Sustainability, when used in reference to agricultural crops, refers to farming practices that sustain the health of farm land over an extended period of time and, therefore, provide a dependable living for the farmers of that land. In a more general sense, a sustainable crop would be one that promotes the preservation of the ecological system in which it is grown.

As a tree with an effective fruit-bearing life of over thirty years, cacao fits this description. Cacao trees thrive when planted in combination with other trees. The presence of other vegetation diminishes the likelihood of damage to the trees from disease and pests. Describing some cacao as "shade grown" (a term borrowed from coffee agriculture and a technique that connotes sustainability) is therefore almost misleading, as all cacao requires shade in its early years, and if not grown with other varieties of trees, it eventually creates its own thick canopy through which little light penetrates.

Farmers worldwide attempt to maximize production from the land. More densely planted acreage tends to yield, in the short term at least, more cacao. Dense planting, however, also exhausts the soil and probably makes the spread of disease from one tree to another more likely. Moreover, the lack of plant diversity in tightly packed cacao groves inevitably leads to a decrease in the diversity of animals that may be natural enemies of the insects and other pests that attack the tree. Even under the best of circumstances, the loss of cacao to disease and pests is 30% or more.

But there is a better way. We recently began importing cocoa beans from a unique COOP in Tomé-Açu, Brazil that uses multi-crop, sustainable cacao farming practices, which provide a high level of income to the farmers, and actually help reforest degraded rainforest areas. Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker is the first company outside of Brazil to buy these beans.

Click here to learn about the sustainable farming practices some Brazilian farmers in Tomé-Açu are using.