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BVC: Chocolate — Food of the Gods
Lesson 16 of 16
Lessons
Chocolate, the Food of the Gods
The Cacao Tree and the Narrowest Belt
The Big Producers and the Cacao Varieties
A Two-Degree Threat
Food of the Gods
Conquest and the Great Reversal
The Children in the Cacao
The Commodity Trap
The Fifty-Cent Question
Cacao, Cocoa, Chocolate
Two Ways of Seeing a Bean
Reading a Chocolate Ad
Key Terms: Chocolate
Cumulative Review: Chocolate
Sources and Further Reading: Chocolate
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Knowledge Check: Chocolate
Knowledge Check: Chocolate
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1. What does the scientific name Theobroma cacao mean?
Forest fruit
Sweet tree
Food of the gods
Bitter bean
2. How wide is the cacao growing belt compared with other commodities?
The narrowest of any major commodity, about 20 degrees North to 20 degrees South
The same as coffee
It grows at any latitude
The widest, from 42 North to 33 South
3. Cacao is an understory tree. What does that mean?
It grows taller than every other tree
It grows only in deserts
It grows in shade beneath a taller forest canopy, not in open sun
It grows underground
4. What pollinates cacao flowers, and why does it tie cacao to the forest?
Wind, so forest is not needed
Hummingbirds
Tiny midges that live in forest-floor litter, so cacao needs forest biodiversity to fruit
Honeybees, which can live anywhere
5. Which country grows the most cacao, about 42 percent of the world's supply?
Ecuador
Ghana
Mexico
Cote d'Ivoire
6. What is the geographic irony about where cacao grows today?
Cacao is from the Americas, but most of it now grows in West Africa
Cacao is from Africa, but most now grows in Asia
Cacao only grows where it was first domesticated
Cacao now grows mainly in Europe
7. Which cacao variety makes up about 80 percent of world production?
Trinitario, a balanced hybrid
Criollo, a rare and complex cacao
Forastero, a hardy, basic, somewhat bitter cacao
Nacional, an heirloom cacao
8. About how much does a cacao farmer in Cote d'Ivoire often earn per day?
About 6 dollars
About 100 dollars
About 0.50 to 0.84 dollars
About 50 dollars
9. What could a 2 degree Celsius temperature rise do to cacao-growing land?
Have no measurable effect
Move cacao to the poles
Make up to 89 percent of today's suitable land unsuitable
Double the suitable land
10. Why is cacao more exposed to warming than coffee?
It does not need water
It grows only on mountaintops
It grows at low elevation, so it cannot climb to cooler high ground
It needs frost to survive
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