[audio:http://wamcradio.org/EarthWise/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/EW-05-10-12-Coffee.mp3|titles=EW 05-10-12 Coffee]
We can add high quality coffee to the growing list of crops being destabilized by our changing climate. The Union of Concerned Scientists recently reported that Arabica coffee yields are down and prices are rising. This isn’t just bad news for coffee shops. It threatens the economy in places like Ethiopia, Costa Rica, and India.
Most coffee is grown in the tropics, where plants are vulnerable to climate change because they are not adapted to withstand much variation in precipitation and temperature. At the same time, milder weather has expanded the range of crop pests.
Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel, a climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, says unseasonal and extreme weather events are also to blame…
“The changing climate is changing when the rains are coming and the intensity of the rains, and unfortunately they’ve been conspiring in some places around the world, to make it worse for this high-value coffee production of the Arabica bean.”
In Ethiopia’s highlands, farmers have been producing Arabica or “mountain” coffee for centuries. But since 2002, yields have dropped by 35%. India has seen high-quality coffee production decline by 30% over the past decade. And in Costa Rica, depressed harvests have led nearly a quarter of farmers to abandon coffee crops altogether.
Despite being oceans apart, Ekwurzel says we can make a difference…
“As a consumer, if we aren’t growing coffee ourselves, perhaps the best thing we can do is to reduce our own emissions of heat-trapping gases from burning fossil fuels.”
Researchers are trying to develop more resilient Arabica. But the only real fix is addressing our changing climate.
Web Extra:
Full interview with Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel, a climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists…
[audio:http://wamcradio.org/EarthWise/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Ekwurzel_full_edited.mp3|titles=Ekwurzel_full_edited]Photo, taken on March 19, 2006 using a Fujifilm FinePix S7000, courtesy of datenhamster.org