ENV 102 Lecture 13: Geographies of Food - Cacao and Chocolate

These flashcards cover the geographic, historical, and moral dimensions of chocolate production and consumption as presented in ENV 102 Lecture 13.

Geographies of food

Spatial distributions, patterns and arrangements of food production, distribution and consumption around the world shaped by complex interactions between and amongst people, plants, animals and the environment.

Material

The physical characteristics of food; for example, cocoa as a warm brown chocolate flavoured milky liquid.

Semiotic

The making and communicating of meaning; for example, cocoa as a soothing, calming, and comforting beverage.

Six dimensions of food

Essential for humans, renewable resource, tradeable good, cultural determinant, human right, and public good (food as a commons).

Theobroma cacao L.

A rainforest species that grows beneath canopy trees and is the biological source of cocoa.

Natural range of cacao

The Amazonian basin.

Modern cacao production zone

Located in the tropics, specifically within $10^\text{o}$ of the equator.

17th century European chocolate

A bitter, exotic, and luxurious drink consumed by the elite that required specialised equipment for preparation.

Industrialized production refinements (1800-1900s)

Methods developed to refine cacao beans into cocoa powder, cocoa butter, and cocoa liquor for mass production.

Netherlands

The largest importer of cocoa beans.

Belgium

The largest exporter of cocoa beans across Europe.

Smallholder farming

A production method accounting for $70\%$ of modern cacao, typically involving plots of $1$-$5$ hectares.

West Africa production share

The region consisting of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana which accounts for approximately $60\%$ of global production.

Global tropical forest loss (1998-2008)

Calculated at $2$-$3$ million hectares lost specifically to cocoa cultivation.

Cocoa agro-forest

A potential agent of reforestation that can restore previously cleared pasture or degraded land and aid biodiversity conservation.

Social inequalities in cocoa

Issues including declining bean prices, poverty for growers earning <$US\$1$ per day, child labour, and gender inequality.

Cacao-trace

An in-house cocoa sustainability program of Puratos; as of $2023$, $25\%$ of total volume for certain products is sourced through this program.