Today is Easter, and as is the case for many holidays, Americans often celebrate with chocolate.
American demand is high. More chocolate is sold here than in any other country in the world. And there are millions of cocoa growers providing the supply, the majority of whom come from just two countries in West Africa: Ivory Coast and Ghana. A new book, "Cocoa," looks at the difficult lives of those growers and their role in the cocoa industry. It was written by Kristy Leissle, who is on the faculty at the University of Washington, and is currently based in Accra, Ghana. She recently spoke with newshour weekend's Megan Thompson. Who are these cocoa bean growers? What conditions do they live in? Yeah, they're all-- 90%, 95% are small holder farmers, which means they own very little, small plots of land, and they grow a tiny fraction, each of them, of the total crop, which is over four million metric tons. So, each one of those cocoa farmers grows just a little bit of that. They live in really challenging conditions. The infrastructure that we enjoy here is not present in the areas where cocoa farmers live.