The Future of Chocolate

Chocolate is entering a pivotal moment. As climate change, crop disease, and supply-chain instability threaten cocoa production, major chocolate companies are pursuing technological solutions that promise resilience and efficiency. But beneath the language of innovation lies a deeper divide—not just in how chocolate will be made, but in who benefits and what kind of food system survives.

At the center of this shift are two very different technologies: lab-grown cocoa and bioengineered (gene-edited) cocoa. They are often conflated, but they are not the same—and they signal fundamentally different futures.