I wasn't sure about submitting this to ~food - the focus is obviously around a food product, but the article is just as much about the effects on the economy and society around it. Either way,...
I wasn't sure about submitting this to ~food - the focus is obviously around a food product, but the article is just as much about the effects on the economy and society around it.
Either way, it's a really interesting article and I highly suggest reading it. One aspect that was especially fascinating to me is the "ignorance gap" between both the producers of vanilla and the consumers of it—the farmers in Madagascar speculate that it must be used in something really important, like "dynamite or tires", and the people that actually use it know almost nothing about where it comes from or how it's produced.
The ignorance gap is incredibly striking, it seems incredibly odd that they wouldn't have recognized it's use as a spice. They certainly know how it's smells as vanillin is a molecule we are...
The ignorance gap is incredibly striking, it seems incredibly odd that they wouldn't have recognized it's use as a spice. They certainly know how it's smells as vanillin is a molecule we are extremely sensitive to, the threshold for smell is 0.000035ppm compared to say 15ppm for acetone. It'd be interesting to see how far away from the farms you have to go before people starting using it as a spice.
You can see a similar thing in the cocoa industry. Many of the people producing it know it goes into chocolate, but have never seen or tasted chocolate. The disconnect isn't as stark as with...
You can see a similar thing in the cocoa industry. Many of the people producing it know it goes into chocolate, but have never seen or tasted chocolate. The disconnect isn't as stark as with vanilla, but it's there.
Cocoa is something I can somewhat understand. The raw cocoa plant is pretty far removed from chocolate the requires quite a bit of processing. Although speaking of, I don't actually know how...
Cocoa is something I can somewhat understand. The raw cocoa plant is pretty far removed from chocolate the requires quite a bit of processing. Although speaking of, I don't actually know how flavorful/fragrant unripened vanilla beans are compared to their cured forms.
And watching that reminded me of this Unreported World episode http://www.quicksilvermedia.tv/productions/production/ivory-coast-blood-and-chocolate Ed: I'm going to add a link to the Unreported...
And watching that reminded me of this Unreported World episode
Vanillin causes sensory overload - you cease to perceive the aroma (and hence, flavor) with prolonged exposure at moderate concentrations. I lost the ability to taste vanilla during the time I was...
Vanillin causes sensory overload - you cease to perceive the aroma (and hence, flavor) with prolonged exposure at moderate concentrations. I lost the ability to taste vanilla during the time I was working in a pastry kitchen; I can easily see why people farming the raw beans by the kilogram wouldn't use it as a flavoring.
This is a pretty darn interesting article. I've kept up with the vanilla shortages and booms just because I like London fogs (earl gray w/ milk, sugar, vanilla) and prices certainly do jump around...
This is a pretty darn interesting article. I've kept up with the vanilla shortages and booms just because I like London fogs (earl gray w/ milk, sugar, vanilla) and prices certainly do jump around quite a lot. Although despite the authors claims that hot money spending might not be illogical I think it is.
It's unfortunate that these farmers for whatever reason cannot use their money to increase their standard of living long term. The article talks about casino capitalism and speculative investing but none of that seems to actually apply here. These farmers are producing a crop that has a high variability in supply due to cyclones. The fact that they don't invest or save their wealth during the boom times for the leaner times is more likely due to ignorance or a lack of some infrastructure rather than a logical response to variability.
I think this is a good fit for ~food. The effects of international monetary policy and commodity speculation have a big impact on what we eat, how it's produced, and how it gets to our tables....
I think this is a good fit for ~food. The effects of international monetary policy and commodity speculation have a big impact on what we eat, how it's produced, and how it gets to our tables.
This article is from a few months ago and might give some more context for someone
I wasn't sure about submitting this to ~food - the focus is obviously around a food product, but the article is just as much about the effects on the economy and society around it.
Either way, it's a really interesting article and I highly suggest reading it. One aspect that was especially fascinating to me is the "ignorance gap" between both the producers of vanilla and the consumers of it—the farmers in Madagascar speculate that it must be used in something really important, like "dynamite or tires", and the people that actually use it know almost nothing about where it comes from or how it's produced.
The ignorance gap is incredibly striking, it seems incredibly odd that they wouldn't have recognized it's use as a spice. They certainly know how it's smells as vanillin is a molecule we are extremely sensitive to, the threshold for smell is 0.000035ppm compared to say 15ppm for acetone. It'd be interesting to see how far away from the farms you have to go before people starting using it as a spice.
You can see a similar thing in the cocoa industry. Many of the people producing it know it goes into chocolate, but have never seen or tasted chocolate. The disconnect isn't as stark as with vanilla, but it's there.
Cocoa is something I can somewhat understand. The raw cocoa plant is pretty far removed from chocolate the requires quite a bit of processing. Although speaking of, I don't actually know how flavorful/fragrant unripened vanilla beans are compared to their cured forms.
I thought this was an interesting look into that very thing: First taste of chocolate in Ivory Coast - vpro Metropolis [5m55s], English CC
And watching that reminded me of this Unreported World episode
http://www.quicksilvermedia.tv/productions/production/ivory-coast-blood-and-chocolate
Ed: I'm going to add a link to the Unreported World YouTube channel, because there's some excellent stuff to see on a vast range of topics
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClz-d22g9Lj7agZSbaRKuqA/videos?shelf_id=9&view=0&sort=p&pbjreload=10
Vanillin causes sensory overload - you cease to perceive the aroma (and hence, flavor) with prolonged exposure at moderate concentrations. I lost the ability to taste vanilla during the time I was working in a pastry kitchen; I can easily see why people farming the raw beans by the kilogram wouldn't use it as a flavoring.
This is a pretty darn interesting article. I've kept up with the vanilla shortages and booms just because I like London fogs (earl gray w/ milk, sugar, vanilla) and prices certainly do jump around quite a lot. Although despite the authors claims that hot money spending might not be illogical I think it is.
It's unfortunate that these farmers for whatever reason cannot use their money to increase their standard of living long term. The article talks about casino capitalism and speculative investing but none of that seems to actually apply here. These farmers are producing a crop that has a high variability in supply due to cyclones. The fact that they don't invest or save their wealth during the boom times for the leaner times is more likely due to ignorance or a lack of some infrastructure rather than a logical response to variability.
I think this is a good fit for ~food. The effects of international monetary policy and commodity speculation have a big impact on what we eat, how it's produced, and how it gets to our tables.
This article is from a few months ago and might give some more context for someone
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/31/madagascars-vanilla-wars-prized-spice-drives-death-and-deforestation
And a gallery of vanilla farmers, brokers and hustlers
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2018/mar/31/madagascan-gold-meet-the-vanilla-hustlers-in-pictures