The article makes me wonder what life would be like if cocoa plants all became the victim of the diseases identified. Given a choice, I'd give up my mobile phone before I gave up chocolate.
My wife agrees. She says she would give up electricity, indoor plumbing, and antibiotics before giving up chocolate. Apparently death is preferable to life without chocolate.
There's a reason why some historians call chocolate "liquid gold". It was perhaps the most groundbreaking and cultural game changing discovery that came from the America colonization.
I would have thought potatoes or corn were, given that they helped support a much larger population