what is in season and what is grown locally, enables us to reduce resources used and emissions produced in the transport of our food. Buying locally supports our local economy and can help us build up a relationship with those who produce our food. Buying ultra locally could mean we actually see how the produce is grown or how the livestock is reared.
Equally we can choose to buy fairly traded products such as tea, coffee and chocolate so that we can be confident that those who have grown these foods have been well paid within a safe working environment. You can use Ethical Consumer (4) to research which makes and brands are best.
Fairtrade helps ensure fair working conditions for workers which for many consumers is an issue of social justice that means they are willing to pay a higher price for the product. Ensuring workers have a fair wage and good living conditions is also about the sustainable use of resources. People are resources that we need to value and to treat with respect.
Food systems here in the UK and in Europe, are highly dependant on the use of part time cheap labour. In these situations workers are not paid fair wages nor are they provided with continuous year round work, holiday and sick pay etc.
Producers of products such as cocoa, coffee and bananas also face problems due to fluctuations in prices triggered by speculators. Fairtrade can help, by guaranteeing a minimum price but also be developing direct, long term relationships between producers and buyers.
“Many initiatives in the cocoa, tea, banana and flower sectors aim to improve the social, environmental and economic performance of producers. They typically focus directly on achieving change at producer and worker level ….[However] trading relationships can have an important influence on a producer’s economic viability and capacity to invest in sustainable practices. In the banana sector in Ecuador, for example, more secure contracted volumes enable banana plantations to provide more stable year-round employment to their workers. Without these guarantees plantations are often confronted with cancellations in buying orders, making it too risky to provide job security to workers.” (1)
Sustainable food systems need to protect producers and workers, and this does ultimately protect consumers by better ensuring a steady supply of food.
Particularly relating to food, you might choose to reduce – or cut out completely – animal products from your diet. You might choose to only what is in season to avoid importing food over long distances. https://greentau.org/2021/08/14/green-tau-issue-12/
You might support charities such as Practical Action that help poorer farmers change their practices to adapt to the new and more extreme climates – https://practicalaction.org/
3. Paying a fair price for the food we eat. You might buy direct from a farm or a group of farms, or via a local vegetable box scheme. You might support a local farmers’ market. You might buy from a local independent green grocer. Similarly you might buy milk etc from a milk round where the price reflects the cost to the farmer. For cheeses, look to buy from small scale producers via a local cheese shop. And again buying fair trade options for imported foods can help ensure a fair price for the producer. Alternatively look out for products – coffee beans and chocolate in particularly – that have been sourced directly from the grower. These are often available through local independent shops and cafés.
Another option would be to subscribe to the OddBox fruit and veg scheme which buys food stuffs that would otherwise go to waste because they are misshapen, because the supermarket doesn’t want the crop, or because the crop has been too large or too small for the supermarket buyer – https://www.oddbox.co.uk/
4. Buying from local producers and local retailers helps to improve local supply chains.
5. Again the best approach to improving global food security and ensuring there is enough food for everyone is to reduce – or cut out completely – animal products.
