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Disease Outbreak Threatens the Future of Good Coffee
Wired reports on a disease infecting coffee plants across Central America that could lead to shortages around the world. "Regional production fell by 15 percent last year, putting nearly 400,000 people out of work, and that’s just a taste of what’s to come. The next harvest season begins in October, and according to the International Coffee Organization, crop losses could hit 50 percent." The disease is called coffee rust, and it has been damaging crops to some degree since the 1800s. It's not known yet exactly why coffee rust has become such a problem now, but one of the leading suspects is climate change. "Since the mid-20th century, though, weather patterns in Central America and northern South America have shifted. Average temperatures are warmer across the region, with extremes of both heat and cold becoming more pronounced; so are extreme rainfall events." The fungus that causes coffee rust thrives on warm, humid air, and higher temperatures have allowed it to climb to higher altitudes than ever before. But another likely cause is the way in which coffee is planted and harvested these days: the plants evolved as shade-dwellers, but are now often placed in direct sunlight. They're also clustered closer together, which facilitates the spread of disease. "The integrity of this once-complicated ecosystem has been slowly breaking down, which is what happens when you try to grow coffee like corn."
This can't be happening!
"The integrity of this once-complicated ecosystem has been slowly breaking down, which is what happens when you try to grow coffee like corn."
So long as we don't try and grow corn like corn, I'm happy, I love my popcorn!
Perhaps the issue is not climate change, but rather some evolution of the coffee rust..
You have 5 Moderator Points!
Which Helpless Linux zealot/MS basher do you want to mod down today?
Why does every problem we face today come back to global warming? Oh wait, that is not the correct buzz word, because the planet is actually cooling, not getting warmer... I'm sorry, I meant "climate change".
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/shouts/2013/04/the-day-coffee-stopped-working.html
MOD THE CHILD UP!
Finally, something to unify all Americans against climate change. Democrat or republican, poor or rich... It doesn't matter. We'll all stand together to stop this evil!
The Internet King? I wonder if he could provide faster nudity.
Screw gold, the USD, and bitcoins. Start hoarding cans of coffee
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Oh that's it, the spooks hacked the coffee now too, this appears to be getting personal... They say don't screw with 'merika's oil, but u screw with our coffee, that's just askin fer it... "Fuel the nukes"...
http://worldfamousdesignjunkies.com/food/rare-near-extinct-fine-chocolate-rediscovered-in-peru/
"Pure Nacional, with its complex fruit and floral flavors, once dominated the fine chocolate market worldwide. In 1916, diseases struck the Pure Nacional population in Ecuador and within three years 95% of the trees were destroyed. The prized chocolate was thought to be lost, until now."
Americans don't know what good coffee is...
Not trying to be trollish but what you tend to drink is nothing like a good coffee in Australia and no doubt in lots of other parts of the world.
"Not trying to be trollish but"
You failed.
Mono cultures seem to help disease spread faster. When one particular type of plant becomes very popular, well a large portion of the available farm land will be stuffed to capacity with that plant. Just like the flu will most likely spread faster in humans when they cluster together.
So from the fine article it appears that the spread of coffee rust could have something to do with the changes in cultivation practices. Or we could get climate alarmists all excited by blaming climate change. Reading carefully, it's clear that cultivation practices have a lot to do with the rust outbreak. But we can get climate alarmists all excited by blaming climate change. Woo!
No cause for alarm.
On the other hand, I might actually care if beer is in danger.
It's not known yet exactly why coffee rust has become such a problem now, but one of the leading suspects is climate change.
Here's another eye-rolling moment from the chicken littles who can't be bothered to decide what climate change is. From the article,
âoeThereâ(TM)s increasing evidence that climate change is part of the problem. You find coffee rust striking much farther up the valleys than it used to. Thereâ(TM)s no other plausible explanation,â Baker said. âoeBut what happened last year, and why it was so aggressive and widespread, weâ(TM)re still a bit [perplexed]. And if we donâ(TM)t really know what caused it, itâ(TM)s going to be hard to predict.â
Another plausible explanation, especially given the more virulent nature of this coffee rust problem, is that it has evolved or a new strain has moved in. That wasn't hard. Note that the researcher is confident that "climate change" is involved, but far less confident that biology is involved.
This is a researcher in the field making these claims not some ignorant Wired writer. I see this as further evidence that climatology has been taken over by political forces. A scientist makes an overly confident claim about "climate change" and it gets readily and uncritically reported by a high profile news source. And the take away that the reader gets is that their coffee is threatened by climate change. That's a classic propaganda move.
Coffee futures are down, supplies are up.
This is true
This is just another warmist scare story.
The last time CO2 levels were at 400ppm was a very long time ago, way before neanderthals, at the time of homo erectus. Maybe it's not unreasonable to worry.
This is just another warmist scare story.
The last time CO2 levels were at 400ppm was a very long time ago, way before neanderthals, at the time of homo erectus. Maybe it's not unreasonable to worry.
Why worry? First - the neanderthals are extinct, second - they didn't drink coffee.
(ducks)
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
You mean during the last inter-ice age period? Like the one we're currently moving into?
