Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate!
One of my favorite things to eat is chocolate. Although chocolate isnt all that good for you, I never considered its effects on the environment. So as I was researching I ended up on about my planet.com here I found just how much of a toll making and producing chocolate has on our earth. Here are some interesting facts that I found:
- Chocolate creates a large water footprint, often several thousand gallons of water per 100 grams of chocolate do to the need to grow the cocoa plants quickly and effectively.
- Some candy bars contain dual wrapping which is not always recyclable.
- Growing the cocoa plants often takes up a considerable amount of land.
- Farmers might also use possible herbicides that keep weeds from competing with the plants.
- Lastly you have to consider the human toll chocolate creates. Thousands of people work in slave-like conditions to harvest the cocoa beans, making nearly no money and suffering in terrible conditions.
To prevent some of these things there is always organic chocolate. Although this chocolate may cost a bit more its better for the environment and for you. So the next time you are craving chocolate.....think about trying an organic chocolate.
Heres a link to Hershey chocolate one of my favorites:) Here you can click on your favorite treats and see the nutritional information, the history of Hersheys and a timeline its pretty cool check it out!!!!
Posts
It is interesting to note the "assembly line" a product must go through before it gets into our hands. The manufacturing of one product affects several other things that affect several other things...the chain goes on and on.
ReplyDeleteP.S. - I have been meaning to get my hands on some organic chocolate...I am going to look into it this weekend!
Cool post, Jessica! I was aware of all the human labor necessary to produce our chocolate, but I never stopped to consider the other factors: use of water, land, chemicals, and all that foil wrapping! I guess chocolate really is "guilty pleasure", huh?
ReplyDeleteWow... Now I'm kind of glad that chocolate isn't as big of a "fav" for me!
ReplyDeleteWow, I never would think that chocolate would be so bad for the environment! Sad, I love it and could probably never give it up.
ReplyDeleteBut I'll look into that organic chocolate, I never even knew it existed. I tend to be an organic freak sometimes so that's kind of weird I never heard of it before.
Anyway thanks for the post!