‘A World Without:’ Good, Affordable Coffee
By Galilee Abdullah‘A World Without:’ Good, Affordable Coffee
By Galilee AbdullahWe continue Worldview’s limited series, “A World Without”, with a discussion on coffee and climate change. According to a 2017 report from Nature Plants, coffee production in Ethiopia, the birthplace of the Arabica coffee bean, is in jeopardy. In a 2017 article by BBC News, Tim Schilling, director of the World Coffee Research institute, says that: “The supply of high-quality coffee is severely threatened by climate change, diseases and pests, land pressure, and labour shortages - and demand for these coffees is rising every year”. The demand for coffee in the U.S. is still very high: in a 2018 survey from the National Coffee Association, the number of Americans who drink coffee is 64%, compared to 62% last year. Farmers in the countries that are the biggest exporters of coffee, like Ethiopia and Brazil, face many challenges, and researchers say that the challenges will continue in the future. Today we talk with Kim Elena Ionescu, she is the Chief Sustainability Officer at Specialty Coffee Association.