The cheap chocolate system

The first step in building a successful and elegant strategy is to see the systems that are part of our lives.

October is a fine month to take a moment to look closely at one: the system that brings us cheap chocolate.

Like most systems, it’s largely invisible. The people in it don’t mean to do harm, they’re simply making choices that feel like their best option. And most of all, the system works to defend itself, to create culture that defends the status quo.

The giant chocolate companies want cocoa beans to be a commodity. They don’t want to worry about origin or yield–they simply want to buy indistinguishable cheap cacao. In fact, the buyers at these companies feel like they have no choice but to push for mediocre beans at cut rate prices, regardless of the human cost.

As a result, trees are bred not for flavor or resilience, but for yield. Farming methods ignore regeneration and are maximized for short-term output. And most tragically, labor (especially children) is exploited and suffers. The farmer, feeling powerless, feels as though they have no choice but to make what the buyer wants.

The cheap beans are made into reliable, cheap chocolate. Chocolate that doesn’t melt in the store, or in your hands. Chocolate that’s sweet, not delicious. But cheap. The merchant stocking the shelves feels as though they have little choice–they buy the usual kind, the one that’s well promoted and inexpensive.

And this convenient, prevalent chocolate becomes the normal kind. The regular kind. The kind kids get on Halloween, in bulk.

It’s easier, sometimes, to just go with the system.

We’re not stuck in traffic, we are traffic. If we see a system, we can work to change it. Our strategy can use elements of the system to alter it.

The chocolate we buy at the supermarket furthers the goals of the system, and directly harms the lives of the impoverished farmers who grow the cacao.

My friend Shawn Askinosie has written about this eloquently, and I’m thrilled to be working with him and his daughter to create a collectible chocolate bar. You can find the details here.

Or consider the chocolate from French Broad. They were hit hard by the hurricane in North Carolina, but their warehouse survived. A few bars purchased from them make an impact.

The folks at Original Beans offer a Porcelana bar that is, honestly, too good to share with your friends, and certainly over the top for a trick or treater.

There’s an adorable store in New York that can ship you ethical and delicious bars from all over the world… proof that the system can change.

The team at Tony’s have figured out how to make an honest, fair trade bar that’s also in your local market at a good price.

And consider Chocolate Rebellion, a group of Caribbean and African producers coordinated by Gillian Goddard of Sun Eater.

The system responds.

Don’t buy cheap chocolate. We can see the system if we look for it.

PS I’m going live with Lawren and Shawn at 10:15 ET this morning. We’ll be taking your questions about chocolate and about systems, and the recording will be archived. Here’s the link.