Hello everyone! Consider this an #introduction post! Not used to post pictures online, but with my growing interest of the #fediverse, I thought I might as well try #Pixelfed, so here we go!
Given my inordinate fondness for #pollinators of #cacao, I was very excited to discover a UK "cousin" in my office today, hanging out on the windowframe. Beautiful female Ceratopogonidae (did not attempt ID). I have a theory that if we were able to farm #cocoa in the UK, species of #Ceratopogonidae already present here would turn up and start visiting the flowers. UK has over 150 Ceratopogonidae species, including members of the main genera considered to pollinate cacao in the tropics.
Cocoa Prices have Gone Nuts
Millie Giles & David Crowther
April 19, 2024
Cocoa prices are breaking records on an almost daily basis — with cocoa futures closing at (another) all-time high of $11,020 per metric ton yesterday.
That’s up 158% since the start of the year, and over 4x on the typical prices seen in 2022 — as crop production continues to fall short of demand.
Major cocoa-producing nations like the Ivory Coast and Ghana, which between them grow about two-thirds of the world’s cocoa, have seen excessive tree failure due to disease, changing weather patterns, and hot, dry conditions causing devastating droughts.
Consumers are starting to see the effects of the largest cocoa supply deficit in over 60 years: “shrinkflation” & reduced-cocoa recipes, and Hershey stock was recently downgraded.
Tthe International Cocoa Organization expects production to lag behind demand by 374,000 tons for the 2023-24 season.
Coffee Machine of Doom wurde gerade professionell repariert im !@metalab . Qualitative Festo Verbindungsstücke wurden verbaut. Beehren Sie uns beim nächsten Kaos Kakao Event wenn es heißt C3Kakao - da bin ich dabei
@nixCraft You have the #Cocoa text system’s key bindings to thank for so many #Emacs-compatible keyboard shortcuts working in #macOS text boxes and documents.
Poor harvests in extreme weather conditions have led to a tripling of cocoa prices – but farmers have seen no benefit. Around the world this holiday weekend, people will consume hundreds of millions of Easter eggs and bunnies, as part of an annual chocolate intake that can exceed 8kg (18lb) for every person in the UK, or 5kg...
A shortage of cocoa beans has led to a near shutdown of processing plants in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, the two countries responsible for 60% of global production. With chocolate makers around the world reliant on West Africa for cocoa, there is significant concern about the impact on the prices of chocolate and the livelihood of farmers.
Three years ago on this day, I published my first Mac app, HacKit. It’s a Hacker News reader and the name is a portmanteau of Hacker News and AppKit. It’s a pure Cocoa app written in Swift with no SwiftUI integration.
Extortionate Easter eggs and shrinking sweets: fears grow of a ‘chocolate meltdown’ (www.theguardian.com)
Poor harvests in extreme weather conditions have led to a tripling of cocoa prices – but farmers have seen no benefit. Around the world this holiday weekend, people will consume hundreds of millions of Easter eggs and bunnies, as part of an annual chocolate intake that can exceed 8kg (18lb) for every person in the UK, or 5kg...