There is an economic crisis in the world today related to creating sweet and stimulating foods. The crisis revolves around the production of cocoa butter from Africa, and coffee beans in South America, and is related to water problems from global warming and deforestation. I received information from a source I believe is reliable that Monsanto (MON), Starbucks (SBUX), and Hershey (HSY) have formed a joint venture to improve two of the factors involved with creating quality beans: Volatile oils, and the fermentation required to make these beans usable. Cocoa butter is becoming more scarce.For years, Hershey in particular has been in a pinch over the price to obtain cocoa butter, and has lobbied congress in the past about the laws related to the amount of real cocoa that chocolate has to contain. They have tried to create substitutes for the cocoa butter using blends of vegetable oil but have so far not been able to create a product that has the same flavor or mouthfeel as the real thing. Although Hershey is the largest customer for cocoa, growers in Africa have been resistant to changing the process of growing cocoa beans. Right now, cocoa is hard to produce anywhere else in the world due to the specific weather requirements that mostly only exist along the African coast. Starbucks wants to improve the yields of oils that make coffee taste good too.Part of the problems that affect both industries are related to fair trade agreements so that farmers can get enough money from the beans they grow. Where Hershey controls a huge amount of cocoa produced, Starbucks Coffee controls somewhere in the neighborhood of 70% of all of the coffee grown in the world. But attitudes in South America towards GMOs are somewhat more accepting there due to the success of soybeans, wheat, and corn that have propagated in the region. What Monsanto believes they can improve are the yields of volatile oils that both types of plants produce. They have been able to achieve similar results in soybeans used to produce vegetable oils. It's those oils that create the deep flavors that we love about coffee and chocolate. Monsanto additionally believes that they can insert a genetic improvement related to the bacteria that ferment these beans, shortening the time required to ferment them. They also believe that they can create a more efficient use of the amount of water all of these crops require to grow, which will reduce the amount of new land required to grow them on. Farmers who grow coffee in Brazil will be able to get better yields using the same land area that they already do, and fair trade thinks that is a win.Monsanto's plan to bring cocoa to other regions. What Monsanto is also hoping to accomplish is create a variant of both crops that is hardier and more tolerant to weather changes, which would allow more of both products to be grown in other regions. Hershey is reportedly investing the largest sums in the effort to see this happen, because Americans have been highly resistant to price fluctuations in chocolate. The prices of candy bars have increased nearly 300% over the last two decades, while at the same time serving sizes have become slightly smaller. If they can't motivate African growers to work with the new types of cocoa, then they believe that they will be influenced from competitors from other areas of the world. Hershey's ultimate goal is to sell more chocolate regardless, and believes that restricting the supply is not the best way to achieve that.If the program shows great success, Hershey has express interest in GMO peanuts as well, which they use extensively in their Reese's products.On a slightly more disgusting note, Bayer has use for cocoa too.Cocoa butter is used in the production of suppositories. So in addition to having good mouthfeel, it seems that cocoa butter has a good buttfeel too. Allegedly, this is one of the motivating factors for Bayer A.G. (BAYRY) to want to acquire the Monsanto corporation as well.As far as I know, none of this is confirmed for now.I have not seen official press releases of this from any of these companies, so I have reached out for comments from all four companies. Will let you know of anything that comes of it. For now, take it all as a rumor, but it seems pretty reasonable to me somehow. I did run across some news items from anti-GMO sites out there that have talked about similar plans but I have trust issues with that material, and would prefer to have a direct statement.In the meantime, I am long the shares of the three U.S. companies and believe they are all great long-term dividend growth holdings, though it looks as though Monsanto will ultimately become a part of Bayer. Guess I'll have to settle for a cash payment instead there.