How Much Do You Know About Vanilla?

I watched Sunday Morning this past weekend and learned about vanilla. With lockdown, more people are baking. Vanilla sales have gone up 500%.

The island of Madagascar is the largest producer of vanilla, producing 80% of the world’s vanilla crop. But vanilla is not native to Madagascar; it is native to Mexico. Vanilla is one of the most labor intensive crops in the world. Only in Mexico where the crop is native is there a bee that pollinates the crop. In Madagascar, every vanilla most be pollinated by hand. It is a very lengthy process to produce vanilla and because of that, it is worth more by weight than gold. Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world, so they can find people willing to do this laborous work. On average people in Madagascar are paid $50/month, but those who work on vanilla fields make $100/month.

Still with vanilla being so valuable there is a lot of theft and farmers must stay awake all night, so that their crop is not stolen. Still much of their crop is stolen and is sold on the black market for well over the selling price and many people, mostly children, are in prison for stealing vanilla.

That is why vanilla is so expensive, if you purchase pure vanilla.

Also, it is important to note that 95% of products sold as vanilla do not have any vanilla in them. Products that say french vanilla flavor or artificially flavored vanilla contain no vanilla, but instead propylene glycol, vanillin, and caramel color which are bad for the health and do not have the authentic vanilla flavor. But synthetic vanilla is made for 20% of cost and there is a great demand for vanilla flavored products.

A lot to think about next time you bake a cake and reach for the vanilla or the vanilla extract or reach for a vanilla flavored product.

Comment below. What did you learn about vanilla? Knowing this about vanilla will you change your spending habits regarding natural vanilla or artificially flavored vanilla? Does this make you want to know more about the source of your food?

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