In celebration of July 7th, World Chocolate Day, Jorden and Kimberly consider all things chocolate. What should be a sustainable contribution to the planet’s welfare instead exploits the environment and producers. To combat labor issues and promote sustainability, the Harkin-Engel Protocol aimed to address this complex and often troubling system of cacao and chocolate production. Despite the challenges, there's hope for positive change through better sourcing practices and conscious consumption.

Key Topics Jorden and Kimberly discuss include:

• What information should appear on a candy bar wrapper, but doesn’t
  


• How two US Congressmen pushed to end child slave labor in the cacao industry


• Why farmers earn only a fraction of the profits from chocolate


• How the same volatile market for farmers earns corporations billions a year


• How a bafflingly huge percentage of wasted cacao pods can be upcycled


• Just how many other food crops can be grown with cacao trees


• Who grows the most cacao and who’s closing in quickly


• Why cacao production should be more sustainable than it is

Recommended Resources

• Chocolate manufacturers’ Score Card, ranking corporations’ sustainability and a summary article


• The futures market on chocolate


• Country producer rankings


• The International
  Cocoa Organization’s
  farming review and development projects
  


• The World Cocoa Foundation 


• Cocoa sustainability report, 2022


• Cocoa growing and production alternatives, along
  with full sun cultivation developments


• Upcycling cacao pods to reduce waste and increase farmer
  earnings


• Chocolate consumption and trends


• The Future of Cacao Farming


• Kimberly’s
  Substack newsletter
  post