Penn State Experts Promote Cacao as an Alternative to Illicit Crops in Colombia

Jun 9, 2017 | David Pacchioli
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As codirectors of Penn State’s endowed cocoa research program and professors in the College of Agriculture, Mark Guiltinan and Siela Maximova work together all over the world. Still, the email last January from Colombia came as a surprise.

It was from the U.S. ambassador, asking them to attend a meeting in Bogota. Maximova and Guiltinan were wanted on a team assembling for a formidable task: to help poor Colombian farmers make the switch from growing coca, the stuff of cocaine, to growing cacao, the principal ingredient in chocolate.

Cacao for Peace, the initiative is called. It’s an outgrowth of the historic peace accord signed in November 2016 between the Colombian government and the leftist rebels known as the FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, after 53 years of civil war.