CLIMATE CHANGE AND COFFEE

If you’re reading this, you’re probably someone who doesn’t go a day without a cup of coffee. Coffee is important to many people, but coffee is life to others. It is estimated that 120 million people across the globe depend directly or indirectly on coffee production for their economic survival. Many things can affect the coffee crop year to year including, drought, excessive rainfall, pests, and disease. Climate change can accelerate these and make even more of a negative impact on coffee production.

Climate change has been a hot topic for the last decade or so. With rising measures of Co2 present in the atmosphere, our climate is shifting. Coffee is an agricultural crop that is very picky to its environmental surroundings and there are many different ways climate change is making it worse.

Coffee Borer:
The coffee borer is a small beetle that is harmful to the production of a coffee plant, burying into the coffee cherry and eating holes in the bean decreasing its flavor and marketability. The rising temperatures produced by climate change has given quite a desirable environment for these beetles. The beetles can survive longer in these increased temperatures and are more easily spreading to other plants.

(This picture demonstrates the holes the coffee borers eat in the coffee beans making it more difficult to roast and achieve a palatable flavor.
Source: google images)

Coffee Rust:
Coffee rust is another disease that is harmful to coffee plants. This disease spreads through the soil and diminishes coffee supply to the individual trees, eventually killing the entire plant. Rising temperatures and heavy rainfall have been linked to the spreading of coffee rust. In 2011 the rust was spreading to higher altitudes (because of the rising temps) and affected more than half of Central American coffee farming land.

(The spots on the coffee leaf show the "rust" that diminishes coffee supply for coffee plants. Source: scaa.org)

Less Land:

Coffee plants thrive in high altitudes, cooler temperatures, and patterns of sun and rain. (The optimal temperature for coffee is 64-70 degrees F). When coffee is grown above these temperatures, the ripening accelerates, and quality begins to fall. In order to combat this issue, coffee producers are beginning to plant their new coffee trees higher on the mountains in order to reach for cooler temps to try to produce more coffee and better tasting coffee. However, the more the coffee producers move up the mountains to reach cooler, and more desirable temperatures for their crop, they are running out of land to plant. For example, one state in Brazil saw a 10% reduction in suitable growing area.

Solutions:

Shade growncoffee is one of the solutions that coffee researchers have found to counteract climate change negative effects. Providing some shade for the plants to grow under will help them sustain a reasonable temperature. Also, by planting shade trees around coffee plants can decrease soil erosion that comes with heavy rainfall.
Different coffee strainsthat are more susceptible to coffee diseases and increased temperatures are another way that the coffee community can combat negative changes due to climate change.
Buying sustainable coffeeis always a good consumer choice, but now maybe more than ever. Buying from a coffee roaster that is paying a fair price to producers and is making sure the coffee they roast and sell is being sourced in a sustainable way helps the industry dramatically. Good news, if you buy three fins coffee, you are adding to the positive change in the coffee industry!

Sources:
Climate and Coffee by Michael Scott. June 2015. https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-and/climate-coffee

Climate Change and Coffee by Achilles Coffee. Jan 2019. https://achillescoffeeroasters.com/climate-change-coffee-production/