Why chocolate could become extinct within the next 40 years
Chocolate has been named among America’s favorite candies ever since it was discovered and made into the first chocolate bar by Joseph Fry in 1847. It has been produced by many companies including Hershey’s, Nestle, Godiva, and many more. Unfortunately, America’s favorite sweet treat may be going extinct within 40 years.
Cacao plants occupy a precarious position on the globe. They can only grow within a narrow strip of rainforest about 20 degrees north and south of the equator, where rain, humidity, and temperature all stay relatively constant throughout the year. Over half of the world’s chocolate now comes from just two countries in West Africa— Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. But those areas won’t be suitable for growing the cacao plant within the next few decades. Cacao plants are under threat of devastation because of warmer temperatures and dryer weather conditions. What will happen to chocolate now? At the University of California, the director of plant genomics, Myeong-Je Cho, and Mars, the food and candy company (best know for Snickers) have teamed up in attempts to save the plant. They plan to use a new technology called Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR), invented by Jennifer Doudna, UC Berkley geneticist. If all goes as planned, this technology will work by tweaking the plant’s DNA to produce less of a dangerous toxin that it makes in hotter temperatures; the plant will then be able to survive despite negative factors such as the shift in climate, water shortages, and warmer temperatures. Although it was originally created to eradicate human diseases by modifying the DNA of newborn babies, Doudna thinks its most profound applications won’t be on humans, but on the food they eat. In September, Mars pledged $1 billion as part of an effort called “Sustainability in a Generation,” which aims to reduce the carbon footprint of its business and supply chain by more than 60% by 2050 and help safeguard future cacao supply. 
“We’re trying to go all in here,” Mars’ chief sustainability officer, Barry Parkin, told Business Insider.
The climate change isn’t the only thing responsible for the chocolate deficit. Fungal diseases, like Frosty Pod Rot and Witch’s Broom, essentially wiped out cocoa production in Latin America and continues to plague West Africa. The devastation caused by Frosty Pod Rot has even turned people away from cocoa farming, further worsening the supply side. Not to mention, the demand for our go-to sweet has only continued to rise. A small portion of this increased demand comes from China and other eastern countries, where chocolate has grown in popularity. In the West, a growing love for dark chocolate, which requires larger amounts of cocoa, has also put a strain on cocoa demand. These shortages are slowly going to cause and are currently causing price hikes. Between 2012-2014, the average price of chocolate rose 60% and will only likely continue to rise as shortages grow. So, although we may still be able to find chocolate in the store, it may eventually become unaffordable for many people.
Though the CRISPR technology may work, it takes about two years for the cacao seeds to produce fruit. Until then, we may see an abundance of fruity flavored chocolate.
