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Was scheduled to talk on CTV Newsworld Express with Dan Matheson for 5 minutes this morning on the subject of coffee and climate change.
And although that interview was canceled at the last moment, I spent a bit of time thinking about how the interview would go and what I thought of the subject and the issues. So here is how I figured it would have gone down.
“On the line from Victoria is Colin from the Coffeecrew.com website… Good morning Colin and welcome back to the show… Hey, Canadians are talking… about coffee and climate change and how coffee might be extinct in 80 years! What’s up with that?
Hey Dan. Thanks. It is good to be back.
And yes, nothing strikes fear in the heart of coffee drinkers more than the threat of losing access to their most important daily beverage – so what is going on with coffee right now? The theory is that climate change will eradicate our precious Arabica bean – within 80 years – give or take.
Well, you are probably wondering how climatologists came to that conclusion – well here is the skinny:
Coffee farmers have been talking about the weather (like other farmers) since there have been collectives and co-ops and individual groups of farmers working together to beat the odds – the odds being, well yes, the weather, pests, challenges to infrastructure, civil strife, market variables and so on – talking about these things since the earliest forms of social networks have been in place; the telegraph, mail, face to face conversation and modern technology.
Coffee itself faces a myriad of challenges – it is, after all a pretty fragile plant – sensitive to frost, sensitive to direct sunlight, too much rain, too little rain, not the right balance of nutrients etc. And Coffee’s main defense are (get this) lush green leaves and cherries loaded with caffeine – hardly an impediment for hungry bugs or mammals eager to chow down on the energy rich fruit.
Coffee plants are sensitive to minute changes in the environment – they thrive on the gentle slopes of inactive (or active) volcanoes – shaded by plantain and palm plants, shielded by afternoon cloud cover and periods of warming sun – regular rainfall. All these things and more create a ballet of factors that keep a plant productive – And remember: Coffee is only really native to Ethiopia and Yemen in the middle east. In the 1700’s it was smuggled all over the World by traders and travelers to see where it might succeed – despite protection from its Middle Eastern masters.
And that is key factor number 1: Coffee is native to one section of the Middle East and has been transported all over the globe to places where it has succeeded and to places where it has failed miserably – it succeeded because the environment was perfect. Coffee is grown in 45 or so countries other than Ethiopia (where it accounts for 90% of the countries GDP – more on that later) and those places are being challenged in some way by “climate change” whether it is nature or man made.
And it’s important to point out that this discussion is not about blame or about what the cause is – the question is: How will climate change impact the success or failure of Arabica coffee in the future?
Climate modeling for coffee – Modeling – it has never been done before: Climate scientists modelling trends 30, 60 and 80 years into the future – measuring the impact of temperature increases (alone) on coffee crops. It’s brilliant and very helpful.
An example of what has been observed thus far: There are coffee regions in Central America (Costa Rica) where coffee is successfully being grown and harvested hundreds of feet higher than ever before. And in simple terms that is because the freezing level has gone up in elevation or the number the of frost free mornings at that new altitude remain ideal – that is, NO frost mornings.
An assumption would be: Well move the coffee plantation up slope to counter the warming at lower levels and take advantage of the higher levels. That would work to a point. At one specific altitude, the incidence of frost free days drops below 100% – and it only takes 1 frost to destroy a swath of coffee plants.
Another factor: As temperatures rise, pest management changes, new pests are introduced – and as stated before, Arabica coffee is very sensitive to pests.
So, in terms of moving plantings around, some obvious things come to mind – the fact that a farm or co-op cannot simply pull up stakes and move “up slope” – what if there is no “up-slope” based on the existing terrain? And with that in mind (and these results vary significantly with each region…) there is actually a modeled average loss of arable terrain over time with every degree of temperature rise. Depending on the model, in many instances, 60 to 90% of arable land is lost following these trends.
And therein lies the factor of complete loss of suitable land for growing and developing Arabica coffee over time.
The sad reality for Arabica coffee’s home-World, Ethiopia, is – Ethiopia has maximized the utilization of its arable land to over 90% and there is little wiggle room. A collapse of the crop would crush the country – Coffee is Ethiopia. If trends continue as predicted in several climate models, production success would be dramatically impacted.
Important – Of the 45+ countries that produce coffee, each of them would be effected differently.
In Australia, for instance, coffee is grown in less than ideal conditions and the resultant coffee is mild to say the least. Regional warming could, in reality, improve their coffee crop.
The same applies to much of Hawaii’s coffee – but that, too, is changing. In fact, Hawaiian coffee farmers have been noting environmental change for 15 to 20 years – subtle things… like changes to trade wind direction which changes rainfall patterns. Hawaii has its own climate and within that climate are dozens of micro-climates, each with their own quirks and challenges.
So, the news is not at all good – but it is not entirely bad either.
If an identified trend of planet warming was to continue over the course of 100 years, there would likely be more troublesome things to worry about apart from our daily dose of coffee. And if there is a positive aspect to this story, it gets us thinking a bit more personally (and a tad selfishly) about how it impacts us.
But actual coffee extinction? That is somewhat nonsensical. I have a collection of coffee plants in my home where the year round average temperature sits at 22 degrees – Celcius or around 72 degrees (F), day in, day out. Week after week. And my plant flowers twice a year and yields slightly less than the average coffee plant on a farm. I collect the fruit, dried the cherries as is, or I remove the fruit and dry the seeds – and put them in storage… where they will likely remain viable for 100 years or so, if kept dry. So, here is to the future!
Coffee could be grown in a greenhouse – it would make it pretty darn expensive… and it’s ironic I guess that in 2012, the relationship between farmer, co-op, exporter, importer, roaster and customer has seen some positive movement towards a more balanced state – that is, fairness… from bean to cup – where farmers and co-ops get a better rate on their products – and yes, we pay a bit more and get a way better cup. It is ironic that the World is getting a minute more just and at the same time, might be slightly more under threat from horticultural disaster.
But that is reality and the real market place.
Because (and this is a fascinating point) if you took all the coffee grown annually and put it in one place, one giant container of coffee beans (and it might be 1 mile high and 10 miles square) – and picture all this coffee… This amount is traded 5 times (or more) – changes hands… 5 times over on the New York and London coffee exchanges!
It is the 2nd most traded and manipulated commodity in the free market next to oil – and unlike oil, which kind of comes up out of the ground (often freely) and is then refined and distributed to market. Coffee is way more complicated and there are way more things that can go wrong (and often do) on the way from bean to cup.
And that is the 1st 5 minutes of a much longer story.
Stay tuned.
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