Chocolate Research Paper Essay

Chocolate is a mention ingredient in many foods such as milk shakes, glass bars, cookies and cereals. It is ranked as iodine of the approximately favourite flavours in join America and Europe. Despite its popularity virtually people do non see the unique origin of this popular treat. Chocolate is a convergence that requires Gordian procedures to produce. The process involves harvesting burnt umber, refining coca to drinking coffee bean beans, and shipping the drinking chocolate beans to the manufacturing factory for dusting, coaching and grinding.These drinking chocolate beans will consequently be merchandise or exported to opposite countries and be transformed into unlike types of chocolate products. coffee beans grow in countries like Cote dIvoire, gold coast, Indonesia, Brazil, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Malaysia, but the highest burnt umber producing artless is Cote dIvoire. The outturn process of cocoa beans include first, cocoa is harvested manually. The se minal fluid pods of cocoa ar collected and the beans atomic number 18 selected and placed in piles. These cocoa beans ar then ready to be shipped to the manufacturer for production.Cocoa grows in pods that spr turn up off the trunks and branches of cocoa trees. The pods pack the shape and roughly the size of football. The pods unravel out green and turn orange when they are ripe. When the pods are ripe they are harvested gently with machetes. Machines enkindle damage the trees or the clusters of flowers and pods that grow on the trunk, so workers become to harvest the pods by hand, applyation short, hooked blades mounted on long poles to reach the highest fruit. The cocoa seeds then chthoniango a process of fermentation by placing them in large, shallow, heated trays or by covering them with large banana leaves.If the climate is right, they whitethorn be simply heated by the sun. Workers mostly women come along periodically and stir them up so that all of the beans co me out equally fermented. This process may take up to five or eight days. After fermentation, the cocoa seeds are change before they can be scooped into sacks and shipped to chocolate manufacturers. Farmers simply spread the fermented seeds on trays and leave them in the sun to dry. The drying process usually takes about a week and results in seeds becoming reduced to about half of their original weight.During the production process, elbow grease is not equally divided between men and women who work in the planation this brings us to the issue of gender division. The gender divide that exists on the cocoa plantation is that most farm work is conducted by men, although most surely on that point are tasks where women are very(prenominal) active, such as scooping the beans from the already opened husks, turning the beans during the fermentation and drying process, and sewing the jute sacs needed for the packaging of the dried beans. Women in the farms normally tend to the needs o f the family.When female excavate is chartered during the harvesting time the wages given to them are not the akin as those for men. Perhaps another reason why men are preferred is because of their assumed higher productivity pace compared to that of women. Due to different practices followed in individual regions, even within countries, the association of women and their assigned tasks exchange enormously. For instance, because of the popular method of sun drying cocoa beans in Ecuador, it is necessary to clean the beans. This job is mostly undertaken by women.This is not the case in Ghana or Brazil where sun drying is accomplished while protecting the beans from overseas matters and waste. It is interesting to note however that there is no specific formula for the assignment of tasks to women, except during the harvest when the scooping of the beans from the opened pods is primarily performed by women in most cocoa producing countries. Given the great differences in the syst ems of production in producing countries it is tall(prenominal) to find a common percentage that reflects the average participation of the female work force.It is worth mentioning that unlike the coffee agricultural sector, there are no associations or specific groups that house women only tangled in the cocoa sector at any level, although all associations and cooperatives are open to all who qualify. Due to fluctuation of cocoa prices in the worldly concern food market, farmers bemuse no long-term security, and in some situations, they do not have enough funds to support their farming business.Cocoa farmers are always faced with financial hardship they are not fitting to provide for their families as they would want nor have enough funds to start up their own farming business because they only receive a fraction of the proceeds from the selling of the beans on the world market and there are many people in the trading orbit. Cocoa farmers roughly the world face many challeng es. It is estimated that about one-third of global cocoa crops are destroyed by pests and diseases every year. galore(postnominal) cocoa farmers have limited rag to the latest agricultural technologies or methods of cultivation and a few(prenominal) of them have business backgrounds to answer them effectively market their products and manage their operations. Many of the farming communities live in poverty and are infected with diseases. industriousness groups, governments and consumers worldwide have raised concerns about the use of pesticides and child labor on West African cocoa farms. An interview conducted by Christophe Koffi showed that one major problem that women in cocoa production encounter is the omit the of financial capability or backing due to the fact that most of these women find themselves in a male dominated occupation.It is very difficult for them to secure financial aid or loans to manage their farms. For instance, Women cannot inherit or even create a cocoa plantation under our