Key Points
Demand for the crop is expected to grow by more than 4% a year this decade but bad harvests in west Africa mean chocolate makers are scrambling for scarce beans...
Historically, farmers have tended to abandon old farms and start anew in fresh forests, Odijie says, referring to the fact that cocoa trees become more susceptible to disease and so are more expensive to maintain as they age...
Flying insects are key pollinators of many major food crops, including fruits, spices and importantly for chocolate lovers cocoa, say Tim Newbold and Charlie Outhwaite, the UCL biodiversity scientists behind the research...
Perhaps the most severe issue of all is the lack of fair compensation for sustainable cocoa production, Odijie says.. Research suggests that cocoa farms could be better for nature and more resilient to climate change if farmers planted a greater variety of shady native trees on their land..
Large chocolate producers prioritise short-term profit over meaningful structural change and this can result in [them] benefit[ing] from poor cocoa farmer pay and low transparency in their own self-certified reporting...
