There are a lot of things to fear that will come as a result of climate change. Scorching summers, crop failures and high food prices, and the extinction of many species are just a few. But if you’re a person who can’t get started in the morning without your cup of coffee or tea, climate change is about to make your life unbearable. It’s not just corn crops that are suffering as droughts extend and temperatures climb, and many of the global locations where the best coffees and teas are being grown are being hit the hardest by climate change and temperature shifts.
Coffee and Climate Change: Is Your Morning Joe Nearing Extinction?
While we’re not great lovers of Starbucks (we literally read a message about their sustainable coffee printed on the side of a Styrofoam mug the other week), we can thank Jim Hanna, director of sustainability for Starbucks, for the following report on coffee and climate change. According to Hanna, it could be as little as a decade before the world’s coffee supply is severely threatened. It’s not just droughts that are affecting the supply. The increase of hurricanes and resistant bugs are killing supplies, too. Some Arabica bean growers have started finding solutions to the new reality of climate change. In Peru, coffee growers are leveraging carbon traders on the financial markets to try to salvage their economy. In Uganda, where the coffee crops have been hit hard, they’re experimenting with shade trees as a way to boost coffee crop success. However, as of yet, nobody has found a definitive way to salvage the coffee growing industry from increasingly inhospitable weather conditions. But not to worry, Starbucks is on the case and their business empire depends on this. Mother Nature, however, may outsmart all empires in the coming era.
Too Hot for Tea
There’s nowhere on earth that hasn’t reported that the future of tea crops is being threatened by changing weather. Tea leaves are typically very sensitive to their environmental region, and changes in weather and temperature are making those environmental regions unbearable for the gentle tea leaf. From the Assam tea leaf region in India to the Rooibios growing region in South Africa, tea crops are struggling. And while we love our coffee in the western world, tea is the more highly drunk beverage globally.
Best Case Scenario: New Microclimates Emerge with Climate Change
In a best case scenario, new coffee, tea and crop friendly microclimates might emerge with climate change and these crops will simply transition to other growing regions. While this will certainly create turmoil and societal shifts, it still allows the crops to be grown naturally and to provide industry for entire regions.
Worst Case Scenario (Except for Human Extinction): Can You Say GMO?
Of course, the typical solution to changing crop conditions in the current century is to simply genetically modify foods to make them flourish in whatever condition exists. Be careful, before you know it your sustainable coffee and tea will have a big GMO label on it (that is, of course, if the government ever manages to pass legislation requiring GMO food to be labeled.)
Worried about coffee and tea? Not worried? Have an opinion? Comment below or like us on Facebook and tell us about it.
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Photo via Flickr Creative Commons: kaakati
