Chocolate lovers, embrace those chocoholic fixes now. A recent report from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture predicts it could become a luxury product if West Africa's temperatures rise thanks to climate change.
The world's $9 billion chocolate industry gets almost half of its cocoa from West African farmers in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), reports Thinkprogress.org.
According to the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, if Ghana and the Ivory Coast experience a 2.3 Celsius degree jump in temperature by 2050, the climate won't be suitably cool enough to grow the crop.
This is a problem, given these farmers financially rely on cocoa as their sole crop. "Many of these farmers use their cocoa trees like ATM machines," said CIAT's Dr. Peter Laderach, the report's lead author, in a press statement. "They pick some pods and sell them to quickly raise cash for school fees or medical expenses. The trees play an absolutely critical role in rural life."
The research, commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, used the combined results of 19 climate models to assess the impact of climate change on cocoa production.
As early as 2030, farmers will begin to see an impact on the crop, notes Scientific American.
Read more:
The world's $9 billion chocolate industry gets almost half of its cocoa from West African farmers in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), reports Thinkprogress.org.
According to the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, if Ghana and the Ivory Coast experience a 2.3 Celsius degree jump in temperature by 2050, the climate won't be suitably cool enough to grow the crop.
This is a problem, given these farmers financially rely on cocoa as their sole crop. "Many of these farmers use their cocoa trees like ATM machines," said CIAT's Dr. Peter Laderach, the report's lead author, in a press statement. "They pick some pods and sell them to quickly raise cash for school fees or medical expenses. The trees play an absolutely critical role in rural life."
The research, commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, used the combined results of 19 climate models to assess the impact of climate change on cocoa production.
As early as 2030, farmers will begin to see an impact on the crop, notes Scientific American.
Read more:
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