Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Environmental impacts of cocoa farming
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Environmental impacts of cocoa farming
What do you know about the cocoa? Do you think you know about the Cocoa production that is the regions of Latin America, West Africa, and Indonesia? Will do you know that the cocoa was considered bean of gold on beginning of the 20th century, and the cocoa beans it have a high demand on consumer item all over the world, which it used in many products? The cocoa production may affect environmental, economic, and political-social. The cocoa trees it grows under sensitive environment climate conditions. The cocoa plants should have a high temperature between thoroughgoing annual average of 30 - 32ºC and a least possible average of 18 - 21ºC. In addition, the cocoa tree should have plentiful of rainfall and it should be very in good health distributed through the year because it's the most affected climatic factor and those trees are very delicate to soil water deficiency. Moreover, …show more content…
Also, it needs use of light and natural environment shade as it is in the Amazonian forest. (Growing Cocoa , 2013) However, those climatic factors are important to encourage optimum growth of a cocoa plants. Therefore, if it not access to all these environmental climate conditions, it will be affected the cocoa crop and it would not produce the crop and may claim to the drawbacks of the environment. The cocoa trees it also needs an environmental soil conditions. The cocoa needs a soil covering by physical properties, in which the cocoa tree is very delicate to a lack of water, therefore, the soil must have both water retention properties and good drainage. Moreover, the chemical properties are the most important, it replaceable bases in the soil in which should amount to at least 35% of the total cation exchange capacity (CEC), or else nutritional problems are likely. Cocoa is tolerant of acid soils, providing the nutrient content is high enough. The soil should also have a high content of organic matter: 3.5% in the top 15 centimeters of soil.
Depending on the biomes, rainfall and soil can vary. However, the rainfall is typically ranges from 30 cm to 200 cm. In mountainous regions and forest biomes, there would be plenty of rainfall. While in the grasslands, there’s little rainfall. In the temperate zone, there are two main types of trees, coniferous and deciduous. The deciduous trees, in the South, drop their leaves in the winter. Generally, the trees are usually small in height unless in the forest areas. The forests tend to have wide leaves and tall, large trees. The soil in deciduous forests is found to be very fertile. The different amount of rainfall in the forest areas and the grasslands cause the difference between the trees and plant height. The rainfall in forest regions can lead them to be very common with the rainforests. Furthermore, the changes and variation of weather could be the reason as to why the forests shed or don’t shed their leaves. The leaves show a correlation between the fair amount of sunlight during the summer causing the leaves
During Valentine’s week alone, millions of pounds of chocolate candies alone are sold (“Who consumes the most chocolate,” 2012, para 8). This naturally creates a demand for product, which in turns causes a need for ingredients. The main component in chocolate, of course, is cocoa. Since Côte d’Ivoire provides 40 percent of the world’s supply of this crucial ingredient (Losch, 2002, p. 206), it merits investigation i...
During the time frame of 1450-1750, the Columbian Exchange was at its height of power and influence. Many products were introduced from foreign lands, like animals such as cattle, chickens, and horse, and agriculture such as potatoes, bananas, and avocados. Diseases also became widespread and persisted to distant lands where it wreaked devastation upon the non-immunized people. One such influential product during this time period was the cacao, or more commonly known as chocolate. First discovered and used in the Americas, cacao beans quickly traveled to and became a popular treat in European lands. It was valuable in the New World and even used as a currency by the Aztecs. Only the rich and privileged were allowed to purchase the valuable item in the beginning. Cacao was even used in religious ceremonies by the native people. When it moved to Europe and other lands, it also created a lot of stir. The cacao plant had quite a large impact upon the Columbian Exchange.
“Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday conveys the inhumane, gory lynchings of African-Americans in the American South, and how this highly unnatural act had entrenched itself into the society and culture of the South, almost as if it were an agricultural crop. Although the song did not originate from Holiday, her first performance of it in 1939 in New York City and successive recording of the song became highly popular for their emotional power (“Strange fruit,” 2017). The lyrics in the song highlight the contrast between the natural beauty and apparent sophistication of the agricultural South with the brutal violence of lynchings. Holiday communicates these rather disturbing lyrics through a peculiarly serene vocal delivery, accompanied by a hymn-like
Cultures are becoming obsessed with pumpkin spice flavors because it’s just a good flavor. Other reasons why people are obsessed because it’s a newer thing. I really don’t know why everybody likes it I guess just because it’s good. I mean how could you pass up a pumpkin spice latte or pumpkin spice Pringles, pumpkin spice doughnuts or anything like that. People also like pumpkin spice latte because it’s caffeine. The Pumpkin Spice Latte is a coffee drink made with a mix of traditional fall spice flavors.
Though, the origin of the cacao bean is indefinite, the first instant that Europeans encountered cacao beans is alleged to have been in 1502 between Christopher Columbus and the ancient Mayan civilization. Initial impressions were less than satisfactory. Christopher Columbus having believed the beans were “shriveled almonds” (Rosenblum 6), . During Hernan Cortez’s voyage to the Aztec Empire of the Americas during 1517, he was introduced to the Emperor Montezuma’s favorite drink “chocolatl”. Though, he also was not very appreciative of the drink, Cortez was fascinated with the very idea that cacao beans were used as a form of currency among the Aztec. The Spanish would pay Aztec laborers in cacao beans, as they would load their treasure ships with deposits of silver and gold. For this reason, the Spanish nicknamed the cacao bean “black gold” (Lopez 19). Still, it was Spanish monks and missionaries who recognized the value of cacao beans as a medial t...
