Preserving Cocoa for Generations to Come
As a part of its Cocoa for Generations strategy, Mars decided in 2019 to expand its decades-long relationship with the University of California, Davis, by building greenhouses and a genetics and integrated pest management laboratory to study cacao.
A cacao pod on a tree at Mars' greenhouse facility at the University of California, Davis. Photo courtesy of Mars Wrigley
“Cocoa could be extinct by 2050,” says Amanda Davies, chief procurement and sustainability officer at Mars Wrigley, a business segment of Mars Inc. With a warming planet, diseases and pests are becoming increasingly problematic for cacao trees, a crop that can only grow within about 20 degrees north and south of the equator. The loss would be devastating to the 50 …
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