Critical Analysis- Are we running out of Chocolate?

In the article, "Are we running out of Chocolate" by Kathy Wilmore, we are asked the question: Is the amount of chocolate we consume too much? Kathy's article is about how our needs and wants for chocolate is raising, and this will have an affect on the price and scarcity of chocolate sooner than we think. The article explains how many people are eaten more and more chocolate everyday, and 'in 2013 alone, the world consumed about 77,000 tons more cocoa than was produced.' We can eat a chocolate bar within seconds, but a cocoa plant takes a very long time to grow, which proves that our high demand for chocolate, may have to stop rapidly. Chocolate is on many thing today, including pizza and pretzels, and this is affecting prices of chocolate where Hershey's had an 8% percent price increase, its first since 2011. As we consume more chocolate, the prices rise and the highly demanded food becomes much more of a shortage.

The author, Kathy Wilmore, uses many techniques to try to persuade us as readers that we need to think about and reduce the amount of chocolate we consume. One way that she persuades us is by speaking to us as if she was next to you. She says "The next time you eat a piece of chocolate, slow down and savour every bite." This is very persuasive because she makes us feel as if we are doing something wrong in our life and that we are the 'bad people'. It makes us rethink about how we consume chocolate, which then leads to us thinking about HOW much we consume chocolate, which is what she wants us to think. Another way that Kathy Wilmore persuades us to reduce our chocolate consumption is by talking about child labor and how chocolate is made in very harsh conditions. "An estimated 500,000 to 1.5 million children work on cocoa farms in West Africa, according to the International Cocoa Initiative. Some toil on their family farms, but many are trafficked into slavery." This is a very persuasive way of persuading us to reduce our intake of chocolate, because she isn't just making us thinking about ourselves and chocolate but she wants us to think about the actual production in many different way. I know for a fact that I felt awful when I read that quote, because it is a food that I take for granted and I had no idea that it was made in such terrible conditions.

I agree with the author, that we should be limiting our consumption of sugar because one it is very unhealthy and two it should be a luxury for everyone, and if everyone keeps on being greedy and eating a chocolate bar every day then soon enough there won't be any. Also, right now it is a very cheap product to buy, but if we keep up the high demand for a chocolate bar then it will only be available to the upper middle class or maybe just even upper class. It is a luxury that many people, including me, take advantage of and if we want to keep chocolate in the delis then we need to realise that there is a limit and other people's lives are being affected by our greediness.