Is our Coffee in Crisis?

Copyright Masteroast 2015

The threat of Climate Change

​We all know that climate change is an ever present threat and surfaces in the media regularly, so much so that it's become part of our everyday life. When pushing on with our lives it's easy to knock the noise of global warming to the back of our minds and then offset our conscience slightly by recycling the odd lunch pack but what are the real consequences of our actions and what is to come for the everyday items we take for granted such as our much-loved beverage.

Global warming is now generally agreed to be a real and very dangerous threat to our way of life and it is starting to get the attention and respect it deserves, the fear is that it may be too late to have any real impact or to reverse the problem.

But how will it effect coffee?
It is predicted that by the year 2050 the land currently used for farming Arabica coffee could be reduced by up to 50%, with regions such at Vietnam, India and most of Central America being hit particularly hard. The primary reason for this is an increase in global temperature. A strong correlation has been made with global temperature increasing by 0.3°C every decade since the 1960s and smaller yields of coffee produced per hectare over this time. Some areas may just be completely unable to make coffee by not having the numerous variables required for the delicate plant to grow.  

Other contributing factors are that as coffee becomes a more popular beverage the demand increases. How can we feed an ever increasing need for coffee when we are already having over 2 billion cups a day! The answer to this is simple, the preparation of more land, an estimated 2.2 million hectares of the stuff, approximately the size of Wales! Most of this land is also a Rainforest and removing it would further compound the problem we're facing with climate change.

​All things considered, the price of coffee could rise 25% by 2050 and become much more of a luxury than it is seen today, For now you really can only appreciate and enjoy that morning kick as it may be more of a prize to have in the future... 

Follow the link below to the original BBC article which goes into the details on what is currently being done to prevent or help manage this problem, such as perhaps growing more fond of Robusta's bitter taste or to graft Arabica strains to the stronger more resistant Robusta plant.

Original BBC article