Oh sweet joy! Mars, the company that produces candy favorites such as M&M's and Snickers announced that through a collaborative research team led by scientists at Mars, the U.S. Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) and IBM, they've successfully completed a preliminary cacao genome sequence - a map of the crop that supplies the majority of the world's cocoa for the manufacture of chocolate and other food products. The mapping of the cocoa genome is a crucial advance needed to improve farmers' ability to plant more resilient, more drought and disease-resistant, and higher yielding cocoa trees.
Though rumor has it they're also working on genetically engineering cocoa so it melts in your mouth and not in your hands - all without that candy coating that taints candies such as M&Ms. 100% chocolate baby! And it can survive 120 degree temperatures! (I jest
)I originally blogged about this the chocolate genome sequencing project when it was first announced, and now the mapping has been completed three years ahead of schedule.
You can check out the announcement here. Here's a video about it as well:
But remember what I said before. A stronger, healthier genetically modified cocoa bean that results in more chocolate supply and therefore cheaper chocolate is all well & good, but if you mess with the flavor, you will die. No seriously. I will hunt you down and I will kill you.
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