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West Africa produces nearly three-quarters of the world's cocoa -- with the nations of Ivory Coast and Ghana responsible for 60 percent of that supply. And while Ebola has not yet appeared in those two nations, their proximity to Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone -- the current epicenters of the Ebola outbreak -- have led to concerns that any continued spread of the disease could also cause a major disruption in cocoa production, and another spike in world cocoa prices.

The deadly Ebola virus spreading through West Africa is sparking fears in the market that supplies of cocoa, one of the region's top exports, could be disrupted. Prices for the key chocolate ingredient have surged 6.3% this week, settling just shy of the highest level in more than three years on mounting concerns that the outbreak will reach the Ivory Coast or Ghana, which produce about 60% of the world's cocoa. No cases have been reported in either country. But Ivory Coast shares a poorly policed border with Liberia and Guinea, two of the countries hardest hit by Ebola.

Chocolate. Whatever your preferred form or flavor is, the love of it is something that feels universal, shared between us. We come together over dinner for it, celebrate birthdays and holidays with it. The industry that produces chocolate crisscrosses the entire world. But for the cocoa bean farmers from M'batto, Ivory Coast, seen in the video above, that connection didn't come full circle until Selay Marius Kouassi, guest correspondent for Metropolis TV, visited and offered them a taste of their first chocolate bar. Ivory Coast, a small country on the west coast of Africa, is the world's leading producer of...

The idea that eating cocoa-rich, dark chocolate may offer greater health benefits than milk chocolate is not new. Cocoa is loaded with compounds called polyphenols that have been shown to help our bodies fend off inflammation and maybe even improve our moods. And now a small study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association offers evidence of another possible benefit: improving vascular health by increasing blood flow. Researchers studied patients with peripheral artery disease, or PAD, which affects about 20 percent of adults older than 70 in the U.S. and other Western countries. People who have PAD can...

"Obama appeals to the core "grown man in a onesie" demographic" - Dan McLaughlin @baseballcrank The folks at Organizing for Action (also known as @BarackObama) won’t rest until everyone spends this holiday season talking about health insurance. Then, when they eventually do rest, they’ll do it in plaid onesies, apparently.

In the new study, the team from Harvard randomly assigned 60 elderly people to drink two cups of flavanol-rich or flavanol-poor cocoa every day for a month. There weren't any overall differences between the high- and low-flavanol groups in terms of cognitive abilities, so the researchers looked a little deeper. They found that people who had compromised blood flow to the brain and white matter damage at the beginning of the study did show a difference after drinking the cocoa for a month: Blood flow in their brains improved by about 8%, and the time it took them to complete...

COCOA, Florida -- The Annual Gun Buy Back is taking place in Cocoa on Thursday, August 16, 2012 with the Cocoa Police Department and Rockledge Police Department. Brevard residents have the opportunity to turn in guns in exchange for a gift card, according to Public Information Officer Barbara Matthews with the Cocoa Police Department. The Annual Gun Buy Back will begin at 7:00 am on Thursday, August 16, 2012 at the Byrd Plaza Parking Lot, located at 801 Dixon Boulevard in Cocoa. Each vehicle will have the opportunity of turning in up to two guns in exchange for a $50...

"Ivory Coast's farmers provide a third of the world's supply of cocoa" Long queues have formed at banks in Ivory Coast amid fears of a banking collapse as the Standard Chartered bank said it was suspending operations. It is the fourth bank to close this week because of turmoil following November's disputed presidential polls. Earlier it was reported that West Africa's BRVM stock exchange, based in Abidjan, had suspended its operations. BRVM staff told the BBC they were working, but it was not clear if they were actually able to do transactions.

Experts say the world could be running out of chocolate. The economics of cocoa cultivation make chocolate production a labor and time-intensive process. Much of the world's cocoa comes from West Africa, but farmers there say they just don't have the incentives to keep growing the crop. The process takes up to five years per plant and many farmers can say they can earn more with other crops. The price of chocolate rose to a three-decade high in August. "In 20 years chocolate will be like caviar," John Mason, executive director of the Ghana-based Nature Conservation Research Council, told Britain's...

Even Willy Wonka might struggle to use this much chocolate. Yesterday, somebody bought 241,000 tonnes of cocoa beans. The purchase was enough to move the entire global cocoa market, sending the price to the highest level since 1977, and triggering rumours and intrigue in the City. It is unclear which person, or group of traders, was behind the deal, but it was the largest single cocoa trade for 14 years. The cocoa beans, which are sitting in warehouses either in The Netherlands, Hamburg, or closer to home in London, Liverpool or Humberside is equivalent to the entire supply of the...

