Matt Levine writes:
Every time I see an article like this:
Starting from Dec. 30, chocolate makers that sell or produce in the EU will have to show that the cocoa they use wasn’t grown on land cut from forests since the end of 2020. In practice, it means that each morsel of cocoa that makes its way into the bloc will need to be linked to the GPS coordinates of the farm where it was harvested. That’s where people like [Brice-Armel] Konan, who helps monitor cocoa farm data in Ivory Coast for the Rainforest Alliance, a nonprofit based in New York and Amsterdam, and his smartphone come in. Such nonprofits, along with industry groups, governments and chocolate companies, are racing to help farmers record the data they need in time. Ivory Coast’s cocoa and coffee regulator says it has mapped just over 80% of the country’s estimated 1.55 million cocoa farms. That leaves some 300,000—or about 2,000 a day—to be mapped or otherwise accounted for by Oct. 1, the start of the new cocoa season.
I immediately search for the word “blockchain.” Five years ago, this article would absolutely have used the word “blockchain.” In 2024 it does not. I suppose that is some sort of progress.
Go read the post. Stay for the shrimp….
