Coffee Could Become The World's Most Sustainable Crop
Today marks International Coffee Day, an occasion for caffeine lovers everywhere to raise a mug to their favorite brew. First kicked off three years ago, the nascent holiday celebrates the farmers and the land that make today's coffee culture possible.
The caffeine conundrum.
Unfortunately, our fervor for cold brews and almond milk lattes has created a double-edged sword of sorts. While it brings more employment opportunities to poor regions in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia, the safety and profitability of some of these jobs have been questioned. The global thirst for coffee beans has also led us to the outer edges of the earth on a hunt for more farmland, making mass deforestation a huge concern in business. When you consider the fact that these beans thrive in tropical climates that have steady, predictable weather patterns, global warming becomes a threat to the industry's future too.
Before you throw your hands up in defeat and switch over to matcha, know that there are organizations out there working to help the industry grows and scale in a sustainable way. Conservation International (CI) is one nonprofit leading the charge, and they have a lofty goal: to make coffee the world's first sustainable crop.
Keith Edson