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Chocolate — Food of the GodsLesson 14 of 16

Cumulative Review: Chocolate

Goal: After this lesson you can recall the top facts from all four lenses and see how they connect. Subject: Review | Run time: about 6 minutes

Quick recall

Let's pull the Chocolate episode together, one quick fact per lens, then the thread that ties them.

The idea

Start with geography. Cacao grows in the narrowest belt of any major commodity, only about 20 degrees North to 20 degrees South, as a forest understory tree that needs shade and tiny forest midges to fruit (Coe & Coe, 2013). Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana now grow most of it, mostly the hardy Forastero variety, and a 2 degree rise could make up to 89 percent of suitable land unsuitable (International Cocoa Organization, 2023; Läderach et al., 2013).

Now social studies. Chocolate began as a sacred, bitter drink. The Olmec used wild cacao, the Maya wrote it into creation in the Popol Vuh, and the Aztec used cacao beans as money (Coe & Coe, 2013; Christenson, 2007). Then conquest reversed everything. After 1521, sugar turned bitter xocolatl into a European sweet, production later shifted to West African plantations, and the value captured locally fell from 100 percent to about 3 to 6 percent (Coe & Coe, 2013). The modern cost shows in the 2020 finding of about 1.56 million children in West African cacao labor (NORC, 2020).

Then economics. Chocolate is a 161 billion dollar market, but the farmer gets only about 3 to 6 percent of a bar, because a few companies control processing, a monopsony, and producers are caught in a commodity trap (International Cocoa Organization, 2023; Fountain & Huetz-Adams, 2023). And yet paying a living wage would raise a 3 dollar bar by only about 15 percent (Fountain & Huetz-Adams, 2023).

Last, language. The word trail, cacahuatl to cacao to cocoa, follows the path from indigenous control to European appropriation (Coe & Coe, 2013). And the same bean was the food of the gods to the Maya and a drink for pigs to Cortes, which is how you learn to read perspective and bias (Christenson, 2007; Cortes, 1520).

Remember this

Here is the thread. Chocolate has the widest gap of any commodity in this series between the value it creates and the value its growers keep, and between the story it tells and the reality behind it. A sacred bean became a cheap sweet, its homeland lost its place, and the people who grow it earn cents while a 161 billion dollar industry sells a golden, European dream. When you pick up a chocolate bar, you are holding that gap.

Quick check

One last check before the quiz. Why is the gap between chocolate's marketing and its production reality so striking? Because the ads show golden, European luxury while hiding the West African farmers and the 1.56 million child laborers who actually grow the cacao for cents a day (NORC, 2020; Coe & Coe, 2013).

Key Takeaways

  • Geography: cacao's narrow belt and forest dependence make it the most place-bound and climate-exposed commodity in the series (Coe & Coe, 2013; Läderach et al., 2013).
  • Social studies: from sacred Mesoamerican drink to colonial commodity, with local value falling from 100 percent to 3 to 6 percent (Coe & Coe, 2013).
  • Economics: a 161 billion dollar market where the farmer gets 3 to 6 percent and a living wage would cost the buyer about 15 percent more (International Cocoa Organization, 2023; Fountain & Huetz-Adams, 2023).
  • Language: the cacao-to-cocoa trail and the food-of-the-gods versus for-pigs contrast teach appropriation and bias (Coe & Coe, 2013; Cortes, 1520).

Sources

  • Christenson, A. J. (2007). Popol Vuh: The sacred book of the Maya. University of Oklahoma Press.
  • Coe, S. D., & Coe, M. D. (2013). The true history of chocolate (3rd ed.). Thames and Hudson.
  • Cortes, H. (1520). Letters from Mexico (A. Pagden, Trans., 1986). Yale University Press.
  • Fountain, A., & Huetz-Adams, F. (2023). Cocoa barometer 2023. VOICE Network. https://www.voicenetwork.cc
  • International Cocoa Organization. (2023). Quarterly bulletin of cocoa statistics (Vol. XLIX, No. 1). https://www.icco.org
  • Läderach, P., Martinez-Valle, A., Schroth, G., & Castro, N. (2013). Predicting the future climatic suitability for cocoa farming of the world's leading producing countries. Climatic Change, 119(3-4), 841-854. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-013-0774-8
  • NORC at the University of Chicago. (2020). Assessing progress in reducing child labor in cocoa growing areas of Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana. https://www.norc.org
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Cumulative Review: Chocolate · ElementaryMBA