Read + Write + Report
Home | Start a blog | About Orble | FAQ | Blogs | Writers | Paid | My Orble | Login

The end of chocolate is coming

November 9th 2010 01:19
: Vyoos news
cocao tree chocolate
Raw chocolate: pods on a cocao tree

Just when we thought we thought we had heard all the bad news possible recently - cholera in Haiti, a killer volcano in Indonesia, a plane crash in Cuba - comes news of a global tragedy which will strike us all within 20 years.


That is how long, according to reports today, before the world runs short of chocolate.

The problem, according to the Ghana-based Nature Conservation Research Council, is that African farmers are abandoning cocao as a cash crop.

The typical African cocoa farmer earns less than US$1 a day and farming cocao has its difficulties. For example, the trees have a limited life, and every time they die off, the farmer must move to a new area and wait three to five years for a new crop to mature.

Cocao cultivation is being deserted so quickly that the world will run out of affordable chocolate within two decades, said John Mason, executive director and founder of the Nature Conservation Research Council.

"In 20 years, chocolate will be like caviar. It will become so rare and so expensive that the average Joe just won't be able to afford it,'' Mason said.

Our path is clear. We must start choc-piling.
independent.co.uk


chocolate
Going, going ...




121
Vote
   


world hunger

VYOOS EDITORIAL
In 1990, they decided to do something about world hunger. Tongue waggers representing the world's well-fed gathered around a table and formulated what they called the Millennium Development Goal.

It's aim was to cut the proportion of malnourished residents of Earth from 20 per cent to 10 per cent by 2015.

Then they all went home and the world's hungry waited to see the results.

The good news is that the proportion started falling. Barely. The bad news is that the total number of hungry people continued to grow. And grow. In 2009, the number passed 1 billion.

Maybe the enormity of that number kickstarted some action. The United Nation's has just released its 2010 report which shows the number has fallen to 925 million.

It is the first time in 15 years, however, that the overall number of hungry people has fallen.

"It is clear that improvements in the lives of the poor have been unacceptably slow," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in the foreword to the FAO's 2010 report.

The proportion of underfed people in developing countries is still 16 per cent. The 2015 target of 10 per cent stopped being a serious target years ago and is now nothing more than a footnote in history.

Maybe it's time for another meeting of the world's well-fed. Maybe this time they'll be serious about tackling world hunger.




56
Vote
   


Chris Champion's Blogs

11039 Vote(s)
758 Comment(s)
121 Post(s)
4344 Vote(s)
33 Comment(s)
39 Post(s)
5567 Vote(s)
199 Comment(s)
73 Post(s)
3764 Vote(s)
208 Comment(s)
44 Post(s)
16240 Vote(s)
1597 Comment(s)
243 Post(s)
Moderated by Chris Champion
Copyright © 2012 On Topic Media PTY LTD. All Rights Reserved. Design by Vimu.com.
On Topic Media ZPages: Sydney |  Melbourne |  Brisbane |  London |  Birmingham |  Leeds     [ Advertise ] [ Contact Us ] [ Privacy Policy ]