Chocolate Nations Living and Dying for Cocoa in West Africa

by Ryan, Orla

• ISBN13: 9781848130050
• ISBN10: 1848130058
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-01-15
• Publisher: Zed Books

Summary

Chocolate is one of the world's most everyday luxuries, the very word conjuring up a hint of the forbidden and a taste of the decadent. Every year, more chocolate is sold in the West even as obesity and health fears grow. Yet the story behind the chocolate bar is rarely one of luxury. The crop provides a lifeline for millions of farmers in West Africa, which produces about 70% of the world's cocoa and is crucial to the economies and politics of Ghana and Ivory Coast.Chocolate Nationsexamines the causes of farmer poverty, placing the story of these producers in the context of the commodity producers' global battle to make more money from their crops. Mixing economic analysis with the human stories of the African rebels, advertising executives and industry insiders this book tells the compelling story of how chocolate bars get on supermarket shelves.

Author Biography

Orla Ryan is a freelance journalist based in London. She previously worked for the BBC, and as a journalist in Africa. In recent years she worked for Reuters in Ghana, where, among other stories, she covered the West African cocoa sector. 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
Ghana is cocoa	p. 8
Cocoa wars	p. 24
Child labour	p. 43
Follow the money	p. 63
From bean to bar	p. 81
Fairtrade myths and reality	p. 98
Trading games	p. 120
Building a sustainable future	p. 141
Epilogue	p. 158
Notes	p. 162
Bibliography	p. 172
Index	p. 175
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