Climate change puts moves on coffee growers

Dr. Lowman’s latest Nature’s Secrets column in newsobserver.com:

Coffee, java, morning Joe, black wine, jolt juice, espresso, cappuccino. … A cup of coffee has inspired business deals, exam-preparation, student all-nighters, real estate transactions, truck-driving, dating, and diplomacy. It represents a daily ritual for millions of Americans. Imagine a world without coffee?

Several biological challenges threaten to shrink the world’s coffee supply. Almost all agricultural products that humans plant in monocultures – potatoes, pine lumber, corn, tobacco and cotton, to name but a few – ultimately get attacked by insect pests. Coffee is no different. The coffee berry borer (called la broca – “the drill” – in Latin America) did not exist in Ethiopia 50 years ago, but now significantly threatens the harvest in that country, where coffee originated. The beetle has gone global, and now thrives in almost every country that grows coffee.

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