Monte D Ivoire Research Paper

A significant portion of the Ivory Coast’s protected forests have been chopped down over the past few years to make room for illegal cocoa farms. (Doc D) [Ohio State University Professor W. Scott] McGraw and his fellow researchers surveyed 23 protected areas...All told, more than 74 percent of the supposedly protected forests the researchers surveyed had been taken over by cocoa farms. (Doc D) The Ivory Coast also underwent two civil wars between 2002 and 2011 which heavily affected the production of cocoa by about 247,000 metric tons. (Background Essay) The wars disrupted the planting of trees causing cocoa farmers to face less productivity to grow cocoa beans. Many of the cocoa trees are reaching the end of their productivity putting the productivity of cocoa beans at a slower rate. Even though the farmers are planting new trees, it takes three to five years for a cocoa tree to produce pods with the cocoa beans. (Background Essay) This deforestation along with hunting have heavily affected the Ivory Coast. Especially their agriculture and animals

There is a high bargaining power of suppliers because of the need of the key ingredients required for chocolate manufacturing and limited number of suppliers for this industry. Since cocoa trees require tropical climate, it forces the main producers in the west to import them from countries in West Africa or other hot places

Côte d’Ivoire’s mass production practices lead to the cocoa trade becoming a highly influential economic factor (Losch, 2002, p. 210). Because of this, paired with governmental involvement in the sector, dreams of dominating the cocoa market and influencing prices naturally followed (Losch, 2002, p. 210). Unfortunately, market power is more complicated than supplying the majority of product. However, attempts to control the price of cocoa by pulling out of the market temporarily proved disastrous, ultimately aiding the other producers by reducing the competition (Losch, 2002, p. 212). Côte d’Ivoire also quickly realized that it was too dependent on the cocoa trade both economically and politically to employ this tactic for long

The ability to extract and work with iron allowed west African peoples to make better tools and weapons that would give them an economic and military advantage over their neighbors. This advance represents a development landmark that would to growth of large civilizations (things fall apart 2012 pg.17)(national geographic N.D. para.6) underdeveloped areas like in Africa can develop by their own without the invasion of developed countries like america or from Europeans, Why would america pass up all of the benefits of not only for us for for South America as well we would be exciting there development with our help.” in 2000, a fungus spread throughout many of south america cocoa plantations, devastating the economies of the region and driving up the price of chocolate(national geographic N.D. para.6) due to natural disasters south america has been set From their development and we will be their to aid them in return we just need some resources that can benefit the United

Furthermore, forecasts of unreasonable weather can raise fears that crops would be damaged and that production would fall. Such forecasts can also result in pushing cocoa prices to go up. For instance, it is not uncommon that because of the frequent dry weather that hit West Africa in past years, speculations of re-occurrence of another weather dry seasons would persist. Rossingh (2007) reported the following: Drier than usual winds this year in West Africa, where 70 percent of all cocoa beans are grown, prompted the International Cocoa Organization in London last month to increase its forecast for a global supply shortfall this year. Global production will drop 7.5 percent to 3.44 million tons while demand will rise 1.7 percent to 3.55 million tons, the group said May 31. (p.15) Similarly, unfavourable weather is an underlying determinant of cocoa’s market supply. Unfavourable weather will cause a slow and cut down of production of cocoa crops, reduce the available supply of cocoa in the market and cause the entire supply curve to shift leftward, resulting in a spike in cocoa prices at smaller quantities in the market. Political Instability, Civil Unrest or Strikes Political unrest also contributes to the cocoa price equation. Ivory Coast, the global leading supplier of cocoa beans, can be drawn as a good example of how political

The documentary Black Gold, is about the world coffee market and an Ethiopian fair trade cooperative. Ethiopia being the birthplace of coffee is the largest producer of coffee in the world, producing some of the highest quality of coffee beans in the world, like Harar, Yuban and Sidamo types of coffee. The significant problems pointed out in this documentary show what is wrong in the global trading system. Mainly, while most of us continue have our lattes and specialty coffees, the amount paid to the Ethiopian coffee farmers is so low that a lot of them have been forced to chop down some of their coffee fields and rely on other crops to help them survive. The Ethiopian people are malnourished; they have no clean water, no healthcare, and no schools for their families. As quoted in the film, “They are living hand to mouth”.

Observers of failed economic stimulus packages have developed a fear that these large sums of funding will be mismanaged and therefore will not be able to stimulate the economy (“History of Government Spending,” n.d.).

For over one hundred years, there has been only one company that has been on top of the candy industry in North America; Hershey. With over 14,000 employees, serving 70 countries worldwide and net sales of $6.6 billon, Hershey has come out on top. The Hershey company began in 1894 by Milton Hershey. The company has over 8 factories, but their main headquarters resides in Pennsylvania. The beloved Hershey milk chocolate bar has been a favorite by many, but would it still be if more people knew how it came to be that? One of chocolates main ingredients is cocoa. Cocoa, or cocoa beans come from tropical areas around the world, but is mostly found on the Ivory Coast in West Africa. Hershey, along with Mars and Nestle are the three major companies that buy their cocoa from West Africa, but with further investigation, it has been known that over 4,400 children work on those cocoa farms that they buy from.

