BBC is reporting that Mars, the chocolate company, is planning to decode the genetic structure of the cacao tree. This is an excellent idea.
Recently, almost 60 percent of the Brazilian cocoa crop was wiped out due to a disease called witches. When the company sequences the genome of the cacao tree—which is expected to take five years—researchers may be able to understand the trees DNA and help make crop production not only more resistant to diseases such as witches, but also to pests and even water shortages which could come from a warming climate.
