Jim Hanna, director of environmental affairs for Starbucks, told the
Guardian in a phone interview that the company is considered about the impact of climate change on the world coffee supply. Hanna says farmers are already feeling an impact from changing rainfall patterns change and an increase in coffee pests. There is concern the problem will get much worse.
Hanna told the
Guardian, "What we are really seeing as a company as we look 10, 20, 30 years down the road – if conditions continue as they are – is a potentially significant risk to our supply chain, which is the Arabica coffee bean."
The
New York Times ran a
story earlier this year about rising temperatures damaging coffee in Columbia. Coffee plants do not do well with the longer periods of drought and intense rainfalls that are linked to global warming and have been occurring in recent years. This type of weather also allows coffee pests to thrive. Coffee prices are going to continue to climb if the pattern continues.
