World may run out of chocolate by 2020, according to "industry experts"

[Devin]

The only things that have chocolate on them is Jaffacakes.
And that's teh only thing I really really love.
Seeing that their only sold in the UK, I can't miss then due to being unable to get them.

And yeh I agree.
Government shutdown is an perfectly valid excuse to party c:

Jaffacakes! Jaffacakes!

 

[Black-Ice]

If I dont have chocolate...
I'll go crazy.
Cray Cray 2020, its a thing

 

[DSGamer64]

Or you know, we could just grow more?

 

[Foxi4]

Milk chocolate will always be there, even if there's no cocoa trees. But, sadly, legit 75-95% dark chocolate is in danger, which is the only healthy one out there. Sad news.

Milk chocolate still has to have at least 25% cocoa solids to even be considered a chocolate, so I can't see why you'd think it'll "always be there". That, and dark chocolate is blerght anyways - I have no love for it, I'd rather have three bars of milk chocolate instead of one bar of dark chocolate. I never buy'em, my family always gets'em as gifts, we only eat'em when there's literally nothing else that's sweet and edible that could satisfy a sweet craving (except my mom who inexplicably likes it)... unless it contains dried orange peels - that's pretty damn good. Out of all chocolate, I enjoy white chocolate the most though. Mmm... Chocolate...

Or you know, we could just grow more?

The whole point of this article was to explain that they physically cannot grow more, or at least not enough to match the demand - they're running low on space.

 

[Ethevion]

This doesn't bother me one bit. I mean, chocolate tastes good and all, but it's been almost 2 years since I've tasted it. I don't miss it one bit.

If I dont have chocolate...
I'll go crazy.
Cray Cray 2020, its a thing

#craycray2020

 

[Taleweaver]

This is TERRIBLE news. Screw possible oil shortages...this one's WAY more important!!!


...how the hell are we going to survive our girlfriends in those days of the month?

 

[Maxternal]

Milk chocolate will always be there, even if there's no cocoa trees.

Yeah, because that comes from chocolate cows.

 

[Foxi4]

This is TERRIBLE news. Screw possible oil shortages...this one's WAY more important!!!

This is actually an oddly valid approach. There are substitutes to oil that we already know of - natural gas, shale gas, electricity... what substitutes are there for chocolate? Sure, there are other sweets, but there's... only one chocolate. ;O;

//Overdramatizing

Yeah, because that comes from chocolate cows.

Well d'uh! They get preferential treatment, that's why their milk is so sweet!

 

[bowser]

Yeah, right. Any clown can predict a date.

But no worries, I'm sure Willy Wonka will come up with something by then.

 

[ComeTurismO]

YAH!
I can't wait till we all cry!

 

[Minox]

"They warned that the world would need the equivalent of another planet Earth to fill the gap needed to keep the chocolate industry going."
So in a way, you're completely correct. If they had the space, they would have no worries supporting the demand. As it is now, they can grow it, but not at a rate that will keep the shelves stocked.

The way the title is phrased it's made to sound like cocoa will be gone forever whereas in reality supply will just be limited/scarce.

 

[Another World]

Time to buy an old highrise in an abandoned part of a city for next to nothing, and then retrofit it to grow cocoa plants.

-another world

 

[Maxternal]

So, like oil shortages, it just means that the price will skyrocket (supply and demand, people)
But UNLIKE oil shortages, you can't actually run out.

Still, the question comes, how much are YOU willing to pay for your chocolate?

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Solution: Eat less chocolate.

That sounds like a problem not a solution.

 

[ßleck]

That sucks... At least we can brag about having chocolate to newer generations.

 

[stomp_442]

The world will run out of cocoa - the basic ingredient of chocolate - within the next seven years due to pressures of rising global demand, experts have warned.

This is just a lame excuse to jack the price of a chocolate bar.

 

[FAST6191]

Shit, time to stockpile on Hershey before the Chocapocalypse.

You start stockpiling and you choose to stockpile that vile muck?

Oh well I will add it to the list after coffee and tequila.

 

[Vengenceonu]

I predict Chocolate Fountains will rise in price. Instead of buying chocolate foods, ppl will just dip their normal foods in chocolate inside their own homes.

 

[Foxi4]

You start stockpiling and you choose to stockpile that vile muck?

Oh well I will add it to the list after coffee and tequila.

To FAST's credit, a lot of Hershey's chocolate can no longer be legally called chocolate, rather a chocolate-flavored sweet which makes a world of difference in terms of cocoa content, but at the end of the day what really matters is the flavor and if soulx likes Hershey's then... well, nobody can blame him - they're world-famous sweets.

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

So it's not actually running out of chocolate (it comes from a plant...) it is just that demand has exceeded the ability of the plant to keep up with.

Then it comes down to economics.

The price will rise and demand will fall to levels that can be supported by the plant.

Edit: I was worried it was another banana situation, for those that do not know there is a fungus currently destroying the plantations of the world so we might have to switch to a different breed of banana's like they did in the past.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_disease