Photo: Mars, Incorporated
Scientists have long devoted research efforts to staple crops like corn, wheat and rice.
But chocolate-maker Mars, Inc., in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service and computer bigwig IBM, has devoted its energy somewhere sweeter -- to cracking the genetic code of the cacao tree.
Mars announced it has figured out cacao's genome sequence and made it available in the public domain to help improve the cocoa growing process to benefit the world's cocoa farmers and create a more sustainable global cocoa supply.
"The idea here is to bring cocoa to a level that is similar to crops of much higher importance -- corn or rice -- that have access to these genomic tools that speed up the process of breeding," Dr. Juan Carlos Motamayor, Scientific Research Manager of Mars Inc.'s Cocoa Sustainability Program, told Slashfood.