The life cycle of a pecan tree has four main components: germination, rooting, sprouting and lifespan and reproduction. The many different elements of the pecan tree life cycle contribute to the growth and development of the pecan trees we see today. The life cycle of a pecan tree has many different elements. The cycle begins with the spreading and germination of seeds. Mature pecan trees produce and drop thousands of seeds to the ground during the fall season. Dispersal of these seeds may be through the water, wind or animals but wind will end up pollinating the seeds. Pecan tree seeds lay dormant throughout the winter and will begin the growth process in the spring. The seeds require an adequate amount of warmth and rain throughout the winter and early spring months. Once the germination process has finished, the seed...
Sugar, a sweet crystalized substance, is a commodity that all of society today has acquired. The uses of sugar in the diet of people today is unlimited. Sugar is used in desserts, drinks, as a decoration, and much more. Sugar can be found in almost everything sold at the local grocery store. In Great Britain, by its first introduction, sugar became a most desirable product. It was the increased use of sugar that led to the increase consumption of tea in the British diet. The British desired tea, which they acquired from trade with the Chinese. The desire for tea is one contributing factor that led to the first Opium war.
People have all different kinds of values, wants, needs, long-term goals, and short-term goals. Their differences come from many places such as religion or age. These differences are what makes each individuals values, wants, and needs make them unique to each person individually. My values, wants, needs, long-term, and short-term goals are all unique to myself.
Central Idea: Explain how cocoa beans are processed to produce the chocolate we all know and love
Cocoa solids are valuable for their flavanol antioxidants and alkaloids which have physiological effects on the body and influence the levels of serotonin in the body meaning that they simply bring the perception of “happiness”. Chocolate is one of the most popular foods in the world and is applied widely in the food industry.
The toxicity of the ingredients is ironic due to the fact that these ingredients would result in either additional health problems or death. There is no point in looking beautiful if one is dead. Some recipes even required the ingestion of the cosmetic causing internal health problems that reflect in the outer appearance of the body. For example, arsenic poisoning can lead to the darkening, discoloration, redness, swelling, and bumps on the skin. Consequently, an endless cycle develops with a woman applying additional toxic cosmetics to improve the appearance of oneself due to the increased health problems. On the other hand, for the male physicians reading this text it would be profitable for them to have additional patients that they can
Cocoa production is predicted of getting shortage of supply in 2020 (Nelson, 2017). The famous chocolate drink that Malaysian drink daily, Milo contains cocoa. Other than Milo, Koko Krunch, Nestle Crunch Wafer, KitKat are also mainly made from cocoa. Nestle as a company which largely depends on cocoa bean for its products, will become one of the victim of this cocoa supply risk. The biggest cocoa producer in the world, Ivory Coast, is facing the problem of diseases infected in cocoa plant, frequent rain, and buyers forcing producers to sell cocoa at very low price (The Guardian, 2014). In Malaysia and Indonesia, cocoa plantations are threatened by a tiny moth named as cocoa pod borer which eat the seed (Nelson, 2017).. These pests has cost cocoa
Fossil records are unable to provide information of on the center of origins of the cacao tree. The cacao tree is in the Sterculiaceae family. The first growers of the cacao pods were probably the people who entered the lowland rain forests of the Amazon Basin between 10,000 and 200 B.P. The full name of the cacao tree is Theobroma cacao. Most of the information of the cacao have been derived from the cultivated crop. The life and reproduction life cycle of Theobroma cacao is identical to a tropical rain forest tree species. Cacao grows optimally in minimal moisture and shade. Cacao is dispersed in small, medium and large areas. This is probably the result of animal dropping the seeds after eating the tasty inside of the pods. Cacao pods are very diverse in morphology. These morphological difference suggests genetic differentiation.
This increase in production caused a change at the consumption end. When sugar was first being produced it was seen as a luxury product only accessible to the rich, but then as its production increased and there was a surge amount in the market place its uses changed. It went from being a specialized product used for medicinal, ritual, or for display purposes to a common everyday food substitute. Now the working class people began more than ever to consume large quantities of sugar as a substitute to their calorie lacking diet. The production of sugar in the British West Indies was not able to keep pace with the demands from the mother country. When the supply from the British West Indies increased so did England’s demand for the crop. It seemed like from the middle of the eighteen century onward the islands were never able to produce more sugar than what was consumed by the people in the mother country. “English sugar consumption increased about four-fold in the last four decades of the eighteenth century, 1700-40, and more than doubled again from 1741-45 to 1771-75 (Mintz 1985) . As the English began to incorporate more amounts of sugar into their daily diets they began to find multiple uses of the commodity. Sugar soon developed into a stable product in the lives of people. With the increased use of sugar in multiple forms of consumption it changed from its previous classification as a spice to its own separate category. The use of this newly popular commodity did not lose any popularity as the years passed. Britain became a leading exporter of sugar crops into the world market, with majority of the supply going to feed their own peoples ravenous appetite. In 1800 British consumption of sugar had increased some 2,500 percent in...