The chocolate plantations, or the cacao farms as they are more commonly referred to, are primarily located in the tropical areas of Western Africa, Latin America, and Asia. (foodispower.org) Cacao farms are located in these areas because this is where the environment needed for the cacao beans to grow is located. Out of these different areas, the African countries Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire (or the Ivory Coast as it is sometimes referred to) produce over 70% of the world’s cacao beans. (foodispower.org) In Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire whole communities are devoted to just

America is unknowingly supporting child slave labor by buying chocolate from the Hershey, Mars, and Nestle companies. In an effort to keep the prices of chocolate low, these big brands get their cacao needed to make America’s favorite dessert from child slavers on the Ivory Coast, thus promoting the slavers to keep routinely working and beating the child laborers. The chocolate industry is expected to experience a growth in demand of 30% by 2020. This would be a total of 4.5 million tons of chocolate in less than 4 years! Now, this should sound like good news for Ivory Coast cacao farmers and businesses alike, but in actuality it will result in the disregard for the livelihoods of more than five million small-scale family farmers who grow ninety percent of the world's cocoa mean that the industry may simply be unable to provide sufficient supply to meet the

Finally, global economic issues have an immense influence on the world of coffee. Throughout history there has been a pattern that coffee producing countries are economically worse off than those that are consuming the coffee. Pendergrast mentions that “in 1950 the average income in consuming countries was three times that of coffee-growing nations. By the late 1960s it was five times great” (270). With that said, many producing coffee countries were facing endemics and malnourished peoples because workers were receiving absurdly low wages thus placing them into poverty and human suffering (271). Specifically, although 90 percent of El Salvador’s exports consisted of coffee in the 1930s, they agonized from “‘low wages, incredible filth…[under] conditions in fact not far removed from slavery’” (168). Global economic issues of these producing countries lead to dictators easily gaining power such as those in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras (170). Not only was politics a matter that resulted from global economic issues, “the high interest rates from financial institutions and price [squeezes]” lead to the economic struggle of farmers like those from Colombia due to

Theo Chocolate was first established in March 2006 by Debra Music and Joe Whinney in the Fremont- neighborhood of Seattle, Washington (theochocolate.com, our story). For Theo, they want to do more than just chocolate. It is about the land, the people, the dedication, and the interconnected relationships that bind all of them together. That is why Joe Whinney- Theo’s founder- first pioneered the supply of organic cocoa beans into the United Strates in 1994. Traveling and working in the tropics of Central America and Africa, Joe fell in love with the land and

“The Dark Side of Chocolate” is a documentary that explores the underlying issues prevalent in the cocoa trade. For most first world countries chocolate is seen as an accessible treat, however in third world countries, the production of cocoa creates social issues that must be eliminated. Cocoa trade is one of the largest industries in West African countries, but the issues that arise from such trade do more harm than good. The cocoa plantations are trafficking humans to work on their plantations. Furthermore, most instances suggest that these workers do not receive any compensation for their work and most importantly some of these slave laborers are children. Thus, the three issues that the cocoa companies routinely commit in exchange for lower costs are human trafficking, slave labor, and child labor. These companies are aware of such issues but refuse to actively combat them because they are better off financially. It can be argued that these issues can be mitigated through various social, governmental and political policies aimed at combating these problems. The three main issues will be addressed and the various stakeholders affected by these issues will be analyzed. Then this paper will look at the possible solutions to these issues, whereby through government, social or political means.

This development was envisioned as part of the Narmada Valley Development Project, also known as the “Narmada Project”, the scope of which included the provisioning of thirty large dams, 135 medium dams, and 3000 small dams. Of these, the Sardar Sarovar is one of the larger and most publicly troubling projects. The Indian government’s many claims about this dam have included that it would irrigate roughly 1.8 million hectares of land in the state of Gujarat, irrigate 73,000 hectares of land in the nearby state Rajasthan, and provide drinkable water to roughly 8000 Gujarati villages and 125 urban centers. (Narula, 2008)

International banks have made risky loans all over the world because they knew that if trouble arose, the fund would step in to resolve the situation – as it has done in the past. The IMF has played a critical role in many of the epochal events in the 1990’s. The IMF lent 18 billion dollars to Mexico in 1994, after the peso collapsed. It gave Russia over 10 billion dollars in 1999. The IMF has helped drive inflation from 1,000 percent a year down to a tolerable 10 percent a year, thanks to Russia listening to what the IMF said and doing as they suggested. It has given Indonesia 10 billion dollars, and has helped Indonesia demonopolize industries. It gave 4 billion to Thailand, which was the epicenter of the East Asian Crisis. The IMF helped closed dozens of reckless banks. True, the IMF did many little things wrong, however, it did the important ones right. The Philippines is a prime example on how effectively the IMF can work. For years, Filipinos suffered the weaknesses of economic and business policies. Under the tutelage of the International Monetary Fund for nearly 30 years, and especially during the past decade, they faced up to their problems. Many sectors of their society suffered greatly, and some complained loudly. However, they persisted and, with the help of the IMF and the courage of the Philippine people, they exited from the IMF program. How did they do this? They assembled one of the best economic