By Gabriela Albuja At Canopy Bridge we know that meeting suppliers in the field makes a big difference for companies looking to source sustainable, natural products. To help support direct-trade relationship building we launched a contest together with the Environmental Defense Fund at the end of 2017, which offered small grants to help […]
By Juliana Splendore In late summer of 2016, Emily Stone, the founder of Uncommon Cacao – an American supplier of specialty cacao beans to artisanal chocolate producers – travelled to Colombia for the first time to scout potential sustainable cacao producers. Her trip took her to two extreme corners of Colombia – the Sierra Nevada, […]
Jacob Olander First it was hamburgers, then chocolate and now guacamole. Tropical forests are being relentlessly sacrificed for our far-away indulgences. Avocado growers are trashing native pine and oak forests in Mexico. A boom in cocoa planting comes at the expense of tropical forests in West Africa and Peru. And beef is responsible […]
Read More… from Consuming deforestation: Where are your standards?
by Jacob Olander The Ecuadorian Amazon is remarkably easy to get to. In no other of the eight countries of the Amazon River basin is the rainforest so accessible. In just a 3-hour drive from the Andean capital city of Quito, where we live, you’re down in the rainforest lowlands. It´s one of my favorite […]
Read More… from In the Native Land of Cacao, Vanilla and Amazon Cinnamon
The holidays can bring a welcome change of pace, when we slow down and share time with friends and family. This sharing includes gifts which […]
On a Saturday afternoon in late September in the Peruvian jungle town of Satipo, Jonatan Ayala Lombardi offers up a chocolate surprise. Jonatan is the general manager of the Satipo Cooperative, which sells hundreds of tons of cacao and coffee from its 620 farmer members from this frontier region where the Andes meld into the Amazon lowlands. […]
Read More… from Fine Cacao is Booming. Fine Cacao is Vanishing.
Canopy Bridge founder Marta Echavarría was at the 2015 Casa de Chocolate and Cacao de Oro Awards in Bogotá. On September 18th, Swisscontact, a corporation working in economic development, held their third Casa de Chocolate and Cacao de Oro Awards, showcasing and celebrating the exciting expansion of high quality Colombian cacao. […]
Read More… from The Right Taste at the Right Time: The Future of Colombian Cacao
Last month the World Cocoa Foundation issued a stern statement that the measures taken by the cocoa and chocolate industries and by the United States and West African governments, “have not been sufficient to achieve significant reductions in the number of children working in unacceptable conditions in West Africa, often in circumstances defined as child labor.” […]
Read More… from Peruvian Chocolate’s secret ingredient: more kids in class, not on the cocoa farm
In our last blog, Lourdes Páez explained the history of cocoa in Ecuador, and the challenges and opportunities in its production today. Here, we introduce you to some native Amazonian cocoa producers, and to the hope that proper cocoa production holds for them, as well as for the futures of chocolate and conservation. […]
Read More… from Cocoa: From Native producers in its Native Land
Canopy Bridge recently had a chance to sit down with Lourdes Páez, an outstanding social entrepreneur working to enhance appreciation for Ecuador’s excellent cocoa and create more value for farmers of the country’s fine flavor beans. Lourdes heads the Academia del Chocolate, an organization dedicated to training and research to improve the quality, recognition and benefits of fine cocoa, and she recently launched a beautiful book dedicated to Ecuador´s rich cocoa heritage, Ecuador tierra del cacao.36″ height=”111″ />
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Read More… from From chocolate lover to chocolate expert: a personal story
