The climate crisis is slowly changing life as we know it – and now it looks like it’s coming for our coffee supply, too.
We all know that our supermarket shelves have been struggling recently (see: salad shortages) but if you’re a caffeine addict, the worst is yet to come.
According to research commissioned by the Fairtrade Foundation, as much as 50% of the global surface area used for coffee farming will be too hot for the crop grow come 2050.
Almost 60,000 hectares of land (that’s the equivalent of 74,000 football pitches) which is currently dedicated to growing the UK’s annual coffee imports is “highly vulnerable” to climate change, according to Fairtrade.
That works out to be almost a quarter of the total area the UK needs for annual coffee imports.
To make matters worse, more than 90% of Fairtrade Kenyan coffee farmers said they have already noticed a difference to the crop brought on by climate change.
The UK would have to dedicate an area around the size of Warwickshire to growing the coffee needed to meet our current demand.
And, coffee isn’t even the only product that is expected to be affected.
Almost half of the UK’s banana supplies are at risk too, along with the regions which produce more than half of the world’s cocoa, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire (the Ivory Coast).
Yes – it’s all terrible.
It’s not surprising that Fairtrade revealed that more than 40% of Brits would struggle to live without coffee, while 31% would be bereft without bananas or chocolate.
And more than half said they would be “devastated, annoyed or upset” if coffee and bananas were no longer available in the UK.
The CEO of Fairtrade Foundation Mike Gidney also warned: “There is a risk that farmers will have to stop farming.
“In some worst-case scenarios, certain varieties of the foods they grow for UK consumption could become luxury items.
“That’s why it’s important that farmers and workers receive a fair price that will enable them to invest in transitioning to sustainable and climate resilient ways of production.”