Environmental
Research Methods 201
University of
Vermont
George Pavlovic
Abstract:
The
growth of the organic industry has blossomed over the past two decades
including the expansion for organic chocolate products. This thesis examines the way that organic
cocoa has coalesced within a broader framework for new initiatives towards
sustainable agricultural production in the tropics. In order to do this it is imperative to understand the
connections between historical, economic, geographical, and environmental
trends with the production and consumption of chocolate. Therefore, this literature review
incorporates a wide range of information from chocolates roots among the
native societies of Central and South America, all the way to modern times in
the global chocolate industry. A
brief but thorough botanical description is given of the tree in both its
wild and cultivated states. After
providing this necessary background, the paper focuses on the marketing of
chocolate and important current issues in the field including sustainable and
organic initiatives. These are
summarized in the conclusion along with a list of possible sustainable
suggestions for the cultivation of organic cacao.
Acknowledgments:
I would first like
to give thanks to God for giving me this wonderful opportunity and for all
the people who have helped guide and direct me along the way. The list of people grows every day, but I
would specifically like to thank my parents for all their support and my two
elder sisters for their wisdom and love, and all my extended family, without
them this would not have been possible.
I owe an enormous amount of gratitude to Doug and Carol Parker of the
Navigators program, Father Michael DeForge, and Father Robert Kolakowski of
the Catholic Center at UVM, for additional guidance and encouragement. I would especially like to thank Stephanie
Daniels and David Barash for answering my questions about Organic Commodities
Products, the organic cocoa industry, and for their interviews and time. I especially want to thank all the
reference librarians at the University of Vermont and the incredibly
efficient interlibrary loan service, which literally gave me access to
information from around the world.
Lastly, I am grateful for all my advisors: Thomas Hudspeth, of the
School of Natural Resources, who suggested the idea on organic chocolate in
the first place. Buddy Tignor in the
Plant and Soil Science department, who was an enormous help in the botany of
Theobroma cacao section and helped proofread drafts and make sure I got the
science right. And lastly, Fred
Schmidt of the College of Agriculture and Life Science who encouraged me to
just get it done.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Forward
...5
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................................. 8
PART I
The Puzzle of
Chocolate: A Historical Overview of Chocolate Including Its Evolution and
Contemporary Adaptations
The Birthplace of Chocolate..................................................................................................................................... 18
South America................................................................................................................................................... 18
Central America................................................................................................................................................. 18
The Entomological Roots of Theobroma Cacao and Chocolate......................................................................... 22
Chocolate Enters Europe Through Spain............................................................................................................... 24
The Industrialization of Chocolate.......................................................................................................................... 25
The Perception of Chocolate.................................................................................................................................... 27
The Chemistry of Chocolate..................................................................................................................................... 30
Major Organizations.................................................................................................................................................. 34
Important Terms and Definitions............................................................................................................................. 38
Part II
The Natural History
of Theobroma Cacao: A Botanical and Ecological Analysis
Theobroma cacao: A
Tropical Tree........................................................................................................................ 41
The Three Main Varieties of Cacao: Criollo, Forastero, &
Trinitario.................................................................. 42
Physical Characteristics of Cacao............................................................................................................................ 44
Pathogens of Cacao................................................................................................................................................... 51
Cultural Practices, Biocontrol, & Trichoderma
stromaticum................................................................................ 53
Genetic Diversity & Research in Genetically Modified
Cacao............................................................................ 56
Part III
A Snapshot of Cacao in the Global Marketplace: Production,
Distribution, and Consumption
Global Consumption of Cocoa................................................................................................................................. 61
Global Production of Cacao...................................................................................................................................... 64
Historical Shifts in the Market & the Cocoa Cycle............................................................................................... 66
Structure of Cocoa Farms.......................................................................................................................................... 69
The Marketing Process............................................................................................................................................. 70
