The Chocolate Tree
Subtitle: A Natural History of Cacao
Edition: Rev Exp edition
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Published: May 12, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 218
ISBN-13: 9780813030449
Subjects: Plant life: general; Social Science; Technology & Industrial Arts; Sociology; The Americas; Agriculture - Agronomy; Americas (North Central South West Indies); Anthropology - Cultural; Cacao; Central America; Cocoa
Description: "Young provides an overview of the fascinating natural and human history of one of the world’s most intriguing commodities: chocolate. Cultivated for over 1,000 years in Latin America and the starting point for millions of tons of chocolate annually consumed worldwide, cacao beans have been used for beverages, as currency, and for regional trade. After the Spanish brought the delectable secret of the cacao tree back to Europe in the late 16th century, its seeds created and fed an insatiable worldwide appetite for chocolate. The Chocolate Tree chronicles the natural and cultural history of Theobroma cacao and explores its ecological niche. Tracing cacao’s journey out of the rain forest, into pre-Columbian gardens, and then onto plantations adjacent to rain forests, Young describes the production of this essential crop, the environmental price of Europeanized cultivation, and ways that current reclamation efforts for New World rain forests can improve the natural ecology of the cacao tree. Amid encounters with sloths, toucans, butterflies, giant tarantula hawk wasps, and other creatures found in cacao groves, Young identifies a tiny fly that provides a vital link between the chocolate tree and its original rain forest habitat. This discovery leads him to conclude that cacao trees in cultivation today may have lost their original insect pollinators due to the plant’s long history of agricultural manipulation..."--Publisher's description.