Since it's Good Friday, as Christians know, Easter is right around the corner on Sunday.
My colleague Sister Toldjah posited in her recent piece on a retail store in the U.K. that sells Cadbury Easter candy going "woke" (see the story at the end of this piece), that one of the delights found while rummaging through the neon green artificial grass nestled inside an Easter basket is hollow chocolate bunnies. And she's not wrong.
But the lame legacy media is doing everything it can to make us feel guilty for enjoying chocolate Easter candy in 2024 because, according to some, we're killing the planet and hurting cocoa trees in the process. Here it is, packaged in a fun, short video (maybe to best appeal to young progressives):
Your Easter chocolate is smaller and more expensive this year. Inflation isn't the only reason. https://t.co/eFOYPHMaYu pic.twitter.com/fbmIBJENXT
— USA TODAY Money (@USATODAYmoney) March 23, 2024
Citing a new report, USA Today writes: [emphasis mine]
Bad news for chocolate lovers.
This Easter season, consumers can expect a spike in prices for their favorite chocolate treats as cocoa prices have reached historic highs due to dwindling supply caused by climate change, according to a recent report from Wells Fargo.
That's a lot to unpack. Let's start with more details on why cocoa prices are soaring:
Cocoa futures for May delivery surged to an all-time intraday high of $10,080 per metric ton Tuesday before ending the day down 0.3% to settle at $9,622. Cocoa has more than tripled in cost over the past year and is up 129% in 2024.
...
The world is facing the largest cocoa supply deficit in more than 60 years and consumers could start to see the effect at the end of this year or early 2025, Joules said. The International Cocoa Organization has forecast a supply deficit of 374,000 tons for the 2023-24 season, a 405% increase from a deficit of 74,000 tons in the previous season.
And here's the direct quote from the Wells Fargo report, on how this could affect chocolate lovers immediately:
David Branch, sector manager at Wells Fargo’s Agri-Food Institute, said consumers could see higher prices as soon as Easter, which is on Sunday.
“Given that cocoa prices and other manufacturing costs have been rising steadily over the past year, it is likely consumers will see a price spike on chocolate candy this Easter,” Branch told clients in a research note this month.
How will manufacturers keep down prices at a manageable level? One strategy comes from chocolate behemoth Hershey, which is set to release a new flavor of Kit Kat bar, Chocolate Frosted Donut, that focuses on the "doughnut" elements, it appears. To save on costs, only half of the confection gets covered in chocolate.
A brief aside: Kit Kat might be my favorite chocolate bar of all time--and any reduction in the level of chocolate on those wafers is a no-go in my book. Why can't they make a new candy and call it something else? But I digress.
But back to the climate hoax scare. USA Today picks up that thread here:
Changing weather has threatened cocoa tree health and production, according to the report. Heavier rainfall last crop season caused an increase in diseases among cocoa trees. Now cocoa tree farmers in West Africa are facing dry temperatures and extreme winds from this year’s El Niño.
Cocoa trees are especially sensitive to climate change, only growing in a narrow band of approximately 20 degrees around the equator.
I hate to bring up depressing topics like Bidenomics as part of this story, as we're supposed to be looking towards the happiest day on the Christian calendar shortly. But notice that there's no mention of Joe Biden or his failures with the economy. The high inflation, while briefly mentioned, is not brought up to criticize the very policies that caused it. You could mull the long-standing process of the media covering for Team Biden once again.
Here's a better idea: spend the holiday enjoying your family's company, chowing down on the bounty of the Easter dinner table that God has provided you, and leaving the political topics--like what President Joe Biden is doing to enact more environmental regulations--for another day.
As my colleague Susie Moore wrote earlier on Good Friday, very much tongue in cheek, "No word on whether the Easter Bunny will be shepherding Joe around this weekend..." Indeed.
Happy Easter, RedState readers! Enjoy some chocolate this weekend!
Related at RedState: Consumers Respond Accordingly After Cadbury Egg Store in the UK Goes Politically Correct for Easter
