Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
Issue link: http://freshcup.epubxp.com/i/59523
WARMING WORLD Continued from page 48 izes that solutions are not universal. "What works in Colombia isn't necessarily going to apply in Kenya, for agronomic and also cultural reasons," Griswold says. But he revels in the challenge of developing solutions that can be scaled up quickly for application elsewhere, as conditions allow. Sustainable Harvest has pioneered the distribution of iPads and apps that don't need Internet access to allow for data collection in remote areas. "The new normal is certainly daunting," Griswold reflects. "But shoulder to shoulder, I think we have a good chance of figuring things out." HIGH STAKES Specialty coffee is not unusual in being vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In some ways, it is better equipped than other industries to weather the literal and figurative storms ahead. The coffee supply chain has been tested in recent decades, and several supportive interrelationships have evolved among the different links. Some of these relationships are personal, and many more are mission- or ethics-driven and can stand up to powerful chal- lenges. But it is a business, and a commodity business at that. It is still unclear how people will act when climate problems become too costly to cope with. PREPARED FOR RAIN: Some coffee farmers have adopted practices to deal with additional rain, such as covering drying beds. Coffee, including specialty coffee, faces some very big questions. Can enough data be collected at individual sites to build solutions reflecting the breadth of coffee farming? Can supply chain actors respond in concert? Is this diverse and heterogeneous global industry capable of a higher degree of integration that would enable adaptive strategies on a more comprehensive scale to be truly effective? And will linkages form within the industry, and between the industry and other stakeholders, to provide a degree of diversification and support if and when the crisis deepens? The specialty coffee retailer is a little like the last skater in a serious game of crack the whip, where the potential energy stored in the supply chain is released against the wall of consumer senti- ment. It's important to be up front, and out front, when it comes to telling the story of climate's impact on coffee. Samper believes "the value of a coffee's origin needs to be conveyed to consumers, so that they appreciate the efforts being made." The retailer has a special role to play in broadening awareness of climate problems in origin countries and to foster a true understanding of how price reflects real human situations. As Laederach puts it, "Time is rela- tively short and the stakes are high." 50 Fresh Cup Magazine freshcup.com TIM WILSON