I don't drink much coffee. So the news that some coffee producers are finding it tough to deal with changes in growing conditions that could be an early taste of what global warming will bring doesn't strike close to home. And of course, "scientists are uncertain whether the peculiar weather patterns in the area are directly related to warming."
Still, what if the fears are warranted? Is "peak coffee" around the corner? Given how much coffee Americans guzzle, I wonder what would happen if prices started spiking -- just as they are about to do with the another habit-forming commodity.
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There is also talk of peak chocolate.
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-11/future-chocolate-will-be-…
Which leads to the sequencing of the cacao tree genome. But who knows where it will lead from there.
As a coffee addict, this thought occurred to me long ago. We have started the garden, but are too far north to grow coffee here. After we get rain gutters and rain barrels, and install a screen door to help air the house when air conditioning becomes too expensive, I'll see if I can add a small greenhouse to our back patio (a concrete slab).
If I can get a few coffee plants going, I can remain caffeinated and alert while the rest of the neighborhood becomes listless and vulnerable to manipulation. Bwahahaha!
I'm guessing that as climate change shifts weather around, the coffee belt will just move higher up on the earth (you know, like it's a really old planet or something. ha. ha.). Jokes aside, I actually am serious. And/or cultivation will just move into greenhouses like marijuana's current cultivation method. Of course, prices will go up but lets face it, we'll pay.
Oh yes, we'll pay.
This has happened before. Peak coffee. Peek sugar. Peek milk. As long as they don't happen at exactly the same time everything will be fine and we can continue with this global warming thing.
Well at least we won't get peak beer, because that really would signal the end of the world. So we should be thankful that grain prices are stable... er... I'll be in the shelter with my guns and my kegs if anybody wants me.
LOL. Star Trek "Ye of a dozen failed previous blog attempts" still attempts teh blog.
give it up star trek boy. accept your inconsequentialy-ness in the world of reality.
ouch. sorry about the reality thing. I know that stings.
dumbass.
I wish people would use their brain when it came to global warming and the environment. If coffee peaks I wonder how expensive it needs to be until people start to break the habit of drinking coffee.
Peak coffee? I'll refrain from making a "world will end in 2012" and "coffee reaches peak price" joke, because I can't think of one that is particularly clever right now.
OMFG! NOT THE Coffee!!!!! But then if iced tea is threatened by GLOBAL WARMING, I am going to like just totally freak the heck out.
sheeeeesh! again
Jimmy - congrats on your footnote in history as best failed comedic alarmist.
Peak Schmeak...Being both a coffee and iced tea addict, I am hoping the comet lands on me first! But being a grain farmer/science teacher, at least I have choices...get XXX'd by the Rabidublicans in office here or get dried up and blown away by climate change. Bring on the Comet, boys!
Not to worry! As coffee production moves out of the tropics and toward the poles, we in the US can at long last look forward to full coffee independence! No more relying on unstable 3rd world producers and greedy cartels for our vital morning jolt. Ahhhh, nothing like a full-bodied cup of Adirondack Mountain Arabica in the morning! Suck it, Juan Valdez.
(tongue firmly in cheek)