World

Companies Are Crafting New Ways To Grow Cocoa, And Chocolate Alternatives, To Keep Up With Demand

Published

2 weeks ago

2024-09-02

Cocoa | AP news Image

West Sacramento, California – Climate change is straining the rainforests where the very sensitive cocoa bean grows, but chocolate lovers should not be concerned, according to companies investigating alternative cocoa cultivation methods or developing cocoa alternatives.

Scientists and entrepreneurs are experimenting with ways to produce more cocoa far beyond the tropics, from Northern California to Israel.

California Cultured, a plant cell culture startup, is producing chocolate from cell cultures at a facility in West Sacramento, California, with hopes of beginning selling the product next year. According to Alan Perlstein, the company’s CEO, it places cocoa bean cells in a vat of sugar water, allowing them to reproduce swiftly and mature in a week rather than the six to eight months required for a typical harvest. The procedure also requires less water and labor.

“We see just the demand of chocolate monstrously outstripping what is going to be available,” Perlstein observed. “There’s really no other way that we see that the world could significantly increase the supply of cocoa or still keep it at affordable levels without extensive either environmental degradation or some significant other cost.”

Cocoa trees grow approximately 20 degrees north and south of the equator in areas with warm weather and plenty of rain, such as West Africa and South America. However, climate change is projected to dry out the soil due to increased heat. To fulfill demand, scientists, entrepreneurs, and chocolate lovers are developing new ways to grow cocoa, make it more durable and pest-resistant, and craft chocolatey-tasting cocoa alternatives.

Companies Are Crafting New Ways To Grow Cocoa, And Chocolate Alternatives, To Keep Up With Demand

According to the National Confectioners Association, sales of chocolate in the United States will exceed $25 billion by 2023. Many entrepreneurs believe that demand for cocoa will outpace supply. Companies are considering either increasing supply with cell-based cocoa or providing alternatives produced from items ranging from oats to carbs that have been roasted and flavored to give a chocolaty flavor for chips or filling.

Cocoa prices increased earlier this year due to high demand and crop problems in West Africa caused by plant disease and weather fluctuations. The region produces the vast majority of the world’s cocoa.

“All of this contributes to a potential supply disruption, so it is appealing to these lab-grown or cocoa substitute companies to think of ways to replace that ingredient that we know as chocolatey-flavored,” said Carla D. Martin, executive director of the Fine Cacao and Chocolate Institute and a lecturer in African and African American Studies at Harvard University.

Martin explained that demand for chocolate in the United States and Europe is driving the innovation. While West and Central Africa produce three-quarters of the world’s cocoa, only 4% is consumed there.

The attempt to grow cocoa inside the United States follows the growth of other items, such as chicken meat, in labs. It also comes as supermarket shelves fill with new food options, which makers of cocoa substitutes say demonstrates that people are willing to try something that looks and tastes like a chocolate chip cookie, even if the chip contains a cocoa substitute.

They also claimed they hope to capitalize on consumers’ growing awareness of where their food originates and what it takes to grow it, including the exploitation of child labor in the chocolate sector.

Planet A Foods in Planegg, Germany, claims that the taste of mass-market chocolate is primarily derived from the fermenting and roasting processes used in its production rather than the cocoa bean. According to Jessica Karch, a company representative, the founders evaluated a variety of ingredients, ranging from olives to seaweed, before settling on a combination of oats and sunflower seeds as the finest-tasting chocolate replacement. It’s called “ChoViva” and may be substituted in baked items, she claimed.

“The idea is not to replace the high quality, 80% dark chocolate, but really to have a lot of different products in the mass market,” Karch told CNN.

While some are developing alternative cocoa sources and substitutes, others are attempting to increase the supply of cocoa, where it grows naturally. Mars, which makes M&Ms and Snickers, has a research lab at the University of California, Davis, that aims to make cocoa plants more resilient, according to Joanna Hwu, the company’s senior director of cocoa plant science. The facility houses a living collection of cocoa trees so scientists can investigate what makes them disease-resistant, assist farmers in producing countries, and ensure a consistent supply of beans.

