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I don’t know of too many people that hate chocolate, so for all you chocolate lovers you are going to love this interview.

Steve Wallace is the author of a new book entitled  “Oberoni and the Chocolate Factory-An Unlikely Story of Globalization and Ghana’s First Gourmet Chocolate Bar.” This book is about a fascinating journey about a man who truly has made a difference in the production of chocolate.  When we think of chocolate we immediately think of Switzerland, France, Belgium–but why?  Cocoa beans are not from those places.

Steve used to live in Ghana (one of the largest regions producing cocoa) when he was 16 years old. This experience transformed him and he wanted to return to Ghana and give back.  While the people of Ghana’s vertically-integrated cocoa bureaucracy, overseen by Ghans’s Cocoa Board, aspired to move up the cocoa value chain, they were unwilling to invest in doing so.  They were content to stay at the bottom of the value chain.

Needless to say with tremendous hard work and lots of maneuvering the cocoa bean system, Steve Wallace build a very successful chocolate bar factory called Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company.  The chocolate bars are produced and manufactured in Ghana and shipped to Wisconsin for boxing, sales, and shipping.  Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company is truly a global company employing and housing over 200 natives.  Steve provides his employees with a fair wage,  and housing and has infused the local economy with a newfound wealth from what was once a place of poverty.

If you want to listen to a truly great story about a social-entrepreneur on a mission to change the lives of hundreds of people, then you won’t want to miss my interview with Steve.

To learn more about Steve and his new book ” Oberoni and the Chocolate Factory” please click here to be directed to the Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company website.   Enjoy this great interview with a social entrepreneur making a difference in the world!

 

So what are the real issues that help to foster the environmental concerns that all of us are faced with?   Author Lee Van Ham in his new book entitled “From Egos to Eden” has identified what I personally believe are the biggest issues.

As a nation and society, we live as if we have a Multi Earth filled with resources for constant consumption.  We don’t understand that we need to start living as a society and nation as if we were inhabiting One-Earth and reduce our consumption of resources so that future generations can inhabit our earth and still have the necessary resources, as well as clean air, water, and soil that will be able to be farmed and produce nutritious crops.

As Lee writes ” The changes Earth is making in this 21st century exceed anything we’ve known in 12,000 years. The ecological crises she’s undergoing mean that by 2100 CE she will not longer be home for millions of species, and our species is the primary reason for their extinction.  If you are at all interested in learning about the shift in our mindset about how we live in harmony with mother earth, then I encourage you to listen to my interview with author Lee Van Ham about his book “From Egos to Eden“.

I also encourage you to check out another of Lee’s books entitled “Blinded by Progress“.  You can reach Lee by visiting his website by clicking here, or on Facebook by clicking here. I hope you enjoy this lively interview with a wonderful author and leader in the ecological movement.