At its conception, Valentine’s Day had nothing to do with love. The first time romance was even associated with the holiday was introduced in the writings of Chaucer in 1383. Our heart-filled holiday began to see stronger connections to romance during medieval times because knights began to gift roses and serenades to their betrothed. However, Valentine’s Day wouldn’t really be the day we know and love if there wasn’t a bit of chocolate, and during medieval times, sugar was still a rare and expensive commodity.

So when did Chocolate make its Valentine’s Debut?

During the 19th century thanks to a man known as Richard Cadbury.

But first, some Chocolate History

As humans, we’ve loved chocolate (or it’s constructing pieces) for a long time. In fact, our relationship with chocolate dates all the way back to ancient Mayans and ancient Olmecs in Southern Mexico.

Our 21st-century chocolate is highly refined and mass-produced, but it all still comes from the same place: cacao trees. Cacao trees produce these little pods, and each pod contains about 40 cacao beans. These beans are dried and roasted to create cocoa, which we grind into a powder to use in our current form of chocolate. It can take an entire year for a tree to produce enough cocoa beans necessary for just a half-pound of chocolate, so we have to plant a lot of trees (we’ll get into this more!). Until we started utilizing sweeteners, like sugar, chocolate was a revered product but it was ingested as a bitter beverage rather than the indulgent bites we’re all so used to.

So back to Cadbury

Richard Cadbury was the son of a British chocolate manufacturing family in the 19th century. Their family did especially well in the chocolate industry after changing a still-lacking chocolate into a more palatable product. Funnily enough, it was also during this time that Valentine’s Day made a full-on switch into a romantic holiday. 19th century Valentine’s Day was celebrated with depictions of hearts, roses, and even cupid!

So Richard Cadbury, with his better chocolate in hand, decided to up the Cadbury marketing game. Richard Cadbury designed and created beautifully ornate chocolate boxes. With love on his mind and in the air, he was able to make an easy jump from just decorated boxes to Valentine’s decorated boxes.

It’s actually believed that Richard Cadbury was the first person to produce the classic heart-shaped chocolate box!

With the history behind us…

While it’s maybe not surprising, humans are consuming a bunch of chocolate. In America, we eat an average of 58 million pounds per year just in the week leading up to Valentine’s Day! On a global scale, the cocoa production industry is worth $90 billion. Within that multi-billion dollar industry, there are only a handful of companies who are dominating the field, including 3 cocoa trading and processing companies and 5 chocolate manufacturers.

Even though we devour a ton of chocolate, it’s actually not a widely available crop.

If it’s unavailable, where do we get it?

Chocolate is a picky crop, thriving in hot, rainy areas near the Earth’s equator. Our global chocolate supply comes primarily from West Africa, specifically at about 70%. Just within West Africa, there are two main areas that supply the bulk of the 70%. These two countries are Côte d'Ivoire, or the Ivory Coast, and Ghana. The Ivory Coast actually supplies the world with more than a third of our cocoa supply! In the one country, cocoa contributes a tenth to the entire nation’s gross national product (GDP).

Chocolate’s Downsides

Cocoa is grown in monocultures, which is an agriculture practice that produces just a single crop type at a time. Cocoa grows in what is called a full-sun system, so removing any surrounding trees for their potential sun-block is a requirement.

The picky nature of cocoa combined with the cash crop nature and the farmer’s lacking resources makes for a tricky situation. After all, some of the resources that the farmers lack are the land to cultivate the crop. Lacking land has led cocoa farmers to clear out areas within the local tropical rainforests, leading to massive deforestation. An estimated 70% of the deforestation that takes place within West Africa is a direct result of cocoa farming.

In the Ivory Coast alone, 80% of the rainforest is totally depleted, mainly as a result of illegal invasions. These rainforests are considered national parks and are among 200+ government-protected forests, but they are overwhelmed with invasions. Marahoue National Park is a great example, currently housing 30,000 illegal inhabitants. With around 40% of the nation’s cocoa crop being grown illegally in protected areas, it’s clear that these lands are being invaded and destroyed all in an effort to meet our global chocolate quota.

All Things Deforestation

To understand the impact of deforestation, it’s important to understand what’s really being taken away. Tropical Rainforests exist in a very specific sort of climate (high average temperatures and loads of humidity), and the things that live and grow there are often reliant on this environment. Tropical rainforests are estimated to house more than half of the world’s plants and animals and some have yet to even be cataloged by scientists! When farmers have to submit to their last resort and remove the existing trees to plant cocoa, they are causing damage to a delicate ecosystem.

An example of the sort of damage being done can be seen when looking at the West African Guinea Forests, which the forests in the Ivory Coast help to form. Researchers surveyed 23 protected forests and found that 12 forests no longer held primates. The kicker, though, is that these forests are known for their primates. This sort of loss of life is the case with wildlife across the rainforest generally. This probably isn’t surprising after learning that we lost 40 football fields worth of tropical rainforests every minute in 2017. This wasn’t due exclusively to cocoa (looking at you palm oil, soybeans, rubber, timber, and beef), but our chocolate demand is absolutely a massive contributing factor.

Deforestation in tropical rainforests has a negative impact with regard to our pharmacies and doctor’s offices as well. Many of the plants that we find in rainforests go on to supply us with an array of medicines, some of which are anti-cancer drugs. We also rely on the rainforest to supply us with some of our beauty products and even food.

Deforestation and Global Warming

As plants grow, they capture carbon dioxide as a step in their energy process, photosynthesis. Trees stop absorbing carbon dioxide once they’re cut down and they can even begin to release the greenhouse gas a byproduct of decomposition. According to the Woods Hole Research Center, tropical deforestation is responsible for about 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions currently.

Looking to the Future

The likelihood that the cocoa industry has not faced its last challenge is high. Even if illegal farming were to halt completely, climate change is expected to boost temperatures and lengthen draughts – two conditions that make for a bad cocoa season.

So what can you do?

Search for companies that are working hard to grow and sell fair-trade chocolate! For some brand suggestions and fair-trade information, check out Fair Trade Certified. Being fair-trade means that the brands have followed a guide and commitment to growing cocoa in an ethical manner, including proper growing conditions and fair labor (which is also an issue in the chocolate industry).

We’re also beginning to see a push towards changing outdated farming techniques. This change would help to boost the productivity of farms that already exist. Additionally, there are some candy companies that are working to map the cocoa genome so that they can create climate-resilient cocoa plants that are 3-4x more productive.

If you want to opt-out of chocolate this V-Day, here are some suggestions for sustainable gifts!

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