REAL LIFE NEWS: THE GIANT CHOCOLATE GREENHOUSE
by Hazed
It’s enough to send chills down the spine of any chocoholic like me: the prospect of a world chocolate shortage that could send prices rocketing.
(I covered this story a few months ago here, although a bit of research showed it wasn’t going to be as bad as advertised.)
Now a new project is coming to the rescue of beleaguered chocolate-lovers, in the shape of a giant greenhouse to the west of London.
The International Cocoa Quarantine Centre acts as a clearing house for cocoa, which needs to be quarantined before it can be grown. Now they’ve built a massive greenhouse close to Reading University, which contains 400 cocoa varieties.
The aim is to produce new genetic material for cocoa plants which will protect them against destruction by pests and disease. Currently, these scourges destroy around 30% of the world’s supply before it can be turned into chocolate.
Improving the quality of the cocoa crop, and increasing efficiency in its production, should both help to keep prices down even if demand does continue to rise. “One of the principal issues concerning cocoa improvement is the supply of reliably clean, healthy, interesting cocoa material,” Professor Paul Hadley, the cocoa project leader at the University of Reading, said. “You need some mechanism to make sure that if you are transferring the stuff, you’re not transferring pests and diseases.”
I’ll support anything that keeps the price down and allows me to continue to indulge in the yummy chocolately goodness.
