Friday, April 27, 2007

THREATS TO THE SURVIVAL OF THE COCOA INDUSTRY...


TheUS Chocolate Manufacturers' Association is lobbying the US Food and Drug Administration to allow cocoa substitutes in the manufacture of chocolate

The US Chocolate Manufacturers' Association ((CMA), whose members include Hershey, Nestle SA and Archer Daniels Midland Co., has a petition before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for permission to substitute cocoa butter and cocoa solids in the manufacture of chocolate with artificial sweeteners, milk substitutes and vegetable fats.

This will not only significantly alter the taste of chocolate, but more importantly, it threatens the livelihoods of millions of cocoa farmers in West Africa and in other cocoa producing countries . Ivory Coast and Ghana together produce over 70% of the global cocoa supply. 
Replacing cocoa with artificial substitutes in chocolate 
manufacturing would result in the
collapse of the cocoa sector around the world and would throw 
millions of poor small scale cocoa farmers deeper into poverty.

We all have a MORAL obligation to prevent this from happening to protect the weaker members of our society. 
"Survival of the fittest" is the law of the jungle. 
Upliftment of the weakest is the Law of Humanity.