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Tiny cacao flowers and fickle midges are part of a pollination puzzle that limits chocolate production

  • Written by DeWayne Shoemaker, Professor and Department Head, Entomology and Plant Pathology, University of Tennessee
Tiny cacao flowers and fickle midges are part of a pollination puzzle that limits chocolate productionOnly 10%-20% of cacao flowers are pollinated.carlosgaw/E+ via Getty Images

It’s almost impossible to imagine a world without chocolate. Yet cacao trees, which are the source of chocolate, are vulnerable.

I am a passionate chocolate lover and an entomologist who studies cacao pollination. The crop’s sustainability currently appears to...

Read more: Tiny cacao flowers and fickle midges are part of a pollination puzzle that limits chocolate...

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