An overview of the history of cocoa, the factors affecting its production and consumption as well as how the trade is conducted, various risks mitigated, and by whom. The International Cocoa Trade is a work designed to inform all on the subject of cocoa and an essential guide for those involved in its trade.
Dr J. Vingerhoets, Executive Director, ICCO
Cocoa is a valuable commodity, and the cocoa trade involves many different parties from growers and exporters through dealers and factories to those trading futures and options and the banks they deal with. The International Cocoa Trade provides an authoritative and comprehensive review of the cocoa trade at the beginning of the twenty-first century, and the main factors that drive and affect that business.
The opening chapter of the third edition examines the history and origins of the international cocoa trade, and its recent developments. The agronomics of cocoa production are discussed in chapter two whilst chapter three deals with the environmental and practical factors affecting cocoa production. Chapters four, five and six cover issues around the export and trading of physical cocoa, including the actuals market, the physical contracts used and the futures and options markets. In chapter seven, the international consumption and stocks of cocoa are reviewed with chapter eight discussing the issue of quality assessment of cocoa beans for international trade. Finally, chapter nine focuses on the end product, examining the processing of cocoa beans and the manufacture of chocolate. Updated appendices provide copies of some of the most important documents used in the cocoa trade, including contracts, sale rules and world production statistics.
This comprehensively updated third edition of The International Cocoa Trade ensures its continued status as the standard reference for all those involved in the production consumption and international trading of cocoa.
Provides an authoritative and comprehensive review of the cocoa trade at the beginning of the twenty-first century, and the main factors that drive and affect that businessExamines the history and origins of the international cocoa trade, and its recent developments featuring a discussion of environmental and practical factors affecting cocoa productionExplores issues concerning the export and trading of physical cocoa, including the actuals market, the physical contracts used and the futures and options markets"

The recent outbreaks of E.coli and BSE have ensured that the issue of meat safety has never had such a high profile. Meanwhile HACCP has become the preferred tool for the management of microbiological safety. Against a background of consumer and regulatory pressure, the effective implementation of HACCP systems is critical. Written by leading experts in the field, HACCP in the meat industry provides an authoritative guide to making HACCP systems work effectively.
This book examines the HACCP in the meat industry across the supply chain, from rearing through to primary and secondary processing.

Nearly three decades after the dawn of democracy, South Africa has remained a country of ‘two agricultures’. On the one hand we have a subsistence, primarily non-commercial, black farming segment. On the other hand, however, we have a predominantly commercial and white farming sector that is well-resourced and has access to domestic and international trade networks.

These disparities can be traced back to South Africa’s painful history where, for decades, black farmers were on the margins of government support and also experienced land dispossession and livestock plunder.

A Country of Two Agricultures focuses less on history and more on the present and the future, explaining why these disparities have persisted in the democratic era, and what it will take to overcome them. It aims to contribute to a better understanding of the variety of agricultural forces, taking into account both questions of domestic political economy and external factors, as well as to bring to light new risks and opportunities.

Wandile Sihlobo offers insights into the role of agriculture in the South African economy from an agricultural economy perspective, and provides political economy insights that are rooted in the experiences of farming communities on the ground and right through the value chain.

Beyond insights on the realities this book offers the government, the private sector, and anyone interested in the betterment of the South African economy, tools to grapple with this duality, and proposes a framework for bolstering the black farming segment for growth and competitiveness – and ultimately food security.

This book is the first coherent quantified assessment of the economy of the Roman Empire. George Maher argues inventively and rigorously for a much higher level of growth and prosperity than has hitherto been imagined, and also explains why, nonetheless, the Roman Empire did not achieve the transition which began in Georgian Britain. This book will have an enormous impact on Roman history and be required reading for all teachers and students in the field. It will also interest and provoke historians of the medieval and early modern periods into wondering why their economies failed to match the Roman level. Part of the problem in assessing the Roman economy is that we do not have much in the way of numerical data, but Roman historians, who rarely have much statistical expertise, have not always recognised the potential of the data we do have. Dr Maher's reassessment of the economy of the Roman Empire has to use the same data as everyone else, but he is able to draw strikingly novel conclusions in two ways: first, by more statistically sophisticated use of a few crucial datasets and, second, by correlating and drawing a coherent picture across the whole economy. On grain yields, firstly, instead of getting bogged down in details of individual cases, George Maher shows how there is a remarkably consistent pattern from which outliers can be excluded, showing yields were much higher than normally assumed. He then demonstrates that high yields are in fact necessary to explain the exceptional urbanization of the Empire. Urbanization at this level in turn, as George Maher shows, has implications for consumption and commerce. He takes this further to show how high levels of trade imply high levels of sophistication in economic practices and mentality. In one of his most methodologically novel chapters, George Maher develops a new and simpler way of assessing average life expectancy and argues for a life expectancy almost double the traditional view. This book, Dr George Maher's doctoral thesis, is the theoretical underpinning of his book Pugnare: Economic Success and Failure.

In 1996, the Argentine government authorized the use of genetically modified (GM), herbicide-resistance soybean seeds. By the mid-2000s, GM soybeans were cultivated on more than half of the arable land in Argentina and represented one-fourth of the country's exports. While this agricultural boom has benefitted agribusiness companies and fed tax revenues, it also has a dark side: it has accelerated the deforestation of native forests, prompted the eviction of indigenous and peasant families, and spurred episodes of contamination. In Soybeans and Power, Pablo Lapegna investigates the ways in which rural populations have coped with GM soybean expansion in Argentina. Based on over a decade of ethnographic research, Lapegna reveals that many communities initially resisted, yet ultimately adapted to the new agricultural technologies forced upon them by public officials. However, rather than painting the decline of the protests in an exclusively negative light, Lapegna argues that the farmers played an active role in their own demobilization, switching to tactics of negotiation and accommodation in order to maneuver the situation to their advantage. Lapegna offers a rare, on the ground glimpse into the life cycle of a social movement, from mobilization and protest to demobilization and resigned acceptance. Through the case study of Argentina, a major player in the use and export of GM crops, Soybeans and Power gives voice to the communities most adversely affected by GM technology, as well as the strategies that they have enacted in order to survive.

A completely revised, updated, and repackaged second edition of the 2013 bestselling beer guide. First published in 2013, The Complete Beer Course has helped thousands of beer enthusiasts navigate the vast and often confusing world of beer. Bernstein is back to serve up a second round of insights. He introduces readers to must-know breweries, craft beers, and the industry’s rising stars. Each chapter is devoted to a specific beer style and teaches readers how to taste and evaluate a wide selection, especially new beers gaining popularity such as sours and nonalcoholic varieties. Additionally, readers will find up-to-date information on the pandemic’s effects on the beer world, expanded coverage of international beers, and the author’s top picks for any beer-drinking occasion. If your knowledge of IPAs is a little hazy, then this guide is for you.   Fans of Randy Mosher’s Tasting Beer or The Beer Bible by Jeff Alworth, who are looking for the most up-to-date information on the world of beer, will find just what they need in this book. Perfect for beer fans everywhere—from casual beer drinkers to homebrew enthusiasts—The Complete Beer Course is the ultimate beer book and makes a great gift for dads, bartenders, or anyone else looking to level up their beer knowledge.