Chocolate. Just the mere sound of the word makes your tastes buds start salivating for the rich, creamy texture of this often misunderstood, sometimes decadent, but always tasty treat. This food has been used for centuries by lovers to woo the opposite sex, to promote all types of sensual delights, and to boost the energy of anyone who wants to indulge.

Move over, red wine. Make room for chocolate milk. A new study suggests that regular consumption of skim milk with flavonoid-rich cocoa may reduce inflammation, potentially slowing or preventing development of atherosclerosis. Researchers noted, however, that the effect was not as pronounced as that seen with red wine. Scientists in Barcelona, Spain, recruited 47 volunteers ages 55 and older who were at risk for heart disease. Half were given 20-gram sachets of soluble cocoa powder to drink with skim milk twice a day, while the rest drank plain skim milk. After one month, the groups were switched. Blood tests found...

Cocoa Prices At Highest For Two Decades Cocoa prices have been quietly but steadily rising in London, this week reaching their highest point in the last two decades. Published: 7:40PM BST 11 Oct 2009[snip]

COCOA, Fla. -- A law enforcement officer who is still recovering from being shot six times last week spoke at a news conference Thursday morning.

Cocoa prices on Tuesday surged to a 23-year high as speculative investors poured into the market amid concerns about dwindling supplies from Ivory Coast, by far the worldÂ’s largest producer. Prices for cocoa have risen 70 per cent in the past year, bucking the weakness in overall commodities prices. The drop in sterling has helped push London-based, sterling-denominated cocoa futures higher, but analysts said the main factor was low supplies. The International Cocoa Organisation said in its latest monthly report that cocoa bean arrivals until the end of November at ports in Ivory Coast, which provides almost 40 per cent...

Cocoa But Not Tea Linked To Blood Pressure Reduction A German study suggests there is evidence that cocoa but not tea is linked to blood pressure reduction. The study is published in the American Medical Association journal Archives of Internal Medicine. Dr Dirk Taubert and colleagues from the Department of Pharmacology at the University Hospital of Cologne, Germany, reviewed the medical literature for dietary effects of cocoa and black and green tea on blood pressure over the last 40 years. They specifically searched for trials involving 10 or more adults that examined the before and after effects of consuming cocoa,...

Two recent studies suggest compounds in natural cocoa have significant health-giving properties. One study by Prof Norman K. Hollenberg from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, US was published in the International Journal of Medical Sciences. Hollenberg spent years studying the effects of cocoa-drinking on the Kuna people in Panama. He suggests that epicatechin, a flavanol found in high levels in natural cocoa, should be classed as a vitamin and is as important as penicillin and anaesthesia in terms of its potential to impact public health. Although only an observational study, Hollenberg's results from his work...

The health benefits of epicatechin, a compound found in cocoa, are so striking that it may rival penicillin and anaesthesia in terms of importance to public health, reports Marina Murphy in Chemistry & Industry, the magazine of the SCI. Norman Hollenberg, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, told C&I that epicatechin is so important that it should be considered a vitamin. Hollenberg has spent years studying the benefits of cocoa drinking on the Kuna people in Panama. He found that the risk of 4 of the 5 most common killer diseases: stroke, heart failure, cancer and diabetes, is reduced...

SAN FRANCISCO - A nice cup of the right kind of cocoa could hold the promise of promoting brain function as people age. In an increasingly aging world, medical researchers are seeing more cases of dementia and are looking for ways to make brains work better. One potential source of help may be flavanols, an antioxidant found in cocoa beans that can increase blood flow to the brain, researchers said Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Ian MacDonald of England's University of Nottingham reported on tests given to young women who were...

AMSTERDAM, Feb 9 (Reuters Life!) - A Dutch journalist asked an Amsterdam court on Friday to convict him for eating chocolate, saying by doing so he was benefiting from child slavery on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast. Teun van de Keuken, 35, is seeking a jail sentence to raise consumer awareness and force the cocoa and chocolate industry to take tougher measures to stamp out child labor. "If I am found guilty of this crime, any chocolate consumer can be prosecuted after that. I hope that people would stop buying chocolate and thus hurt the sales of big corporations and...