Dark and decadent, she cascades over a smooth, silky tongue creating pure bliss. Chocolate, she solves every problem.
Whether it be walking down the street and twisting an ankle or having a bad day at school, chocolate has always been there.
In terms of Valentine’s Day, if someone forgot about the overly publicized, loving, commercial holiday, all they have to do to make up for it is buy a beautiful box of chocolates to please their significant other.
Unfortunately, while chocolate does an excellent job of showing our loved ones how special they are to us, it may have the opposite effect on Mother Earth.
While she’s busy changing the seasons and making the Baton Rouge weather extra cold, cocoa bean workers all over the world are viciously tearing apart her rainforests.
Cocoa beans may be beautiful and delectable in their final product, but to become luscious or gourmet, they are nothing but trouble.
Often grown in tropical climates such as Central America, South America and Africa, these small pods originally developed under the tall, handsome canopy in dense rainforests where they promoted biodiversity. This kind of growing is known as shade-grown cocoa, and as deforestation becomes more and more popular, shade-grown cocoa has become harder and harder to find.
Without the luscious canopies to protect the forest floor from the sun’s strong rays and the weather’s strong sway, many migratory bird species are now exposed to the harsh climate and are dying off in areas where they once found winter solace.
The National Wildlife Federation has said the insect populations at booming cocoa plantations have increased as a direct aftereffect to these species disappearing. The organization has called for the use of stronger poisonous pesticides, furthering the damage to biodiversity as well as the livelihood of workers.
Most shade-grown chocolate is also fair trade, which according to Oxfam International and many other organizations, means the producers get a fair deal — good working conditions, a decent living wage and reasonable security.
They’re promised to be paid better than they would without fair trade arrangements — and thank goodness for that.
Without the promise of fair trade chocolate, the cocoa bean industry would hold no hope for the future of sustainability. And yet now, according to Cocoa
Stainability, it has gained the dedication of Mars Inc., IBM and the U.S. Department of Agriculture in a cocoa bean genome project as an effort to better utilize the tropical land.
The project aims for farmers to produce more cocoa beans per plant. It also aims to help farmers efficiently use the remainder of their land for better yielding crops as a way to increase their income and pull them out of poverty.
Could there be a sweeter way to grow chocolate?
Could there be a sweeter way to give back to Mother Earth this Valentine’s Day, showing her how much you love her?
Fair trade chocolate is one of the few ways to smother our mother with love during this holiday. It’s fair to all, and it can be found just about anywhere. Just look for a wrapper bearing a small symbol saying it’s fair trade certified.
Better yet, by buying fair trade chocolate for those we love, we demonstrate that Valentine’s Day isn’t just a day where we show our love to one other
person, but rather a day for us to show our love to everyone.
If Forrest Gump were a hippie, he might say, “If the world were a giant box of chocolates, we should know exactly what we’re getting with each delicious bite — a soulful helping of good karma that comes with buying the right way.”
Priyanka Bhatia is a 19-year-old pre-veterinary medicine freshman with a minor in environmental management systems. Follow her on Twitter @TDR_Pbhatia.
 
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Contact Priyanka Bhatia at
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