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Linking Agriculture and Conservation Since cacao plantations are becoming less productive and farmers are running out of rain forest, scientists and chocolate companies are looking in a "new" direction that dates back to 1000 BC: growing cacao as an integrated part of the forest ecosystem, as the original Amerindians did. This means a shift away from large plantations to smaller farms where cacao is grown in the shade of larger trees.
Allen M. Young, curator of zoology at the Milwaukee Public Museum, is testing methods of cacao cultivation on a plantation in northeastern Costa Rica. Early indications show that the more closely the growing environment resembles old-growth forest, the healthier the cacao trees. "We've got an organism here that's basically evolved over millions of years in tropical wet forest," Young told the New York Times. "Let's test the concept, which is new, of putting the rain forest to work and returning cacao to its native habitat."
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