A few months ago, I was in a meeting with a representative from the National Confectioners Association to discuss the removal of lead and cadmium from chocolate. During a break, I brought up an article we had posted to our website, ClimateInflation.org , about how the price of chocolate had tripled in the past year. He said he’d been in the industry for 30 years. Cacao prices had always been around $3,000 per metric tonne. Now, the price was closer to $10,000 –something he never thought he’d see in his lifetime. Historic heat in West Africa and floods in South America were partly to blame. TradingEconomics.com shows cocoa prices over the past 25 years – and the recent hockey stick-like increase driven by extreme weather events worsened by climate change. According to Bloomberg, cacao is now as expensive as copper . More volatility for all foods are expected, as a new report shows : “Climate impacts on economic productivity indicate that climate change may threaten price stability.” The report also estimates that, based on temperature increases that climate scientists expect by 2035, climate change could be responsible for increases in food costs of 3.2% per year. Because the causes of inflation are often invisible, most Americans have yet to realize that climate change is behind the surge in prices. To inform the public and financial professionals, we published, “ Climate Inflation: How Extreme Weather is Driving Up the Price of Food .” As our paper shows, chocolate isn’t the only family favorite that’s more expensive than ever due to climate change. A study by Cornell showed that a warming planet had already reduced farming productivity by 21% since 1961, creating a new “food polycrisis.” NASA’s Jonas Jägermeyr recently told the New York Times, climate is driving a “fundamental change […]