Episode 22 | How Relationships Sustain Bean-to-Bar Chocolate, From Forest Gardens to Farmers’ Markets

In this episode, the Feeding City Lab talks with Michael Sacco, Founder of ChocoSol Traders, about bean-to-bar chocolate making, from forest gardens to farmers’ markets. Michael recounts how ChocoSol first got its start at an organic farmers’ market in Oaxaca in 2004, powered by solar roasters and bicycle grinders. He shares how ChocoSol has since grown into a learning community and social enterprise through an actionist approach that focuses on relationships, rootedness, and regenerative agroecology. Michael introduces listeners to some of the people and relationships that make ChocoSol what it is. ChocoSol’s key ingredients – from Jaguar cacao to popped amaranth – are made possible through forest garden regeneration, friendship, and solidarity. The episode concludes with discussion of how Chocosol engages with seasonality and a view into its production facilities in and around Toronto where, as Michael says, “Like a butcher who uses the whole cow, we use the whole cacao.” Michael earned a PhD in Indigenous Studies from Trent University in 2022. Prior to grinding chocolate and leading ChocoSol, Michael worked as a stone mason. 

This episode of Voices from the Food Frontlines: Sustainable Foodways is hosted by Dr. Jaclyn Rohel of the Feeding City Lab. The conversation was recorded on May 10, 2024 and lightly edited for clarity and length. To learn more about ChocoSol’s bean-to-bar chocolate making and to hear from cacao growers, stay tuned for our next episode of the series, which takes listeners to the forest gardens of Oaxaca. 

To learn more about the Voices from the Food Frontlines, Sustainable Foodways podcast series, visit the Feeding City Lab at https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/projects/feedingcity/sustainable-foodways/. 

 

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