How Did The Chocolate Affect The Cote D Ivoire

Is chocolates true cost really worth it? Chocolate originated in the Americas. It was a delicacy in the American Empires. Europe was introduced to this New World delicacy when Columbus brought some back from his voyages. Spanish conquistadores popularized it. It was prefered over sugar or honey. At the start of the 19th century chocolate was extremely popular in Europe. They started farming it Africa to meet the demand. Cote d’Ivoire was a french colony that produced this cash crop. When they became their own country they continued to send cocoa to Europe. Revolutions in 2002-2011 brought up the question if they should continue to produce the chocolate based on the costs of making it? While chocolate is a big part of the economy, it’s bad
The demand of chocolate has been increasing. To keep up in places like the Cote d’Ivoire 74 percent of the supposedly protected forests the researchers surveyed had been taken over by cocoa farms(Document D). These forests are supposed to be protected by the government, but instead they are being destroyed. In the Africa is a place where many flora and fauna are diverse and unique to that area. These changes can have drastic effects. As stated in document D “the forests are mostly gone and the monkeys that they once held aren’t far behind. Several species have been critically endangered. One may now be extinct.” Forest and animals are what makes a place beautiful. Also by killing a species off it can disrupt the food cane. Due to deforestation the Cote d’Ivoire only has about 2% of the ancient forests left these environments house around 4,700 plant species and about 1,000 animals (Our Africa). If these species are destroyed not only would it be sad, but Cote d’Ivoire ecosystem would be destroyed as well. Forest, animals, and people work together to create a balance and when that balance is disturbed it affects every party negatively. By destroying one thing it has profound affect on things you never knew could happen. By trying to make a quick buck off planting cocoa. Their actions have taken a toll on the environment and if they don’t stop now there may not be any
People may say why does this affect me these are people halfway across the globe? It affect everyone because not only do they produce the chocolate that people love so much, in the process their destroying their country. If people want to have chocolate in the future we need to address the issues now. If the Cote d’Ivoire doesn’t do well financially they will not be able to keep up with the demand for chocolate. Also, if the environment becomes ruined beyond repair the production will slow. That means higher prices for an average bar. Finally, the people who live in Africa and produce the bars lives are only negative. Since they are undernourished and don’t have proper farming tools it is much harder to produce chocolate. Another thing is much of it is produced by child labor. Which is never good because those are people that could improve the world and Cote d’Ivoire if they had a chance. In essence it can only benefit everyone if we improve the way we get and grow cocoa