{"id":1532953,"date":"2025-04-28T23:15:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T03:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1532953"},"modified":"2025-04-28T23:15:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T03:15:00","slug":"leftism-is-killing-chocolate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/leftism-is-killing-chocolate\/1532953\/","title":{"rendered":"Leftism Is Killing Chocolate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leftism Is Killing Chocolate<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Andrew Widburg via AmericanThinker.com,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

After years of writing about politics, I\u2019m a pretty hardened character. I\u2019m cynical, pessimistic, and, while I\u2019m often disgusted, I\u2019m seldom shocked or panicked. But what I read at the JoNova site was so terrible I\u2019m reeling: \u201cPrice fixing kills the cocoa farm<\/a>.\u201d It turns out that, thanks to price controls in Ghana,\u00a0one of the world\u2019s primary chocolate-producing countries<\/a>, chocolate farmers aren\u2019t even bothering to plant new crops. <\/strong>Honestly, I feel quite ill.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

I love chocolate at a level that comes close to (but I hope never crosses into) being idolatrous. It is one of the greatest pleasures in my life. Every day, I nibble at my\u00a0Guittard Extra Dark Chocolate Chips<\/a>, which, to my mind, are the best around: not too sweet, with a perfectly balanced fruity, vanilla undertone. Also, when the spirit moves me and the freezer isn\u2019t too full, I make what is quite possibly the best chocolate ice cream around, using\u00a0Droste Cocoa<\/a>\u00a0(worth every penny), along with hints of caramel and almond.<\/p>\n

When I say I take chocolate seriously, I am not exaggerating. I consider it essential. So, when I read that socialist price-fixing policies in Ghana (as opposed to the leftists\u2019 delusional bugaboo of anthropogenic climate change) are threatening the world\u2019s cocoa supply<\/strong>…well, I\u2019m getting ready to place a big chocolate order, that\u2019s all I can say.<\/p>\n

Jo Nova, one of Australia\u2019s top\u00a0real<\/em>\u00a0science writers (as opposed to the\u00a0faux<\/em>, leftist science writers),\u00a0has the story<\/a>:<\/p>\n

There has been a wicked price spike in cocoa beans which the usual suspects are blaming on \u201cclimate change\u201d as if your air conditioner was ruining cocoa crops in West Africa.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Instead African governments have fixed the price of cocoa for decades, forcing poor farmers to work for a pittance, and keeping the big profits for themselves.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, even though there is a wild price spike,\u00a0farmers in Ghana are leaving the industry<\/a>, smuggling crops out (because they get a better price).<\/em><\/p>\n

T<\/em>hey didn\u2019t plant new trees, they ran out of money for fertilizer, and didn\u2019t try new varieties.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Their children don\u2019t want to farm cocoa, and the yields are falling on old sickly plantations.<\/em><\/p>\n

So, surprise, socialist government controls wrecked the industry and they are now scrambling to put the pieces back together.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Things are so desperate, the government of Ghana raised the price of cocoa by 58% last April<\/a>\u00a0and then\u00a0raised the price of cocoa by another 45%<\/a>\u00a0last September, to try to reduce the smuggling.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

(The government was losing too much money).\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

At one point last year it was estimated that\u00a0a third of the national crop was lost to smuggler<\/a>s. <\/em><\/p>\n

A few months after this, the farmers were\u00a0hoarding their beans<\/a>\u00a0in expectation the government would have to give them another price rise. Just chaos for everyone.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Of course, that\u2019s just the top note of an excellent essay that isn\u2019t just about chocolate but, instead, uses the chocolate debacle as a springboard to discuss how socialism perverts markets, diminishing available supplies and impoverishing ordinary people. It\u2019s worth your time to\u00a0check it out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So, next time you hear a chocolate lover bemoan the price of chocolate and, naturally, blame climate change for that situation, be sure to direct your friend to Jo Nova\u2019s article. Your friend might learn something. Indeed, because every person has his or her truth, the one thing that matters most to him, your friend might suddenly decide that the free market is a good thing.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nMon, 04\/28\/2025 – 19:15<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/leftism-killing-chocolate<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leftism Is Killing Chocolate Authored by Andrew Widburg via AmericanThinker.com, After years of writing about politics, I\u2019m a pretty hardened character. I\u2019m cynical, pessimistic, and,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1532954,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1532953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-6qN3","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/04\/lms7uvw0s5glrihr9yv1_640-a4JOMW.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1532953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1532954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1532953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1532953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1532953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}