Eat Your Chocolate

1996 was the year of chocolate discoveries. University of California researchers found that chocolate is rich in phenols, like red wine, that prevent the unhealthy oxidation of LDL cholesterol into artery-clogging plaque. Pharmacologists at the Neuroscience Institute in San Diego announced that chocolate contains anandamide, which stimulates the same area of the brain as marijuana. And near year's end came a third, more wondrous, find: the pink-legged graveteiro, a bird whose fate depends on shade-cultivated cacao, the tree that produces cocoa beans. Bret Whitney, an ornithologist at Louisiana State University, and his Brazilian colleagues discovered this acrobatic member of the ovenbird family amidst the rainforest canopies that tower over the cacao plantations of southeastern Bahia, Brazil. Since there have been no sightings of the graveteiro in native forests, one could almost believe that the bird "evolved" to fill an ecological niche created by our appetite for chocolate. Will we have to increase our daily consumption to protect the habitat of this newly-named species? One thing's for certain: our choosing chocolate made of sustainably-grown cocoa beans can benefit both man and beast by maintaining a healthier environment.

Since 1746, Bahian farmers have cleared the understory of the rainforest and thinned the canopies to about 10 trees per acre to plant cacao trees. This thinned-rainforest, "shade" cultivation is supported by the Rainforest Alliance's ECO-O.K. certification program as the least invasive way to grow cacao. Other methods include planting cacao trees amid already-established crops, such as coconut and banana; planting permanent shade trees after rainforest clear-felling; and shadeless, or full-sun, production.

Shade cultivation is a low-maintenance system. Shade trees maintain consistent humidity needed by cacao trees, protect young trees from wind damage, prevent invasions of insects, reduce the growth of weeds, and require less fertilizer than unshaded cultivation. Most countries that have attempted sun cultivation have abandoned it. In sunlight, cacao requires heavy, and expensive, chemical pest control and fertilization to maintain viable yields.

Any agricultural endeavor invariably alters the ecological landscape by displacing some wildlife. However, Elizabeth Skinner, a former researcher for the Rainforest Alliance, says, "Cacao leaves the smallest footprint on the environment compared to other export crops like bananas, sugar cane and coffee." Shaded production in thinned forests encourages a greater biodiversity than other cultivation methods. For example, cocoa plantings in Indonesia and West Africa attract wildlife like monkeys, rodents, squirrels and wild boar. Cocoa plantations, like shade coffee farms, serve as "stopover" points for migratory birds.

The application of highly-toxic pesticides on conventional cacao crops threatens this diversity as well as farmer health. Organochlorine pesticides such as DDT, lindane, endosulfan, dieldrin, endrin, aldrin and heptachlor, persist in the environment and accumulate in animal fat. Many of these are probable or possible carcinogens and have been identified as hormone-disruptors. Though almost all have been banned, blackmarket distribution and stockpiling permit continued application.

Also used on cacao are paraquat, a possible human carcinogen and a "Tox I" pesticide, which means it is extremely dangerous to workers, and the herbicides 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D--also suspected carcinogens and hormone disruptors. These pesticides are applied during the rainy season, tainting river and stream water used for bathing, drinking and cooking. Chemical fertilizers contaminate ground and surface water, encouraging the growth of microorganisms, like algae, which deoxygenate water and kill fish.

In the 1980s, the crash of cocoa bean prices on international markets hit growers hard, while a fungal disease called witch's broom devastated Latin American cocoa production. As a result, many farmers are growing chemical-free cacao by default, but most are not certified as organic. And despite reduction in chemical use, the environment still suffers. In Bahia, for example, "Growers cut down timber because they're desperate for cash," says Angus Wright, a professor at California State University, Sacramento. Forests are also cleared for sugar cane and cattle grazing, which the fragile soils of the region cannot tolerate for long, Wright says.

By supporting organically-certified chocolate, we can encourage growers to pursue sustainable methods. As Janet Jennings of Sunspire, a producer of organic chocolate chips, puts it, "The growers get paid a higher premium which allows them to continue producing cocoa instead of selling their land, developing it and moving into the cities." Sunspire and companies like The Organic Commodity Project, Newman's Own and Cloud Nine apply fair-trade principles by paying 30 to 50 percent above market price for organically-grown beans. These premiums, along with increased demand for sustainably-produced chocolate, may help preserve both the health and welfare of five to six million cacao farmers worldwide and the homes of such specialized creatures as the pink-legged graveteiro.