Grounds for Sadness, Something to Brew’d About

 

                       Chocolate                                                                   Coffee

As COVID added disruption to commodities at every level, as shipping costs soared, and as refinery damage exploded the price of fuel, the prices on grocery shelves reflected the rising prices. Droughts and desertification, abetted by floods and devastating fires and storms, further contracted the arable, food producing land. Toxins and rising sea temperatures also have taken their toll on sea creatures, some of which have been the mainstay in the diets of many. Nothing new. But if you love to eat and have strong preferences for goodies like great chocolate and wondrous coffee beans, stand back and standby. Some of the best varieties of chocolate and coffee face climate change-driven extinction.

According to the February 10, 2016 Climate.gov, in an article (Climate & Chocolate) by Michon Scott, the source of chocolate, the cacao bean, is facing an increasingly contracting regions where it can grow. We are going to change how we culitvate that precious plant. “Over the next several decades, those places may grow warmer, drier, and less suitable to cacao cultivation. But with planning and adaptation, cacao farmers can keep producing our favorite treat.

“Cacao can only grow within about 20° north and south of the equator—south of the Mediterranean home of carob, in fact. Cacao trees only prosper under specific conditions, including fairly uniform temperatures, high humidity, abundant rain, nitrogen-rich soil, and protection from wind. In short, cacao trees thrive in rainforests.” 

But we know that rainforests, particularly in major cacao producing Brazil, are contracting… from intentional clearing as well as from the impact of climate change. Yet cacao seems to bear rising heat fairly well, given shelter from strong winds and… if it has access, most importantly, to sufficient and steady humidity. We know that the planet is experiencing massive new precipitation, like the hurricanes devastating the American Gulf and Atlantic coastlines. But where it rains matters a lot more, and cacao producing regions are losing humidity almost as fast as they are losing appropriate land mass. Cut back rainforests and chocolate prices soar. Cacao is, however, in better shape than the noble coffee bean which does not grow well as temperature rises. 

I’m a major espresso fan, a barista in my own home. I fly beans in from all over the world, create my own blend, and after grinding them just before their moment of glory in my espresso machine, I inhale the aroma I have so grown to love. But some of my favorite coffee plantations in Kona have shut down and seemingly blown away. Those that remain keep increasing their prices by alarming amount. Jamaica Mountain Blue, a Caribbean treat, is one of my favorites (when you know what to buy). But recently, it even reached as much as $100/lb.! It gets worse. 

Columnist David Lazarus, obviously also a coffee bean aficionado, addresses this one more canary in the climate change coal mine in his September 14th Los Angeles Times contribution: “Climate change means you’ll be paying more for coffee, every day, for possibly the rest of your life… And it may not taste as good…. ‘U.S. consumers should expect much more expensive and lower-quality coffee because of rising temperatures, extreme rainfalls, and higher frequency of severe droughts,’ said Titus O. Awokuse, chairman of the department of agricultural, food and resource economics at Michigan State University… ‘Recent studies show that up to 60% of high-quality coffee species are at risk of extinction because of the negative impacts of climate change,’ he told me…

“‘Prices reflect supply and demand, and if production costs rise or supply becomes more constrained, prices will rise,’ said Carolyn Dimitri, an associate professor of nutrition and food studies at New York University… ‘Climate change is likely to increase production costs and reduce supply, at least in some years,’ she predicted, adding that she would be ‘horrified’ if decent coffee became harder to come by… ‘I will pay just about any price for my coffee,’ Dimitri said, echoing my own [and Peter Dekom’s] thoughts and, I suspect, those of millions of other coffee drinkers.

“Coffee futures recently jumped to the highest level in four years, due in part to extreme weather in Brazil, the world’s largest coffee producer… Factor in pandemic-related supply issues, and the cost of coffee beans has risen more than 40% so far this year… Because caffeine heavyweights such as Starbucks and Nestle buy their coffee supplies well in advance, not all dealers of our daily fix will be raising prices immediately.

“But some are already warning of higher retail costs… J.M. Smucker, maker of Folgers and Dunkin’ ground coffee, said it has no choice but to jack up prices. ‘We are seeing inflationary costs impacting the entire fiscal year,’ the company’s chief financial officer said during a recent conference call.

“Coffee is just one item on supermarket shelves that’s getting more expensive because of climate change… Harsh weather is driving up the cost of sugar. Wheat prices are now at the highest level in nearly eight years.” But for connoisseurs of fine espresso (notice how I avoid the term “caffein junkies”), higher prices are not as terrible as the prospect of losing quality beans entirely. We huge problems from climate change, from killer wildfires to killer storms to killer floods to killer desertification… and minor inglorious consequences that trouble us too… like losing chocolate and coffee to higher prices and serial extinction. I want my morning espresso, but…

I’m Peter Dekom, and the litany of babble from a very large cadre of American climate change deniers is a huge part of the “do nothing serious about it” problem.