Chocolate: Food of the Gods and Goddesses: History, Elaboration, Cultivation and Geopolitics
Dates and location:December 30th-January 10th2013 (Nicaragua)
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Instructors: Chris Shanks and Katie Goodall
Contact information: Chris Shanks: (phone: 011 505 8616 4566)
Katie Goodall (phone: 808 345 7066)
Instructor backgrounds:
Chris Shanks has worked in tropical and temperate agro-forestry systems for 11 years. Primarily focused on research, agro-forestry systems trials, and ecological enhancement work. Chris has designed and built a 43 acre site dedicated to tropical organic agro-forestry in southwestern Nicaragua. Internationally, Chris has worked in agro-forestry and related fields in countries such as: The Bahamas, Haiti, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, the USVI, Panama, Thailand, the United States, the south Pacific, and Spain. In addition to running Project Bona Fide and developing programs in the local community, Chris also designs and installs agro-forestry projects all over western Nicaragua. Chris has taught for UVM, CEI and the Island school in the Bahamas and has guest lectured at Evergreen state, Middlebury and in many private and public non-University venues throughout the US and abroad. Chris speaks fluent English, Spanish and conversational French and some Haitian Kreyol.
Katie Goodall is a doctorate student in the Plant and Soil Science Department at UVM. She is currently investigating how smallholder coffee farmers in northern Nicaragua influence to landscape-level distribution of birds. Katie has studied and worked in Chile, Kenya, Hawaii, Mexico, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. She speaks Spanish, at times with a Chilean accent. Katie has taught for University of Michigan, the Michigan Biological Station, and UVM. After graduating, Katie aims to contribute to breaking the age old dichotomy of the academy and the farm by starting an agroecology education center for the integration of classroom and on-farm learning.
Course Overview:
Course Description:
Students will travel to Nicaragua for a 14 day course that will cover every major aspect of the history, cultivation, fabrication and geopolitics surrounding the cocoa tree (Theobroma cacao).
Students will begin their first full day in Nicaragua buying cacao beans to make home made chocolate at Finca Bona Fide and bargaining for their breakfast of tropical fruit and avocadoes. The selfsame first day in Nicaragua will end with the students arriving on Isla Ometepe to begin their coursework at Finca Bona Fide. Finca Bona Fide has over 500 cacao trees planted from ages 9 years to one year. Students will observe the trees in all stages of maturity and will visit old cacao groves on the slopes of the extinct volcano, Maderas. Students will learn about organic methods of pruning and live aerobic teas employed in organic control for the production of organic cocoa. Plant pathology and disease issues will also be discussed as well as organic IPM. Students will have a workshop given by local women on the elaboration of chocolate by hand adding additional spices like ginger and mint. Classes will be given on the long history of cacao beginning with the roots of its indigenous uses to its transition to a global and globalized crop and how it shapes (exploits) the lives of millions of people world round. Special attention will be given to the fair trade movement, the repercussions of the loss of cacao in Central America due to brown rot and how local economies were shattered by this loss. The movement of the industry to West Africa and the impact the tree has had there will also be discussed via pre-assigned readings. The usage of the cocoa tree in multi-strata agro-forestry will also be discussed as well as viewed and experienced by students at Finca Bona Fide where it is being reintroduced. The renaissance of the cacao tree will also be discussed as it is slowly being cultivated once again in Central America with disease resistant cultivars as well as new methods. The possibilities of a producer managed industry will be discussed and real time models for locally produced cocoa to chocolate business schemes will be discussed and experienced via visiting The Momotombo Chocolate Company and El Castillo Chocolate Company. Both companies are Nicaraguan owned and are a direct link between producers and cocoa purchasers. Students will have a 2 day workshop with the owner of Momotombo Chocolate company and will visit the El Castillo Chocolate factory which they will tour. Whilst in the mountains of Matagalpa where the El Castillo Factory is located students will also tour the farms of local cocoa producers. The course will then finish with the students visiting the Pacific coast or a crater lake called Laguna de Apoyo to unwind for one day before they journey back to the USA.
