Chocolate comes from cacao trees that grow in the tropical jungles 20 degrees north and south of the Equator in a band around the world. Why there and only there? Why not the balmy gardens of coastal Italy or the fertile valleys of California? Turns out cacao WILL grow in other places around the world, but it won't bear fruit. And we want the fruit. The reason is that chocolate needs a dense, humid rain forest - the most dense and fertile the world can offer. Beneath a canopy of shady trees, cacao trees thrive and create thick layers of decaying leaves and undergrowth, a universe in which a tiny insect called the "midge" thrives. It's an annoying little bug - a cousin of the gnat - but it pollinates the flowers of cacao trees to generate the precious pods which contain the precious beans (or seeds) from which chocolate is made. Long live the midge. Like all tropical rain forests, chocolate's growing regions are threatened by deforestation. Over the long term, chocolate is a sustainable crop that will benefit farmers long after logging and cattle farms have devasted the land. Cacao protects the land because it needs multiple layers of trees and relies on the health and diversity of the forest.
EAT CHOCOLATE, SAVE A TREE...... EAT A LOT OF CHOCOLATE, SAVE A FOREST......
