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 …
There's good news for coffee-lovers. A naturally decaffeinated coffee plant has been discovered. Researchers in Brazil studied 3,000 coffee plants from Ethiopia and found three with almost no caffeine. The plants apparently lack the enzyme needed to make caffeine. Paulo Mazzafera, who led the team of researchers, revealed: "This is …
only mother's son: Japanese and Korean scientists have created a mouse without using a sperm. The feat is akin to the birth of Dolly, the world's first cloned mammal. Bees, ants, aphids, some fish and reptiles reproduce without having sex in a process called parthenogenesis. But creating a living mammal …
The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (tnpcb) wants the state's coffee planters to tackle water pollution on a war footing. The board has told coffee growers in Ootacamund, Yerkad and Kodaikanal to apply for and seek clearance from it for the installation of effluent treatment plants (etps) before the curing …
toxic taint: Green Indian seedless grapes have been taken off supermarket shelves in Belgium following the detection of high levels of pesticide residues in the product in the Netherlands recently. The Belgian Food Safety Authority took this decision over fears of high chemical residue levels, leading to stomach cramps in …
A major conservation issue, particularly in the tropics, is habitat loss and fragmentation due to developmental activities and increasing human populations. Ecologists today recognise that much of the once pristine forests that are now secondary forests, as well as large areas outside existing conservation resources, harbouring significant levels of biological …
The thirst for cheap coffee in the West could be wiping out endangered wildlife in Indonesia, reveals a study by the us-based Wildlife Conservation Society. The cultivation of robusta coffee beans
During recent laboratory experiments, researchers have discovered that mice slathered with caffeine develop fewer skin tumours than untreated animals. This suggests that the chemical that adds zip to coffee also provides protection against skin cancer. The researchers from New Jersey-based Rutgers University found that a skin lotion spiked with caffeine …
"Solidarity coffee" has quickly become a popular drink in and around the Bhavarian town of Aschaffenburg and around. A voluntary organisation buys raw coffee from coffee growers in Aschaffenburg's partner city Villavicencio in Columbia for more than the world market price. The coffee is then roasted in Aschaffenburg and sold …
The coffee output in Brazil has been below 30 million 60-kg bags because of the severe drought. However, officials said that it is very early to fully quantify the loss. "Whatever we are seeing in the coffee harvest in Brazil is very serious. We have calculated that 65 per cent …
Coffee plantation owners in Brazil heaved a sigh of relief after the much-awaited spring showers lashed the parched country. The showers came after days of prolonged drought, which had hit the country's coffee belt and was threatening to cause heavy losses in the coming season, said Cooxupe, a leading cooperative …
About 11 per cent of all known bird species are threatened with extinction, according to the World Resources Institute. Fragmentation or loss of habitat is mainly responsible for this decline, but harvesting for food and trade and competition from introduced species are also responsible. For example, conversion of traditional coffee …
The coffee wilt disease that has destroyed millions of coffee trees in central and western Uganda over the past six years has now spread to the eastern regions of the country. A top official of the Uganda Coffee Development Authority ( ucda ) confirmed that the disease has spread to …
Vietnamese farmers are going through a bad time due to persistent drizzle that has affected supply of coffee in the province of Dalak. "The weather is now dangerous for the coffee business,' said a trader. He said the drizzle in Dalak had disrupted the drying process. Dalak accounts for 60 …
The next generation of anti-AIDS drugs could be based on a chemical extracted from green coffee beans, US researchers claim. Edward Robinson and his colleagues from the University of California made extracts from over 60 plants routinely used by medicine men of the Kallawaya tribes in Bolivia. They discovered that …
Kenya produces nearly 1.5 per cent of the world's coffee. However, coffee producers are struggling to overcome two burdens inclement weather and bureaucratic inertia. The first problem is short-lived as Kenya has received average rainfall since the 1960's. This year, more than 262 millimetres (mm) of rain fell in January, …
People who drink coffee only for its caffeine content will soon have a new alternative: a novel narcolepsy drug called provigil which can keep non-narcoleptics awake as well. Narcolepsy is a disorder that strikes about one in every 5000 people, causing sudden sleep attacks lasting from few seconds to more …
The incessant rains that walloped most of east and central Africa for most of the past five months have given way to soothing blue skies. Yet, the effects of the relentless precipitation, caused by now-notorious El Ni
researchers have concluded after analysing a 30-year research on possible links between coffee/caffeine consumption and coronary heart disease and hypertension that it does not have any long-term effect on human health. They say there is no medical basis for urging people to give up coffee, beverages and other foods containing …
