Read a very well-done article online by the New York Times that first went to print last year in March. In the classic journalistic fashion, the reporter, Elisabeth Rosenthal, introduces us to one Luis Garzon, 80, who has been producing shade-grown, rain-forest friendly Arabica coffee with his family for decades on the mountainsides of Columbia.
The last few years have not been kind to Garzon. Coffee yields on his small plantation have fallen dramatically by as much as 70 per cent in the past five years. Rising temperatures and intense rainfalls have led to an increase in the dreaded "coffee fungus" that has killed entire fields on the Garzon farm, as well an increase in a number of pests, notably the coffee berry borer. Both these natural threats thrive in weather that is warmer and wetter than a coffee plant likes.
According to Garzon, the weather in this this region was dry during the summer for decades. Now, it can rain for as long as 24 hours at a time. Arabica beans are harder to grow than is the case with Robusta, and are stricter in their climactic requirements, so even a slight change in the average temperature and rainfall can seriously affect the number of beans harvested. Columbia is the number two Arabica exporter after Brazil. Brazil's coffee tends to be more the product of sun-grown, mechanized agriculture than is the case with Columbia, however.
Average temperatures in Columbia's coffee-growing regions have risen by as much as one degree in the past 30 years, according to the Columbian Growers Federation. Rainfall increased 25 per cent in the past few years. And though higher fertilizer prices are also a factor in declining productivity, the federation agrees with the International Coffee Organization that "climactic variability is the main factor responsible for changes in coffee yields all over the world."
But there is hope for the Garzon family and others like them. Agronomists are teaching small landholders like the Garzons how to control the pests that have arrived with the warmer, wetter weather. Climatologists are working on how to improve weather predictions. And geneticists are breeding plants that can better survive the hotter, wetter weather and are more resistant to disease.
There are some who believe that we are at the beginning of a long rise in the cost of coffee, especially premium coffee. These are the experts who believe that global warming is indeed taking place and that unless we can avert catastrophe, specialty coffee will become a thing of the past as supplies become both more expensive and of inferior quality overall as time passes. Others are still not convinced and argue that the climate variations of the past few years cannot be accounted for so easily.
We will be returning to this important subject in the near future.
1 comment:
Although this is going to affect people globally, I just can't help but feel bad for this family. Imagine something being a part of who you are and you have come to share this gift with others all of a sudden change. The other thing I hope dearly not to see happen is coffee start being "manufactured" instead of organically grown. It's too much of of a delicacy for this to happen. I hope the Garzon family is able to find a way to continue to share this piece of their culture with all of us in other areas of the world. Thank you for sharing Dale.
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