Rising price of chocolate

Chocoholics beware - you could be paying a lot more for chocolate in the future.

Even if you're not addicted, we should all be aware that disease, demand, and unfair trade policies are putting huge pressure on the cocoa market. As stocks fall and demand rises, it's pushing prices up and up. Disease has killed crops in major growing regions and farmers who are not making enough money because of unfair compensation are closing shop and heading to the cities. All the more reason to be moderate in consumption and purchase fair trade chocolate. Support those local growers!

Cocoa lovers hit by rising price of cocoa as disease blights crops - The Daily Telegraph (6 Jun 2010)

Chocolate supply threatened by cocoa crisis - Discovery News (11 Nov 2010)

Slow Food Tufts

A great blog on Slow Food in part written by an old friend of mine. Well worth following if you're a food nut with a conscience.

http://slowfoodtufts.blogspot.com/

"Dying for a biscuit"

Read this horrifying exposé on palm oil and how it's killing orangutans by destroying rain forest. I've noticed palm oil listed on some products in the UK, including a lot of peanut butter (why the heck would you want another oil in peanut butter when it has its own natural oil?!), but I didn't know that they aren't required to list it as such. It can just be 'vegetable oil'. Apparently some companies like Sainsbury's are making an effort to highlight it on their own products and declare that it's sourced from sustainable sources, but it looks like we consumers could do more to make ourselves aware of what we buy.

BBC News - Panorama - Orangutan survival and the shopping trolley

You can watch it on iPlayer in the UK as well for the next week:
Panorama: Dying for a Biscuit