The Canadian Press Climate change is driving and intensifying extreme weather in the world’s major coffee-producing countries, jeopardizing future crops and putting pressure on global prices. “Coffee is the canary in the coal mine for climate change and its effect on agriculture,” said Elizabeth Shapiro-Garza, associate professor of the practice of environmental policy and management at Duke University. “If you like your cup of coffee in the morning, climate change is absolutely going to be affecting the quality, the availability and the price of that cup of coffee.” Brazil and Vietnam, the two biggest producers of coffee in the world, are both currently grappling with drought. The drought in Brazil is the worst the country has seen in more than 70 years. It has also been dealing with wildfires. Coffee is a finicky plant that’s particularly vulnerable to heat and shifts in seasonality, said Shapiro-Garza, adding that the drying process for coffee can also be adversely affected by extreme weather. The potential for supply shortages in both countries due to the weather is driving global coffee prices higher, according to a recent report by the Center for Advanced Studies on Applied Economics at the University of Sao Paulo. “We are seeing fairly dramatic changes in what otherwise we would call traditional normal weather patterns, and these have dramatic effects on the expected supply of coffee come next harvest season,” said Sven Anders, a professor and agricultural economist at the University of Alberta. Recent heat waves, drought and wildfires in countries including Brazil and Vietnam have been intensified by climate change, research shows. Amid all the factors affecting supply, demand for coffee continues to grow, said Anders, which puts extra pressure on the industry. Canadian coffee drinkers today might not realize that the price of their morning cup is at […]
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