'Chocolate Greenhouse' Near London May Save the World's Cocoa Plants

Climate change may be impacting cocoa crops globally, but a greenhouse near London is fighting back for chocolate lovers everywhere. The International Cocoa Quarantine Centre (ICQC) works tirelessly to ensure that cocoa crops remain disease-free and bountiful.

"Cocoa plants are generally quite difficult plants to grow," said Heather Lake, a technician at the newly-revamped center, in an interview with the AFP. "They don't like too much sunlight, they don't like too much shade. It's quite difficult to get the climate correct."

The greenhouse itself stays at a balmy 73 degrees in order to simulation tropical conditions. The aim of the center is actually to reduce the amount of disease affecting cocoa plants by quarantining them before sharing them with various countries to produce new and more resistant varieties, according to CTV News.

While cocoa is originally from South America, West Africa currently dominates production. With climate change on the rise, though, cocoa production is vulnerable to sudden shocks, especially because it's largely concentrated in one region.  As an example, prices of cocoa leapt upward after fears that the Ebola outbreak with affect production soared.

The cocoa that's being grown in the greenhouse, though, will hopefully combat these types of price leaps. It should help with the safe movement of cocoa plants from one part of the world to the other; the center hopes to grow resistant varieties before sending them around the world. Producer countries can then establish these plants to create hardier strains.

In other words, chocolate lovers have a little less to worry about as this center moves forward with efforts.

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