Chocolate Company Announces Plans to Produce Lab-Grown Cocoa

Compared to just about every other trade in the books, the chocolate industry has changed remarkably little since the 1800s. The entire supply chain still relies on the exploitation of West African labor, colonial trade routes, and a few powerful monopolies acting as middle-men.

Consumers are starting to notice. Outrage over additives — from titanium dioxide still used in some white chocolates to the heavy metals like cadmium and lead in dark chocolate — has resulted in a torrent of complaints about the waxy, artificial flavor of modern candy bars.

In other words, there’s a business opportunity for anyone that can figure out how to provide a more authentic chocolate taste at Hershey prices. The problem is that cocoa can only be grown in a narrow band of the world near the equator — and now a pair of food companies think they can culture it in a lab instead.