Cacao plants can only survive in a handful of specific regions, but those regions have since become volatile. The plants are frequent victims of fungal disease, climate change and cocoa swollen shoot virus, or CSSVD.
Scientists and researchers at places like UC Berkeley and Mars Inc. hope to use technology to modify the cacao plant seeds to become adaptable to more climates.
And the technology wouldn’t just stop at cacao leaves.
Jennifer Doudna, geneticist and inventor of the CRISPR being used on the cacao seeds, thinks the experiment could change the way food is grown.
“Personally, I’d love a tomato plant with fruit that stayed on the vine longer,” she said.
But all is not terrible in the land of chocolate news.
World-renowned Swiss chocolatier Barry Callebaut unveiled another type of chocolate called "ruby chocolate" in September.
The pink-hued creation with berry undertones joined the ranks of dark, milk and white chocolate nearly 80 years after the introduction of white chocolate. The ruby chocolate does not obtain its color or flavoring from additives. Instead, the chocolate was created following over a decade of testing a special cocoa bean.
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