View photos & explore the farm, research, and teaching center:
Course goals:
At the end of the course students will demonstrate a deep knowledge of many aspects of the cocoa tree (Theobroma cacao). This will include: its use in agro-forestry, its history, global impact, role in exploitation and global market consolidation in the confections industry, how it can be used alongside and part of agro-forestry systems in multi-strata agriculture and how its role can change from a negative/degenerative one to a positive/regenerative one when partnered with small scale business initiatives and worker owned cooperatives.
LearningObjectivesandOutcomes:
- Demonstrate an understanding of the principles of competition and co-operation between agricultural crops and tree crops well enough to design a functionally effective agro-forestry system.
- Understand and recognize the breadth of spatial and temporal relationships in agro-forestry systems especially those with the cocoa tree.
- Expose students to both quantitative and qualitative methods for evaluating the productivity of agro-forestry systems.
- Expose students to the cultural and socio-economic realities of implementing and maintaining agro-forestry systems as well as their ecological potential for agro-ecosystem restoration and habitat enhancement.
- Gain an understanding of agro-forestry techniques used with cacao
- Gain hands on experience with local, low land tropical agro-forestry systems.
7. Understand the history of cacao from its indigenous past to the present and how its
development and spread has had a significant geopolitical impact worldwide.
Attendance policies and expectations: Due to the short and intense nature of the course students will be required to attend all classroom sessions. Students will also be required to participate in all hands on activities related to course material, be present and attentive on all site tours and field trips as well as attend all presentations and films offered during the course.
Student Evaluation/Assessment:
Evaluation/GradingSystem
The following items will be evaluated and used as a basis for assigning course grades.
RequirementPercent of Course Grade
1. Participation in all components of class25%
2. Article presentation25%
3. Group presentations25%
4. Journal – Reflection questions25%
Description of class assignments:
Article presentations
Before our departure, several articles about diverse issues in the cacao industry will be posted on Blackboard. Each student will choose a unique article, which they will read and prepare a short presentation for the class during one of the first few nights in Nicaragua. This way, although we have limited time to devote to assignments while traveling, students can teach each other about their articles and faculty can facilitate a discussion exploring questions that each article poses. This way, students start thinking about the complexity of the cacao industry even before the course begins, and are primed for investigating cacao in Nicaragua.
Group Presentations
The first day in Nicaragua, students will be divided into teams of 2-3. Each team will be assigned a question to explore throughout the trip. Topics may include cacao production schemes, ecological implications of cacao agroforestry, geopolitics, chain of production, etc. Over the course of two weeks, each team should investigate their question at every visit we make, asking questions of guest speakers and seeking resources along the way. At the end of the course, teams will present their findings to the group. In this way, we will all review and reflect upon the learning experiences we’ve had throughout the two weeks and focus on the issues and factors that influence the cacao industry. Because traveling abroad is in itself a learning experience, constant review of course material helps students digest aspects of the field visits and guest lectures that they may not have grasped the first time around.
Journals
Additionally, during the two-week course students will be assigned a total of 5 questions for which they will responsible for producing a journal entry into the books provided. Students will be graded based on their capacity to comprehend the material and think critically about cocoa, its history, world impact, how sound design can influence positively its future impact, how it has touched their own lives and how its consumption shapes the lives of hundreds of thousands of people world round.
Academic Honesty & Professionalism:
All students are required to be familiar with and adhere to the “Academic Honesty Policy Procedures” delineated in the most recent edition of “The Cat’s Tale”. (
Accommodations:
In order to diversify our experiences we will be staying at various sites. Students will generally live in dormitory like rooms or in double occupancy rooms in the local village, Balgue. Several nights will also be spent at ‘Mi Tierra Hostel’ a locally owned and family run tourist facility. We will also stay at “Hostal Las Mochilas” in Granada for a night as well as at “Hostal Buena Onda” in Matagalpa city for 1-2 nights when we visit local cocoa producers. There will be a day trip to Laguna Apoyo, a beautiful lakeside retreat.
Recommended Readings:
Agroecology, Altieri Miguel
Cocoa Agroforests in West Africa Asare Richard
(Available in PDF from Chris Shanks)
The Genetic Diversity of Cacao and its Utilization
Bartley, B.G.D
The New Taste of Chocolate, Presilla E. Maricel
Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture, Smith, Russel J.