For the love of coffee

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERAToo many of the things we love could be changed forever by climate change.

I love coffee.  Proper coffee.  You know, I even enjoy washing up the pot in anticipation of what is going to happen to it next.  I guess I’m a bit of an addict.  I know I am not the only one.

But climate change is not good for coffee.  The changing weather patterns across regions such as South America are threatening coffee harvests. Crops are falling prey to disease, and farmers are facing failed harvests year after year.

Hemileia vastatrix, the coffee rust fungus, is a known hazard of growing arabica, which is 70% of the world’s production and all of a cup of coffee’s taste.   It cannot survive temperatures below 10C, which is why coffee grows best up in the hills where cold nights and drier weather have, until now, kept the disease at bay.  The warmer, wetter winters we are now seeing are allowing the disease to take hold.

I try to buy Fairtrade, organic and rainforest certified coffee to support the farmers and their local environment.  But now I know about the threat climate change holds, I have a whole new caffeine-charged reason for campaigning to keep fossil fuels in the ground where they belong.

See what others have said they love, and share what you love at http://fortheloveof.org.uk

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Date: 13 July, 2014 | Category: Parish Magazine | Comments: 0


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