Silly Greek, didn't you know the Chinese are the new Jews...
They don't call them robusta for nothing.
Bitter like hell. I prefer uncured olives over robusta.
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
"Not trying to be trollish but"
Slashdot should automatically prefix that to every post.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Yup. Monoculture was the first thing I thought of. That's why we can only get bland Cavendish bananas in the US now, which rot before they will sweeten, instead of sweet, delicious Gros Michels. Panama disease killed off the vast majority of Gros Michel bananas and the Cavendish was selected solely for its resistance to that disease. Not for its taste.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
Millions of people roaming the earth in a state that is neither alive nor dead. All in search of caffeine; not brains.
Cheers,
Dave
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
Been to Auch, FR, coffee there is exceptionally better than the coffee in the States.
Fortunately coffee is a C3 plant, and should respond well to a CO2-enriched atmosphere.
The banana that many of us (at least those of us over a certain age) grew up snacking on now is extinct. As a result of a banana monoculture and an ever-mutating fungus, the Gros Michael variety of banana is no more.
Without the public noticing, around 1960 the Gros Michael disappeared and Chiquita (aka United Brands) replaced it with the much less tasty Cavendish variety. Well, actually banana eaters did notice that bananas had suddenly gotten less snackable but nobody gave a reason or acknowledged that anything was wrong. Eventually people came to accept the Cavendish while still thinking that bananas weren't as good as they used to be.
And now the Cavendish banana is going the same way as the Gros Michael thanks to the same monoculture farming technique. And there may not be a replacement.
No you moron. Much further back.
Are people retarded? They don't know a difference between 10,000 years and 2,000,000 years?? That's well over 20 ice ages ago. Get a clue.
The only thing we are moving into the 6th Great Extinction caused by ourselves. Pat yourselves on the back. Your ignorance deserves it.
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/03/28/the-sixth-great-extinction-a-silent-extermination/
I like being a "self-important, hippie, too-cool-for-you douchebag".
Come join us,
it's only $5.
For the more enlightened of us self-important, hippie, too-cool-for-you douchebags, coffee breath is an *aphrodisiac*. Although I would concur that the crap at McBuck's doesn't rate.
Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
www.fogbound.net
As the article points out, I'm wondering if farming techniques and the propensity to have homogenous crops are more to blame than climate change. True, temperature rises means that plants at various elevations are more susceptible to the disease, but the spread seems, in my opinion, to be more related to plants that are close together and of the same genetic variety. Its possible that if they spread things out and plant different variants that the problem wouldn't be as pronounced.
Of course, without coffee we may be unleashing the Zombie Apocalypse....
the statement is sadly true.
being a proud member of the minority. I demand good coffee!
I'd rather go without than get coffee at mcdonalds
oh god, you bastard, I read the whole thing. my some deity punish you.
Why worry? First - the neanderthals are extinct, second - they didn't drink coffee.
Maybe they went extinct because their coffee plantations all rusted away?
Same for Strawberries in Egypt in the last quarter of the 20th century. The cultivar that was used initially was so sweet and fragrant, but did not keep well in the heat of Egypt and could not withstand transportation with heavy loss. Enter the current cultivar: much bigger fruits that look better, significantly harder, and almost tasteless, like the ones you find in the USA/Canada supermarkets. The older cultivar vanished in a year or two.
It was not disease, but yield that did it.
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
and VIOLA!
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Circumcision is child abuse.
Part of this is also psychology. We're wired to dislike being wrong, especially in public - it indicates to others that we aren't fit for reproduction. Most people would rather dig their heels in than admit they're wrong (viz: any government official).
You first have to pop the person out of heuristic mode and into systemic mode. The easiest way to do this is to phrase the information as a question. Best is constructing the question in a "leading" way to encourage them to choose your side of an issue..
So for example:
"Would you support the ban on Child Pornography if it resulted in more children being molested?"
(CP being the most emotional hot-button issue I can think of.)
(For more info, "The Psychology of Selling" has a lot of down-to-Earth information on convincing people.)
Growing coffee in the current industrialized fashion (not organic growers) makes heavy use of fung/pesticides. Cofee beans after harvested and spread out to dry are sprayed daily with fungicides.
Maybe, just maybe the undesired organisms are getting adapted to the poisons, survive and hamper production?
It's big business for the chemical industry selling all that poison....
Uninformed opinion. Mammals are at least as old as dinosaurs and some findings indicate that they're even older! Thank $DEITY for the yucatan meteorite!
It's cool. Everyone thinks they make the best coffee and beer. It's a thing.
"The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?"
Yes it is. It maximizes Gross National Happiness.
... and now I know that I won't be effected.
I hate the American stuff. Bright, tangy, awful.
Give me Arabica from Java, Indonesia, equatorial Africa.
Yeah, I don't care what the fixed-gears with handle-bar moustaches say, down at Intellgensia. They're the same sheep-flock gourmets, who swill down small batch beers, with preference for hops to malt. Hops. Yechh.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
It's fine right? God please let the tea be okay.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
Oh totally, please stand out with religious extremism...
no corn in the old world.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Yes, dear friends, soon heavy industry will make it possible for everyone to have their own coffee!
