If you haven’t already heard, the future supply of chocolate may be in jeopardy.

This situation is caused by the increase in demand for chocolate and the decline in cacao tree production. The cacao tree produces the seed that makes chocolate.

The increase in demand comes not only from the fact that anything chocolate tastes so good, but also from the growing evidence that eating chocolate can be good for your health.

The decrease in production comes from several reasons. First, diseases destroy a third of the world’s cacao crop every year. And those diseases are spreading around the globe. Also the cacao tree is a rainforest tree with shallow roots that can’t tolerate drought and with drought plaguing the world the situation is becoming bleaker every year.

The world’s chocolate hunger can be met by increasing the cacao tree growing area and by increasing the yield of cacao per acre. Since the cacao tree is mostly grown in the poor countries of the world, the farmers generally can’t afford fertilizer or pesticides. The farmers continue to expand their crops by slashing and burning patches of rainforest. This releases nutrients that make the trees thrive for awhile, then the farmers move to a new patch of rainforest.

The good news is that Mars, Inc. scientists are studying the cacao tree now. Mars is the maker of M&M’s Plain Milk Chocolate Candy and M&M’s Peanut Candies. You can buy them at candymachines.com in either bags or cases.

The Mars scientists are looking into growing higher-yielding strains of the tree by using fertilizer, and they believe that is the key to increasing the size of crops. The scientists are also analyzing cacao samples from the Amazon region and elsewhere to do genetic studies to find strains that have a higher yield, are drought tolerant and have disease resistant qualities.