Alternative Trade

Industrialization and the desire for money have immensely impacted the chocolate industry. Once a culturally significant food with deep meaning has turned into solely a source of income, with a forgotten history of the bean. “The case of cacao is symptomatic; once the drink of Maya lords, it is now a commodity subject to cutthroat international competition.” [1]The local chocolate businesses have been taken over by large companies, such as Hershey’s, and have taken away the intimacy and community aspect of cacao farming. These companies do not care about the sweat and tears involved in farming the cacao beans, the family traditions that come with the process, and the people whose lives revolve around the beans, but only about obtaining mass quantities of money. In places like El Ceibo, the people had goals of improving their production of chocolate. For example, one local said, “as you’ve seen in our project proposal, we desperately need a fund for purchasing beans from the peasant farmers. We also need to build a second fermentation plant accessible to the farmers on the other side of the river, and we need a truck for hauling our beans to the capital city.”[2]Despite the desire for upgrades in the system, the people of El Ceibo wanted the resulting benefits to remain local. This, however, was overlooked by large companies. Another community member from El Ceibo stated, “look, we are not trying to sell out candy in the downtown sectors of the city but to campesinos, poor folk like ourselves who have migrated from rural villages. They love them.” [3]

Mass production and receiving maximum money quickly masked the original goals of local cacao farmers. “Initially our buyers were relatives and friends…then co-op members also began taking chocolates back home for sales in community stores… Aymara wholesales began showing up and buying in bulk… and we are starting to find bigger clients that will enable our enterprise to grow and bring even more benefits back to the Alto Beni farming communities.”[4]The issue with this statement is the benefits don’t go back to the community, as “producers only receive 15 per cent of the sale value for cocoa-based finished products.” [5]In addition, the large companies take only the good quality chocolate and sell it, leaving the deformed, unsellable chocolate for the locals and cacao farmers. This adds to the problem of the locals’ goals not being met.

The quality of the cacao produced has also lost importance. The once hands-on process has been replaced by machines specialized in mass production. Instead of the quality of the chocolate being of utmost importance, “the success of fast foods, he insinuates, depends on compulsive gluttony and unrefined taste, both of which manifest in fat bodies.” [6]Overall, the possibility of income that comes with chocolate has taken over the original meaning of the sweet. There is a large gap between the goals of local cacao farmers and the goals of the large companies who have taken over in chocolate sales, and the reality is the goals of the large companies will be met while the locals’ will be forgotten.

[1]Jeffrey Pilcher, Taco Ball, Maseca, and Slow Food-A Postmodern Apocalypse for Mexico’s Peasant Cuisine(Altamira Press, 2008), 407.

[2]Kevin Healy, Cacao Bean Farmers Make a Chocolate Covered Development Climb(University of Notre Dame Press, 2002), 127.

[3]Kevin Healy, Cacao Bean Farmers Make a Chocolate Covered Development Climb(University of Notre Dame Press, 2002), 131.

[4]Kevin Healy, Cacao Bean Farmers Make a Chocolate Covered Development Climb(University of Notre Dame Press, 2002), 132.

[5]Ndongo Sylla, The Fair Trade Scandal: Marketing Poverty to Benefit the Rich (Ohio University Press, 2014), 29.

[6]Julie Guthman, Fast Food/Organic Food-Reflexive Tastes and the Making of Yuppie Chow(Routledge, 2003), 46.