Do you want to know what will trigger the apocalypse and plunge humanity into a ravaged world where we are reduced to bands of scavengers roaming a scarred wasteland in tricked-out vehicles? It isn’t oil, or water, or rising sea-levels. It isn’t even Ebola. Or the possibility of zombies. It’s chocolate. That’s right: chocolate. We’re running out of it.
We are approaching Peak Cocoa, according to both Mars and Callebaut (the two biggest chocolate-makers in the world). “Chocolate deficits, whereby farmers produce less cocoa than the world eats, are becoming the norm,” reports the Washington Post. “Already, we are in the midst of what could be the longest streak of consecutive chocolate deficits in more than 50 years. It also looks like deficits aren’t just carrying over from year-to-year—the industry expects them to grow.” Dry weather in West Africa has resulted in less cocoa, and a fungal disease with the suspiciously-jaunty name of frosty pod “has wiped out between 30 percent and 40 percent of global cocoa production.” Add to that the increasing global demand for chocolate – dark chocolate, especially – and the result is a steep increase in the price of cocoa, and a demand that vastly outnumbers supply: “Last year, the world ate roughly 70,000 metric tons more cocoa than it produced. By 2020, the two chocolate-makers warn that that number could swell to 1 million metric tons, a more than 14-fold increase; by 2030, they think the deficit could reach 2 million metric tons.” Start hoarding your Snickers and Dairy Milk bars now.