“We see it as an opportunity, and our responsibility,” Hwu went on.

Companies Are Crafting New Ways To Grow Cocoa, And Chocolate Alternatives, To Keep Up With Demand

In Israel, attempts to increase cocoa supplies are also underway. Hanne Volpin, the co-founder of Celeste Bio, explained that the company grows cocoa bean cells indoors to generate cocoa powder and butter. In a few years, the company hopes to be able to produce cocoa regardless of the effects of climate change and illness – an attempt that has piqued the interest of Mondelez, the creator of Cadbury chocolate.

“We only have a small field, but eventually, we will have a farm of bioreactors,” Volpin told me.

This is comparable to the effort underway at California Cultured, which intends to seek authorization from the United States Food and Drug Administration to label their product chocolate because, according to Perlstein, that is what it is.

It may be referred to as brewery chocolate or local chocolate, but it is still chocolate, he explained, because it is genetically identical despite not being collected from a tree.

“We basically see that we’re growing cocoa — just in a different way,” Perlstein told Reuters.

SOURCE | AP

World

Putin Expands Military After West Approves Long Range Missile Strikes

Published

1 day ago

2024-09-17

Geoff Thomas

Putin increases army size for third time since 2022

Putin has expanded the army's ranks since sending his military into Ukraine in February 2022 - Reuters Image

President Vladimir Putin expanded the regular size of the Russian army by 180,000 troops to 1.5 million active troops on Monday, citing NATO claims that Ukraine can use its long-range missiles to strike deep within Russia.

President Putin ordered that the overall number of the armed forces be boosted to 2.38 million individuals, with 1.5 million active military members.

According to data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a renowned US military think tank, such an increase in military personnel would propel Russia over the United States and India in terms of active combat soldiers.

The move, the third time Putin has increased the army’s size since sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022, comes as Russian soldiers press forward in eastern Ukraine on parts of a massive 1,000-kilometer (627-mile) frontline and attempt to expel Ukrainian forces from Russia’s Kursk area.

The action comes after outgoing NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he welcomed negotiations on Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles to strike within Russian territory, but that any decision on the matter would be made by individual countries.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to speak in Washington, D.C. – Reuters Image

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been lobbying with friends for months to allow Ukraine to launch Western missiles, including long-range US ATACMS and British Storm Shadows, deep into Russia, limiting Moscow’s ability to conduct attacks.

Last week, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Joe Biden discussed whether to authorise Kyiv to employ the long-range missiles against Russian targets in Washington. There was no announcement about the decision.

According to reports, Starmer supports allowing Ukraine to employ long-range missiles, whilst Biden is concerned that allowing such strikes could lead to a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia.

However, some US officials are doubtful that enabling the use of such missiles would significantly improve Kyiv’s defence against Russian invaders.

Trudeau has stressed that Ukraine should be allowed to launch strikes on targets deep into Russia – Getty Images

Analysts believe that if the West allows Ukraine to use its long-range missiles to hit Russia, Putin may retaliate by striking British military assets near Russia or, in the worst-case scenario, conducting a nuclear test to demonstrate intent.

Ulrich Kuehn, an armaments specialist at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy in Hamburg, said he did not rule out Putin sending a nuclear message, such as testing a nuclear bomb in an attempt to intimidate the West.

Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday that Ukraine should be permitted to strike within Russian territory, as his American and British counterparts met in Washington to consider lifting restrictions on long-range weapons provided to Kyiv.

Putin warned that permitting Ukraine to employ long-range weaponry provided by NATO would mean that NATO countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and European countries, were at war with Russia.

Many Canadians were upset by Trudeau’s statements, feeling that he and NATO were driving Canada closer to nuclear war with Russia.

