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 ...

Seamus Blackley, a tech executive known best for inventing the Xbox game console, inspects his cacao trees. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times) There are technological and biological wonders inside the ...

The productivity of cacao trees decreases with time, forcing farmers to renew their plantations by either cutting down the old trees or establishing a new crop elsewhere. Frequently, new plantations ...

Seamus Blackley is best known for creating the Xbox game console. Now he has a new mission: to start a Los Angeles chocolate company. The challenge? Cacao trees don’t grow in the Southern California ...

Use of the powerful gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 could help to breed cacao trees that exhibit desirable traits such as enhanced resistance to diseases, according to Penn State plant scientists. The ...

Researchers are working on using mathematics to help stop the spread CHOCOLATE lovers beware: the sweet indulgence is facing a bitter crisis as the swollen shoot cacao tree virus threatens global ...

Archaeologists have shed light on the origins of chocolate by tracing the spread of the cacao tree. A new study published in Scientific Reports found that the cacao tree, which grows cocoa beans, ...

You may think you know all there is about chocolate, but cacao beans are only part of the story. With a rich history, cacao has been used as currency, for medicinal remedies, during spiritual rituals, ...