The Value and Price of Cacao................................................................................................................................... 76
The International Cocoa Agreement & the Cocoa Council................................................................................. 78
A Growing Market for Chocolate and Organic Products..................................................................................... 79
Risks of Organic Market............................................................................................................................................ 82
Organic Commodities Products (OCP): A Case Study of the
Wholesale Organic Cocoa Industry.............. 83
Part
IV
Major Issues in Cacao Cultivation
Aligning Ethical/Fair Trade Standards and Cocoa Cooperatives....................................................................... 91
The Benefits of Shade Management Systems....................................................................................................... 94
Child Labor in West Africa....................................................................................................................................... 98
Certification and Organic Chocolate..................................................................................................................... 100
Post-Harvest Treatment of Cocoa......................................................................................................................... 101
The Carob Tree An Alternative to Chocolate.................................................................................................. 103
Government Policies and Perverse Subsidies: The Case of
Nigeria................................................................. 104
Byproducts of Cocoa............................................................................................................................................... 106
Secondary Cacao Forests: the Case of Costa Rica, Cameroon,
and Ghana.................................................... 110
Studies in Cacao Groves as Suitable Habitat for Tropical
& Migratory Bird Species................................... 111
Part V
Research Methodology
Thesis advisors:....................................................................................................................................................... 116
Budget........................................................................................................................................................................ 116
Major Obstacles....................................................................................................................................................... 117
Final Product............................................................................................................................................................. 118
Conclusion and a
Sustainable Suggestion.......................................................................................................... 123
Bibliography......................................................................................................................................................... 130
APPENDICES
Appendix A:: Review of
the Major Fungal Pathogens of Cacao
..131
Appendix B: Imports/Exports of Cocoa.................................................................................................. 141
Appendix C: Alternatives to Chemical Fumigation that
fit Organic Standards............................ 143
TABLE
OF FIGURES
Table
1: Major Chocolate Manufacturers in the World: Top Five Companies................................................. 63
Table
II: Production of Cocoa Beans, by
Country, Quantity, and as Percentage of total: 1990/91-1999-00 65
Table
III: Daily Prices of Cocoa 1971-2001......................................................................................................... 77
Table
IV: The Aims of Fair Trade............................................................................................................................. 91
The story of chocolate
usually begins to take shape at an early age in our lives. I am reminded of my grandparents who would
often come visit from former Yugoslavia to the western suburb of Chicago that
I grew up in. In the afternoon, right
after school was over, Baka (grandmother in Serbo-Croatian), would take my
two elder sisters Natasha, Ellen and I down the street to a local Swiss
pastry shop that imported chocolate from all over Europe. She would exchange smiles and small talk
with the woman behind the counter while we would wander through the isles
wondering what to choose. We were
usually allowed to pick one sweet, whether it was a chocolate bar or candy,
and bring it up to the register where Baka would patiently be waiting. Sometimes she would also stock up on
ingredients for her own cooking including the popular Nutella chocolate
spreads. One of my favorite jobs in
the kitchen when my grandmother was cooking was to be given an almost empty
jar of Nutella and asked to spoon out the remaining bits of chocolate creased
at the bottom.
Many years later, after
my first two years in college, with an interest in sustainable agriculture
and Central America, I was introduced to work being done with organic
chocolate by Tom Hudspeth who referred me to David Barash. David, who graduated with a degree in
Environmental Studies at UVM is a private business consultant and has worked
with many socially/ecologically responsible businesses including Ben &
Jerrys over the years. He also
worked with the first and largest distributor of organic cocoa in the United
States; a company called Organic Commodities Products (OCP). OCP maintained extensive networks with
organic cocoa farmers throughout Central America, South America, West Africa,
and Indonesia, whom they received their beans from. Though the company is no longer in business, I was able to
interview another UVM alumni, Stephanie Daniels, who traveled extensively
throughout Central and South America establishing relationships with cocoa
farmers and working on research and development for OCP. Both David and Stephanie were very open
and helpful in answering my questions.
They were also helpful in discussing some of the current issues
involved with the organic cocoa industry and through their recommendations, I
began to pursue potential avenues of research such as fair trade, organic
certifica |