Disease Outbreak Threatens the Future of Good Coffee 259
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."
Seriously? (Score:2, Insightful)
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".
Coffee is threatened? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I don't drink coffee (Score:2, Insightful)
Same here. Mt Dew for the win!!
Climate or planting methods? (Score:2, Insightful)
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!
Is there nothing climate change can't do? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Is there nothing climate change can't do? (Score:5, Insightful)
Funny enough, climate and biology do not operate independently.
I grant that. But note again, how confident the researcher is in one and not the other.
Re:I don't drink coffee (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Don't panic (Score:2, Insightful)
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/ [nationalgeographic.com]
Re:I don't drink coffee (Score:5, Insightful)
It may be both: evolution of the coffee rust driven by climate change.
Or it could be a lack of genetic diversity in the coffee trees. The fungus can spread through vast plantations of genetically similar arabica trees. The reason the rust has difficulty infecting wild trees may be because of their diversity, as well as their dispersion.
Disclaimer: I am a tea drinker.
Re:Seriously? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why does ever bible thumper consider it a bad thing to change ones mind about something in light of new data?
Why does everyone else do that too? I guess because we've evolved not to readily change our minds. Maybe it was bad for us if we changed our minds too much about saber-tooth tigers or poisonous plants. "I think poison ivy changed due to a dream vision I had last night. Let's roll in it!"
I find it remarkable how anti-scientific some of the attitudes among the supposedly pro-science side are. Here, you are complaining about "bible thumpers" merely because they exhibit a universal human behavior.
As to your "data", I think it's painfully clear that the researcher (who was quoted on the climate change allegation) is tying coffee rust to climate change in order to sell their story and attract funding rather than tell a more plausible story. Where is the discussion of evolution of coffee rust, bad farming practices, and the presence of more susceptible coffee plants (they need not be at the same farm as the "fine coffee" plants)?
Re:Coffee is threatened? (Score:4, Insightful)
Good luck getting the deniers to accept that it is actually climate change that's affecting the coffee supply.
Rather than evolution of coffee rust, bad farming practices, and development and planting of coffee plants more susceptible to coffee rust? I imagine it won't be the least bit difficult.
Re:Coffee is threatened? (Score:5, Insightful)
Now only if anything in the article actually led to the conclusion that climate change has anything to do with the increased spread of this disease, rather than massive plantations of a monoculture of genetically near-identical plants.
But yeah, I'm sure it's climate change that's causing it.
Re:Banana Alobama (Score:3, Insightful)
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.