Chocolate for Valentine's Day
Don’t Cut the Forest for the Sweets
by Marianne Krasny
Lupercalia by Annibale Carracci (1560–1609). Wikimedia Commons. Artist: Annibale Carracci (1560–1609). The photo is in the book “Le storie di Romolo e Remo di Ludovico Agostino e Annibale Carracci in Palazzo Magnani a Bologna” of Andrea Emiliani (Modena 1986).
Chocolate hasn’t always been a part of Valentine’s Day. In 6th century BCE Rome, long before chocolate reached Europe, partially clothed men and women revelled in a debaucherous, wine-fueled, winter fertility rite called Lupercalia. Some historians believe that this is the origin of our current day celebration of love.
As Romans revelled, their future was being undermined by another type of excess. They were cutting down the trees that protected their water and soils, and regulated the local climate. So how do chocolate, Valentine’s Day, and cutting down forests connect?
Chocolate beginnings
Chocolate comes from the cacao fruit. Wild cacao originated in the Amazon forests of Ecuador and Peru long before the Roman Empire. An early record comes from Peru’s Huaca Montegrande Temple, where recent excavations have found that cacao was used as a sacred food as far back as 6000 BCE. Cacao was traded to the north, reaching Central America before the Spaniards landed. It wasn’t until the 1500s that cacao became available in Europe, where it was used in cocoa drinks.
Three centuries later in the mid 1800s, Richard Cadbury hit on the idea of “eating chocolates.” He packaged the sweet chocolates in heart-shaped boxes adorned with Cupids and rosebuds, and marketed them around Valentine’s Day. The association of chocolate with Valentine’s Day took off.
Cocoa tree with cacao fruits on the Fazenda Olhos D’água in Piraí do Norte, Bahia, Brazil. Ilonagotsch, CC BY-SA 4.0 <>, via Wikimedia Commons
Cutting down forests
A half century after Cadbury launched Valentine’s chocolates, deforestation — or cutting down ancient forests to plant crops or graze animals — also took off. Although Romans cut trees around Rome and as far away as Germany and the Netherlands, their impact was nowhere near that of today’s deforestation. At the time of Lupercalia, over half of the world’s habitable area was covered by forests. (Habitable refers to places where humans can live, not covered by ice and glaciers, and not barren such as deserts, salt flats, or dunes.) By 2023, a third of those forests had been lost, an area twice the size of the United States.
Today Ivory Coast and Ghana together grow 60% of the world’s cacao. Unfortunately, Ivory Coast has lost 94% and Ghana 80% of its forests, over the past 60 years. About one-third of that loss was from cutting down forests to plant cacao. As forests are cut, massive amounts of CO2 previously stored in the trees and soils are released into the atmosphere. The problem is compounded because large trees that would have continued to absorb carbon from the atmosphere are gone. Further, it can take thousands of years to rebuild carbon stocks in soils.
Because of this deforestation to plant cacao, every kg of chocolate consumed is responsible for 47 Kg CO2-eq emissions, about half as much as the largest greenhouse gas emitter, beef, and over ten times that of rice or tofu. (A small chocolate bar would emit about 2 Kg CO2-eq, while a typical steak would emit around 30 Kg CO2-eq.) Whereas beef emissions come from those omnipresent cow burps and deforestation, the overwhelming share of chocolate emissions is from deforestation. Globally, the Environmental Defense Fund estimates that deforestation contributes 20% of annual greenhouse gas emissions.
Note that the emissions in green are due to land use change, which is mostly deforestation. 55% of chocolate’s emissions come from carbon emitted when the forest is cut. Interestingly, because nut trees absorb more carbon than they emit, the green bar under nuts is to the left of zero.
You can determine the emissions of your favorite foods by adding them to this figure at Our World in Data.
Slowing deforestation
One way to slow deforestation is to plant cacao trees under existing forest trees. Cacao actually does better under a shade-tree cover of about 30 percent compared to trees grown in full sun. The shade keeps pests and diseases in check and helps the soil retain moisture, and shaded soils sequester more carbon.
Farmers also plant bananas, avocados, rice, mangos, and citrus alongside cacao in a practice called agroforestry. Agroforestry systems can store 2.5 times more carbon in soils and plants than farms where cacao is planted alone in what’s called a “monoculture.” Although cacao production goes down in agroforestry systems, when the yields of bananas, mangos, and other crops are added in, total system yields can be about ten times higher than monocultures. The profits for farmers are similar in mixed agroforestry and monoculture cacao systems.
Three things you can do to make chocolate more sustainable
Although you may question whether you can make a difference, remember that it’s not just your actions — research has repeatedly shown that people influence family and close friends. So whether it’s what you do as a chocolate consumer or an advocate for fairer policies, try to gently bring your family and friends along with you.
As a consumer
As you shop around for chocolates for your Valentine, consider brands that rank high on the Chocolate Scorecard. The scorecard ranks large and niche chocolate companies on six different factors including deforestation and climate, child and forced labor, and living income. (90% of Ghanaian cacao farmers earn below a living income.) You can also buy Fair Trade (you might have seen its red EQUAL EXCHANGE label), Rainforest Alliance, or organic certified chocolate. These certifications do have limitations — it is very difficult to trace the cacao supply chain to ensure its sustainability for example — but they are far better than nothing. If you’re truly motivated to love the planet while loving your Valentine, look for chocolate that pays a living income to farmers and is grown under existing forest canopy or in agroforestry systems.
As a donor
Support nonprofits like Mighty Earth that monitor deforestation and work to ensure a living income for small farmers. The Accountability Framework Initiative does important work tracing the chocolate supply chain to monitor human rights abuses and deforestation. And Trase is fighting deforestation by mapping supply chains linking consumer markets with sustainable cacao farmers.
As an advocate
Support anti-deforestation policies. The EU’s deforestation law seeks to fight climate change and biodiversity loss by ensuring products sold in the EU are not sourced from newly deforested land. About 10% of global deforestation is attributed to EU consumption. Unfortunately, the law’s implementation has been delayed until December 2026. Serious pressure to enforce the law is needed.
In the US, New York and California considered bills to stop procurement of products that contribute to deforestation. And in Colorado Governor Jared Polis issued an executive order that encourages state agencies to give preference to vendors that “do not contribute to tropical or boreal intact forest degradation or deforestation directly or through the supply chain…” At the national level, the bipartisan “Fostering Overseas Rule of Law and Environmentally Sound Trade” (FOREST) Act would stop products from illegally deforested lands from entering the US. It would also increase US engagement with countries taking meaningful steps to reduce deforestation, and promote procurement of zero-deforestation products. You can send emails to urge your state governor to follow Colorado’s lead and to ask your House represenatives and Senators to reintroduce the FOREST Act.
**********************************************************************************
This Valentine’s Day, buy from ethical chocolate companies, even if it means paying a little more for fair labor and more climate-friendly farming. Also, consider going beyond what you buy or eat, and write a letter to public officials and business leaders promoting sustainable chocolate. And ask your sweetie to take these actions alongside you.
Your Valentine deserves the best!
Acknowledgements: Thanks to my brother Ted Krasny and Etelle Higonnet, founder and director of Coffee Watch, for suggestions on drafts of this post.