TheChocolateLifeLIVE | Just One Change ...

By TheChocolateWire | 2 years ago | 4 min read

Original photo Simon Wilkes / Unsplash

Episode 115 of #TheChocolateLifeLIVE is LIVE from 10:00 MST/13:00 EDT on Tue, June 13th.

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Note the new start time: 10:00 AM PDT / 1:00 PM EDT.

Click to watch without leaving this page.

Watch on my LinkedIn profile
Watch on TheChocolateLife page on Facebook (live event)
TheChocolateLife/TheChocolateWire Channel on YouTube

Summary

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This episode discusses the changes people would like to see in the cocoa and chocolate industry as posted on LinkedIn and Facebook. The suggestions range from better education and transparency to warnings on mass-produced chocolate packaging and the introduction of a living wage requirement for farmers that would create a baseline benchmark for pricing. They also discuss the need for sustainability and economic stability and the role of waste reduction in the cocoa-exporting sector. While contributors agree that change is necessary, there are concerns about how it will impact farmers and the complexities of implementing solutions. Lastly, the discussion addresses the need to organize cocoa farmers and federate them to create more bargaining power and attract buyers while also reducing human trafficking and forced labor in the cocoa industry.

This episode of #TheChocolateLifeLIVE will explore the idea of “Effecting Meaningful Change” in cocoa and chocolate. The idea for this came from a recent interview I gave to a graduate student at the London School of Economics.

I asked the following question on my LinkedIn profile and on several pages and groups on Facebook:

“If there was just one change you could make to the way things are today in the worlds of cocoa and/or chocolate, what would that one change be, and why?”

I predicted the responses would fall into two main classes:

Regulatory / Legislative ideas.
Social pressure ideas.

I will be sharing the responses here and talking about them. I will, of course, be taking comments and questions during the live stream and members can always add their input in the comments.

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Responses

Video

0:00

Some of the responses are truncated. You can view the post on my LinkedIn page.

Facebook

One Change I Have Proposed

5 Percent 4 Farmers

5Percent4Farmers was founded on the premise that existing certifications (e.g., Fair Trade) don’t provide enough value to farmers worldwide.

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This is an idea I started floating back in 2009!

Another Change I Have Proposed

Make it illegal for companies to externalize costs. All costs (including environmental impact) must be recognized and accounted for on financial statements.

This is across the board, not just in cocoa and chocolate.

Resources

Cocoa Barometer 2022

Chocolate: History, Culture, and Heritage 1st Edition

In 1998, the Chocolate History Group was formed by the University of California, Davis, and Mars, Incorporated to document the fascinating story and history of chocolate. This book features fifty-seven essays representing research activities and contributions from more than 100 members of the group. These contributors draw from their backgrounds in such diverse fields as anthropology, archaeology, biochemistry, culinary arts, gender studies, engineering, history, linguistics, nutrition, and paleography. The result is an unparalleled, scholarly examination of chocolate, beginning with ancient pre-Columbian civilizations and ending with twenty-first-century reports.

Buy This Book (Amazon Affiliate Link)

Hashtags

#bethechange
#chocolate #craftchocolate #cacao #cocoa #cacau
#TheChocolateLife #LaVidaCocoa