When I was in Grade 4 I had one of the most disappointing moments of my young life. Every year Grade 4s at Laburnum Primary School went on a tour of the Cadbury's chocolate factory. My brother had been the year before and had brought home a bag full of free Cadbury's products and stories of free chocolate samples as the tour progressed. I had been watching Willy Wonka for a few years by this and couldn't wait to see the magic of a chocolate factory in action. But alas, for some reason, the Cadbury tours stopped that year. It may have been because the school realised how hard it is to manage 60 children full of sugar. it may have been because Cadbury decided to stop school groups going through their Melbourne factory that year. For whatever reason it was, I was bitterly disappointed and from that day forward have not really thought about how one of my favourite foods is made, or where it comes from.
I had no idea that the cocoa bean is grown on the cocoa tree and that it only grows in tropical parts of the world. I also had no idea that because of this, the majority of the world's cocoa is grown by small family producers in some of the world's poorest nations.
I had no idea that for chocolate to make it to the shop where I buy it, it has to travel 11,464.3 kilometres from where the cocoa bean is grown, to the factory where it is processed. Then another 6,549.11 kilometres from that factory to another one where the chocolate is made. Then another 1,787.89 kilometres to the city where I buy it. That is a total of 19,801.3 kilometres for a block of chocolate that costs $4.
So, by buying a block of chocolate am I contributing to global warming? Should I be looking to buy and eat only food that is grown in my local area? One couple did this and documented their journey on their website the
100 mile diet. It's an interesting experiment and perhaps one that would help more of us realise exactly how our food is grown and how far it travels to get to us.