Putin Says US Long-Range Missiles Hitting Russia an Act of War

Putin Says US Long-Range Missiles Hitting Russia an Act of War

World

Germany Begins Conducting Checks At All Its Land Borders

Published

2 days ago

2024-09-16

Kiara Grace

Köhl, Germany — Germany began random checks at its crossings with five Western European countries on Monday to combat irregular migration, adding to a system of mobile border controls that is already in place at four other frontiers.

The border checks with France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Denmark began before sunrise Monday and are expected to last six months. Germany has already conducted border inspections with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Switzerland since last year.

Germany Begins Conducting Checks At All Its Land Borders

Germany, a member of the 27-member European Union, stated last week that it would expand border inspections to all nine of its land borders this week in an effort to combat irregular migration and crime in the wake of recent extremist attacks. Three people were killed in a knife assault in Solingen last month, which was blamed on a Syrian asylum seeker. The suspect claimed to be inspired by the Islamic State. In June, a knife attack linked to an Afghan immigrant killed a police officer and injured four other persons.

Border controls are putting European unity to the test, as some perceive them as a departure from the spirit of the EU’s Schengen free travel and commerce agreement. One of the most valued benefits of the EU is the ability for Europeans to freely travel across borders for jobs and pleasure.

Germany, the EU’s largest country, is positioned in the heart of Europe and shares borders with more countries than any other EU member. Some trade unions have expressed worry that the curbs may harm trade.

However, a return to a previous system with closed borders and mandated border inspections for all crossings seems unlikely.

Nonetheless, German police believe the expanded checks represent a significant challenge to them.

Andreas Rosskopf, the leader of Germany’s Federal Police Union, stated that everybody crossing the border into Germany should now expect to be inspected. However, he noted that due to the length of the country’s boundaries, authorities will not be able to stop and check every car.

He pointed out that Germany has 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) on its western border, in addition to the 2,400 kilometers (1,490 miles) along its eastern and southern borders, where inspections are already in place.

He stated in an interview with RBB24 Info radio that “given the length of the border, permanent and intensive checks are not possible.” According to him, “it remains to be seen how successful it will be in curbing migration and people smuggling.”

Germany Begins Conducting Checks At All Its Land Borders

According to the EU, member states may temporarily restore controls at the EU’s so-called internal borders in the event of a major threat to internal security. However, it also states that border controls should be used as a last resort in extraordinary circumstances and must be time-restricted.

Such limitations are frequently imposed at large sporting events, such as the recent Olympic Games in Paris and the European Football Championship.

The unpopular coalition administration of Chancellor Olaf Scholz has tightened border controls to crack down on irregular immigration after the far right performed well in two recent state elections in eastern Germany. Another is coming next Sunday in Brandenburg, the state that surrounds Berlin.

SOURCE | AP

World

A River Otter Attacks A Child At A Seattle-Area Marina

Published

4 days ago

2024-09-15

Kiara Grace

Bremerton, Washington – A river otter attacked a boy at a Seattle marina, dragging him from a dock and into the water before his mother rescued him, wildlife officials said.

The toddler was pulled underneath and resurfaced briefly during the encounter Thursday at 9:30 a.m. near the Bremerton Marina in Kitsap County, according to a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife press release.

A River Otter Attacks A Child At A Seattle-Area Marina

The otter continued to attack and scratch as the mother dragged the child from the water. Wildlife officials say the animal chased them as they exited the dock. The child was treated in a hospital.

“We are grateful the victim only sustained minor injuries, due to the mother’s quick actions and the child’s resiliency,” Fish and Wildlife Sgt. Ken Balazs said. “We would also like to thank the Port of Bremerton for their quick coordination and communication to their marina tenants.”

Officers captured the otter and transported it to a disease diagnostic facility for testing, including rabies, according to the announcement. On Saturday, the government announced that illness testing results could be available as early as next Tuesday.

A River Otter Attacks A Child At A Seattle-Area Marina

River otters are prevalent in Washington and can be found in both fresh and saltwater settings, officials added. They noted that encounters with people are rare, with only six occurring in the last decade. River otters can be territorial and, “like any wildlife, are inherently unpredictable,” experts stated.

SOURCE | AP