CHOCOLATE
Chocolate is produced mainly from cocoa, a cash crop, and the crop is planted in and derives its nutrients from the natural environment, an area of interest to this blog. In this post I am going to look at the negative effect of the planting of cocoa and the production of chocolate on the natural environment. The natural environment from the American perspective is composed of biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere and anthrosphere. Biosphere relates to plants and animals and other life forms. Hydrosphere relates to water on Earth. Atmosphere relates to air. Lithosphere relates to soil. Anthrosphere relates to humans and their activities. The passion of this blog is to look into the interrelationship between these components of the natural environment for informed advocacy for a clean and balanced natural environment, sustainably. Primarily, it is keeping a tab on an anthrosphere with a tendency of pervasively intruding into the other spheres leaving in its trail a natural environment reeling under filth and imbalance.
From the foregoing philosophical
context let us situate the cultivation of cocoa and the production of
chocolate. The cultivation of cocoa involves the interplay of all the five
spheres. The cultivation of cocoa needs air, water, soil, plants and microbial
and man. The chocolate which is produced mainly from cocoa is the brainchild of
man.
CHOCOLATE
As hinted chocolate is produced
mainly from cocoa, specifically the cocoa seed. In Ghana February 14, Valentine
Day is observed as Chocolate Day. Chocolate is regarded as a special
confectionery by many, and it is associated with romance. My connection with
chocolate production is that I have shares in a chocolate producing company in
Ghana called Cocoa Processing Company. We the shareholders get chocolate bars,
pebbles etc. at AGMs (annual general meetings).The following are the stages that
lead to chocolate production:
- Harvesting and fermentation the cocoa beans- cocoa beans removed from cocoa pod are wrapped in plantain leaves for five to eight days to effect fermentation.
- After fermentation the seeds are spread out and dried in the sun from 5 to 12 days to reduce moisture.
- The dry beans are weighed, and quality checked.
- The dry quality beans are then sent to chocolate manufacturers.
- The chocolate manufacturers subject the dry cocoa beans to further processing. The dry beans are sorted and cleaned, and roasted at temperature between 120°C to 149°C.
- The roasted cocoa beans are then broken into bits to separate the bean itself from the covering (shell).
- The cocoa bean is further blown with air to remove residual shell from the bean itself.
- The crushed cocoa bean (nibs) is further ground into thick liquid brown stuff. This stuff is made up of 55% to 60% cocoa butter with particles of cocoa.
- The thick liquid brown stuff (cocoa mass) is then pressed to get cocoa butter and cocoa powder.
- Cocoa mass and cocoa butter are combined in various measures and sugar and milk added, and stirred over some days. The mixture is then cooled down. From this chocolate is cast into bars etc. Some chocolate is made from cocoa butter and sugar only. Some add nuts, flavors etc.
- The next and concluding stage is for the chocolate to be wrapped and packaged for your consumption.
COCOA
Cocoa the material from which
chocolate is made is a cash crop said to originate in Central America. The
cocoa tree is cultivated in areas 20° north and south of the Equator. Botanical
name given the cocoa tree by Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish natural scientist, is
Theobroma (food of the gods) cacao. The Spaniards introduced the cocoa tree
into the West Indies and Philippines. The cocoa tree was introduced into the
rest of Asia and West Africa. In Ghana it was introduced probably by West
Indians on their missionary work to found the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.
Before Tetteh Quarshie brought cocoa to Ghana (then Gold Coast), the
Presbyterians (then Basel Mission) were already cultivating cocoa brought to
Gold Coast from the West Indies. Tetteh Quarshie spread and popularized the
plant.
There are three main types of
cocoa. The three types are Forastero, Criollo and Trinitario. The first type
make up 95% of world production of cocoa. Cocoa thrive when cultivated under
the canopy of big trees. The two leading producers of cocoa in the world today
are Ivory Coast and Ghana, two neighboring countries in West Africa. West
Africa accounts for 70% of world production of cocoa.
My personal firsthand experience
with cocoa was in the early 1960s. It was in a town in Ghana called Jumapo.
Jumapo is near Koforidua, the capital of Eastern region of Ghana, West Africa.
My mom, a nurse was posted to a clinic in Jumapo then. Beside the quarters
assigned to her, and where we resided, there was a farm. In the farm there were
cocoa trees. When the cocoa ripe we crack the pod open and suck the beans-there
is a slimy stuff around the bean. The bean from which chocolate is made
ENVIRONMENT
You like cocoa products like
chocolate, cocoa drinks etc. You also know now, through this post, if you did
not know already, that it is from cocoa that your delicious chocolate is made.
The question now is at what cost to the environment is chocolate made? It is easy
for one to walk into a store to pick a bar of chocolate off the shelf, pay for
it, and go back home to go and enjoy it. But by the production of chocolate there
is a cost to the environment! I am going on to list some of the costs:
- I have indicated that cocoa trees thrive under the canopy of other trees. Cocoa farmers in their haste to expand cocoa farms clear forests to plant cocoa. The result is deforestation. Trees use carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for photosynthesis, and a byproduct of that process is oxygen which humans need.
- When forest is cleared for intensive cocoa farming biodiversity is interrupted and lost.
- The planting of cocoa hybrids by some farmers require sunlight and pesticide application. The result is habitat loss and chemical spill into the soil. Chemical spilled into the soil as a result of pesticide application compromises soil and stream qualities.
- Wastewater created when washing cocoa beans to process chocolate.
- Dust created when removing shell from cocoa beans create air pollution.
- Noise created in the factory when grinding the beans.
- Fuel used in running factory machines release greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.
PARTING SHOT
Chocolate, produced from cocoa, a
tropical cash crop is a confectionary you may enjoy, indeed many a person enjoy
it, and it has even been described as food for the gods. However, the chocolate
you and I enjoy so much, which perhaps we compete with gods for, come to us at
environmental costs. From the beginning of this post I indicated that five
spheres comprises the natural environment. Humans cultivate cocoa and produce
chocolate. Humans and those activities belong to the anthrosphere. The cocoa
tree planted in place of forest cleared belongs to the biosphere. The soil
contaminated by pesticide that spill off when applied to the cocoa tree belongs
to the lithosphere. The stream contaminated by the pesticide belongs to the
hydrosphere. The greenhouse gas released from the chocolate factory affects the
atmosphere. So from one sphere, anthrosphere the other spheres are invaded
selfishly. But guess what, the invasion and destruction of the other spheres by
the anthrosphere may end up a self-destruction as well because the very
foundation of the anthrosphere is the other spheres.
Reference:
Comments
Post a Comment