patriarch-dominated tradition, state Vanie, criticising what she called a backwards and misogynist practice (Koffi, 2008) because we still live in a patriarchal dominated society where women do not have the right to own lands and properties. This paper further talks about the sustanability in the production process of cocoa.We will be looking at Lindt& Sprunglis which is a family connection and a major producer of chocolate and other cocoa products with a headquaters in Kilchberg, Switzerland. Lindt & Sprungli is one of the few chocolate unsexrs that have complete control over every step of the production chain starting with the precise selection of the finest cocoa varieties from the best growing areas in the world right on through the careful and expert bear upon until ending with the elegant packaging.Lindt gets its cocoa beans mostly from Ghana and Central and conspiracy America. Lindt has been very conservative in the amount of energy its invests in th e chocolate production process. Each existing and future facility and investment undergoes very detailed analysis to determine how much energy can be saved. Through better insulation and energy recovery, Lindt & Sprungli was able to cut defeat on energy consumption by more than 13% per gross ton produced between 2004 and 2010.The company intends to continue reducing the energy consumption rate per ton produced by an average over the coming years. According to the Lindt publication, The companys efforts since 1999, Lindt & Sprunglis Swiss subsidiary, Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprungli (Schweiz) AG, has been an active member of the Lake Zurich Energy stick GroupThe Swiss government and independent engineers have audited the progress and as a result, the Swiss subsidiary has been granted the official certificate.(Kilchberg, 2012) Since 2007, Lindt & Sprungli under peeing conservation has been participating in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)Since then, the measurements of urine emissions and energy consumption have been largely based on the archetype of the Methodology Fossil Fuels set out in the CDP Protocol botch up water, Lindt & Sprungli continuously monitors and analyses the use of water and the output of wastewater in the production process and intends to further reduce the use of fresh water in this process, which, in turn will impact the output of wastewater (Kilchberg, 2012).The major people that benefit from cocoa production are mostly the braggart(a) corporations. The corporations exploit cocoa farmers in the sense that they do not deliver them the true worth of their roil. Women who work on the farms are underpaid and marginalized. There is as well as the issue of child labor where children of school going age are forced to work on the farms instead of going to school thereby denying them the right to education. The big corporations are not forth coming in releasing information as to how and where they get their cocoa beans from.Most of t hese African countries where these big corporations get their raw materials from do not have access to good roads, health care facilities, schools, electricity, and there is poverty in most of the communities. These big corporations buy the cocoa beans at a very crummy rate and then import them to the western society and the refined product is processed into different kinds of chocolates (e. g. chocolate drink, chocolate bars of different shapes and sizes and chocolate candies etc. ) .Which are sold consumers at exorbitant prices considering the price at which the cocoa beans are bought from the cocoa farmers. This explains how capitalism and big corporation exploit cheap labour. Almost everyone enjoys a bit of chocolate every immediately and again. But if you take a closer look at how cocoa is produced, it may well leave a bitter taste in your mouth.The conditions under which the cocoa farmers in many producer countries live and work are worrying Despite the fact that cocoa is us ually their primary(prenominal) source of income, the families struggle to make a living from it. Child labour is not uncommon. As consumers we can work with NGOs to find means of component the farmers to adapt to new systems of cocoa farming that result higher yields, under socially more acceptable and environmentally friendly conditions, to meet market demands and hence ensure a stable flow income. As a major part of the global cocoa industry which has remained inactive and concealed for so long, consumers of chocolate can demonstrate that they want slavery in the cocoa sector stamped out, and your pressure can highlight their lack of cargo and make them more accountable.Finally all cocoa products, including chocolate, run the run a risk of being tainted by child labour and slavery. To achieve a satisfactory standard of ethical production in chocolate consumers mustiness help to ensure that companies commit to credible and sufficient actions against such things as use of chi ld labour and the exploitation of cocoa farmers and not make false and unsustainable promises to consumers of being slavery- free. The consumers can liaise with government bodies and NGOs to carry on fair prices for the purchase of cocoa products and this will in turn help the farmers to gain access to basic social amenities of life. Reference rascal Archer, D. (2012).ADMs commitment to sustainable cocoa. Milwaukee Copyright 2012 Archer Daniels Midland political party . Clarkson, T. (1998). Anti-slavery. Retrieved November 15, 2012, from www. antislavery. org http//www. antislavery. org/english/privacy_policy. aspx Kilchberg. (2012, April 22). The environment in the Production Process.Retrieved November 13, 2012, from www. Lindt. com http//www. lindt. com/swf/eng/company/social-responsibility/lindts-sustainable-cocoa-supply-chain/ Koffi, C. (2008, November 7). Ivory brim women defy taboos. Retrieved November 11, 2012, from iol News http//www. iol. co. za/news/africa/ivory-coast- women-defy-taboos-1. 423405.