This practice note examines how climate change is threatening coffee-growing regions in Costa Rica, specifically the Coto Brus region. By 2050, absent adaptation measures, experts project that climate change will reduce the global areas suitable for growing coffee by about 50% (Bunn et al. 2015). The case study outlines key …
In May, 2016, a Working Group of 23 scientists from ten countries met at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France, to evaluate the carcinogenicity of drinking coffee, mate, and very hot beverages. These assessments will be published in volume 116 of the IARC Monographs.
Soaring demand for the caffeinated brew could hasten destructive climate change by encouraging producers to chop down some of the last remaining tropical forests as they struggle to increase yields on existing farmland, according to a report released Thursday by the nonprofit Conservation International. Coffee grows in tropical countries near …
Brimming with shade trees and bounded by the Tuma river, the lower climes of Roger Castellon's farm in Nicaragua's mountainous Jinotega department were long ideal for growing coffee. But with temperatures on the rise, the veteran coffee farmer is shifting his lower-lying land to a crop that, although new for …
Used coffee beans could be a simple and cheap alternative for methane storage, new scientific research has found. Scientists from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea found that heating coffee beans to 700-900°C could produce stable levels of carbon capture, capable of absorbing 7% of …
The African Development Bank has launched a report that seeks to empower women to take the lead in agribusiness and agriculture value chains thus participating in Africa’s economic growth process. The report, Economic Empowerment of African Women Through Equitable Participation in Agricultural Value Chains, identifies opportunities for women that can …
Tropical agroforestry has an enormous potential to sequester carbon while simultaneously producing agricultural yields and tree products. The amount of soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestered is however influenced by the type of the agroforestry system established, the soil and climatic conditions and management. In this regional scale study, we utilized …
— For the last 20 years, Fredrick Damien has watched as his coffee trees have produced fewer and fewer beans. Back in the 1990s, his half-acre farm at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro turned out as many as 330 pounds of coffee a season, but now he’s happy to harvest …
A strong El Nino is likely to increase prices of staple foods such as rice, coffee, sugar and cocoa, say scientists. Forecasters agree that the El Nino effect, which can drive droughts and flooding, is under way in the tropical Pacific. But they say it is too early to say …
Hundreds of farmers in Tanzania are abandoning crops of coffee and cotton due to changes in the local climate. Instead, they’re planting more lucrative vegetables and flowers as temperatures rise and rainfall becomes less predictable. “Coffee beans are no longer as profitable, as my harvests keep on falling,” Ludovick Meela, …
Tea and coffee are the most commonly consumed beverages in the worldwide. The relationship between tea and coffee consumption on the risk of laryngeal cancer was still unclear. Relevant studies were identified by searching electronic database (Medline and EMBASE) and reviewing the reference lists of relevant articles until Oct. 2013. …
Nestle's coffee brand is accelerating its sustainability focus with the launch of an ambitious new programme to become 'carbon neutral' by 2020. The new sustainability programme, entitled The Positive Cup, was announced earlier today (27 August) by Nespresso's CEO Jean-Marc Duvoisin. It introduces several major initiatives that Duvoisin says will …
The 'Energy from Coffee Wastewater' project has proven that it is possible to generate energy, tackle climate change and protect water resources by treating discharges from coffee mills. The project, run by sustainable farming organisation UTZ Certified, has been implemented in a range of different size coffee farms in Latin …
Nespresso plans to spend 500 million Swiss francs ($550 million) in the next six years in an effort to improve the environmental and social impact of Europe’s biggest single-serve coffee brand. The Nestle SA (NESN) division’s sustainability program will include 15 million francs to assist farmers in Ethiopia, Kenya and …
A prolonged drought in Brazil has already claimed about half of Jose Francisco Pereira’s coffee crop. Next year could be even worse as the country heads for the first three-year output decline since 1965. “Everybody is praying for rain,” said Pereira, general director of Monte Alegre Coffees, a grower with …
Australia remains on El Nino watch on expectations the weather pattern that brings drought to the Asia-Pacific region and heavier-than-usual rains to South America will probably develop by August. The alert indicates at least a 70 percent chance of an El Nino developing this year, the Bureau of Meteorology said …
The State of Sustainability Initiatives Review 2014 provides a bird's-eye view of market and performance trends across 16 of the most prevalent standards initiatives operating across ten different commodity sectors. The Review represents one small effort toward strengthening our understanding of how voluntary sustainability standards are developing over time, both …
Uganda, Africa's biggest coffee exporter, wants to develop a coffee bean that is resistant to drought to help mitigate the impact of climate change on its crop, the state-run industry regulator said on Tuesday. The east African nation expects to export 3.50 million 60-kg bags in the 2013/14 (Oct-Sept) coffee …
Lamjung, Jan. 18: Farmers of Lamjung district are gradually taking to organic coffee farming though they had kept themselves away from coffee farming after facing various problems. Lack of proper market price and required training and absence of any government subsidy and motivation to coffee farmers were the major reasons …
Scientific and business communities increasingly recognize that climate change is causing weather extremes and precipitating natural disasters, such as the European heat wave of 2003, the drought in East Africa in 2011, and in 2012 the worst drought in the US since 1956. In one report, which examined a number …
Central American coffee industry officials say the region's arabica crop is weathering an outbreak of leaf-rust fungus, but try telling that to small-hold farmers like Graciela Alvarenga. Her 0.3 hectare (0.74 acre) plot in Honduras' El Paraiso region near the border with Nicaragua has been so hard hit, she now …
