Cocoa

Product Description

Chocolate has long been a favorite indulgence But behind every chocolate bar we unwrap there is a world of power struggles & political maneuvering over its most important ingredient cocoa In this incisive book Kristy Leissle reveals how cocoa which brings pleasure & wealth to relatively few depends upon an extensive global trade system that exploits the labor of five million growers as well as countless other workers & vulnerable groups The reality of this dramatic inequity she explains is often masked by the social cultural emotional & economic values humans have placed upon cocoa from its earliest cultivation in Mesoamerica to the present day Tracing the cocoa value chain from farms in Africa Asia Latin America & the Caribbean through to chocolate factories in Europe & North America Leissle shows how cocoa has been used as a political tool to wield power over others Cocoa's politicization is not however limitless it happens within botanical parameters set by the crop itself & the material reality of its transport storage & manufacture into chocolate As calls for justice in the industry have grown louder Leissle reveals the possibilities for & constraints upon realizing a truly sustainable & fulfilling livelihood for cocoa growers & for keeping the world full of chocolate