Chemical Use

Chemicals are used to plant everything, including cocoa beans. Some myths about cocoa beans being organic (which they aren't) say that the cocoa farmers are too poor to afford pesticides. The sad truth is that many pesticides are being used on cacao trees, and some of these chemicals are very dangerous. Some countries, such as Ghana, a big cacao grower, have their governments pay for the pesticides for them. One of the pesticides that are used is called Gammalin 20. It is very dangerous to people using it if they are not protected. Gammalin 20 is a highly dangerous insectide used on cacao trees, and it is not very goog for the workers. Some of the other chemicals used are also highly toxic. This is not good for the workers that spray the pesticides, because the high toxin levels pose a huge risk for them.

Ghana is one of the countries that plants millions of cacao trees. The bad thing is that Ghana uses dangerous chemicals in the process of growing the beans. This poses danger not only to workers, but also to the people that eat anything that comes from the cocoa bean. In 2006, Japan filed a complaint to Ghana because they had found chemical residue in the cocoa beans that had been shipped to them from Ghana. To ensure quality in their products, Japan got rid of 2000 metric tons of cocoa beans! This is a real example of how bad pesticides can get. Luckily, the Japanese government had known what to do instead of going straight to making the beans into chocolate!