Monsanto wouldn't have it any other way.
Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.
"Regional production fell by 15 percent last year, putting nearly 400,000 people out of work, and that’s just a taste of what’s to come"
Ha, ha, ha! Nice one!
No coffee in the alternate universe, universe full of very angry people. Coincidence?
It is not so much the climate change, but the mass production from genetically manipulated plants.
So.. blame Monsanto? ^_^
vos nescitis quicquam, nec cogitatis quia expedit nobis ut unus moriatur homo pro populo et non tota gens pereat.
Great post. Shows how sheep-like people are, drinking Starbucks.
-- a Peet's fan
I come here for the love
Sorry gents, but I tend to purchase 100% Arabica from overseas. Should I go back to Folgers? (Also, not all Americans prefer anti-freeze bittering agent in their beers, but it does seem to be trendy at the moment).
Global warming, redressed as climate change, is a scam perpetuated by grant seeking academics, non-profits and scientists. The reference to it in this article typifies a method of when-you-don't-know-the-reason point blame to climate change. Then at least your research grants have a chance of getting funded.
caused by climate change? seriously?
if you don't know, just blame it on climate change! its hip these days!
Who cares? I do not understand the obsession with coffee so many people seem to have. Whenever I hear someone say that that they can't function in the morning until they've had their coffee, I just look at them the same way I would a heroin addict.
Wait, so millions of Americans and other Westerners won't be able to caffeinate their way to sensibility every morning, and might actually consider actually getting enough sleep?
That's CRAZY talk.
-Styopa
As long as we still have caffeine.
We still have caffeine, right?
Right???
XKCD:Xeric Knowledge Comically Dispen
The 'best coffee' in the world comes out of a cats ass i'm told...
I don't know about better, but it is cheaper. I just scoop it out of the litter box. After you reduce it to charcoal for that authentic espresso style, you can't tell the difference anyway.
They bio-engineered the disease in order to harm the global software industry by making it difficult to stay awake...
..and in the second year of the invasion, all Internet commerce ground to a halt - stranding most earthlings in their home-offices to starve.
Organization? You must be joking..
Since they all drink coffee, and if there are severe shortages, all functions will stop except those deemed critical.
mfwright@batnet.com
What does hops have to do with anti-freeze? (Anti-freeze is generally sweet.)
You can live without coffee. For example, stimulants are not allowed in the Paleo nutrition plan, so adherents have given up the morning cup. But, Global Warming is on the march. What's next?
Not matter what potentially bad thing happens, it is attributed to climate change. Makes me think the whole AGW/climate-change bit is PC BS.
When every one is buying the same thing, it must be a bubble..
Give me Arabica from Java, Indonesia, equatorial Africa.
For clarification about arabica coffee: in my late 20s and early 30s (a very long time ago), I worked in the coffee import business. As I recall, there are two basic types of coffee; arabica and robusta. The arabica beans, no matter where they come from, are the superior coffee, at least with respect to flavor. Robusta beans are generally used as filler, or in manufactured coffee products like freeze-dried coffee, or in extremely dark roasts. Robusta beans do have one thing going for them (besides being cheaper); they have higher caffeine content.
Throughout the coffee growing regions, there are many varieties of arabica coffees. Depending on where and how they are grown, subtle, and some not so subtle, differences among the varieties can be appreciated. There are guys on the Green Coffee Exchange in New York, and no doubt elsewhere, who can correctly identify the origin of coffees in blind taste tests. I wasn't one of them, but I learned a good deal about coffee while working among those folks.
One thing I learned is that for most people, how a given coffee is roasted has more to do with how it tastes than does where it's from. Also of great importance is how the coffee is brewed. Coffee graders always roast and brew in a specific way so that when grading, they taste the differences inherent in the beans.
While I definitely agree that arabica coffee is what I would want, I think that a blanket statement about what region's coffee to avoid would be hard to support if given the chance to compare well made arabica coffee from Colombia, Hawaii, Jamaica, and elsewhere.
Also, it is interesting that one would have a preference for arabica coffee from Indonesia in particular. So little of it comes from there. Indonesian coffee is 90% robusta.
Thanks for this. I love the really well-informed input.
I do know that these golden, "spiky" roasts are really not "my cup of tea", and they have taken the premium-coffee set for a whirl.
Dark roasting can hide an inferior coffee, so it appears that the reverse assumption is being made: dark roasts are inferior quality.
Frankly? I like burgundies. I like 82% cacao. I like Guiness and top-fermented Ales that often contain no hops. I like dark coffees, and light ones make my skin itch... :-)
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Ah, in the US we add bittering-agent to anti-freeze so children and animals don't drink it. My point was that these chemicals reflect the taste of hops.
You eat pieces of shit like him for breakfast!
Thanks, it's fairly entertaining on it's own, although very dated in it's racial sensitivity. ;)
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Well he did say "my some deity punish you", which sounds like a group of one worshiping a personal deity, if that's not extreme I don't know what is.
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