Bad news for coffee

[begreen]

Might be a good time to develop a taste for tea.

(broken link removed to http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/06/coffee-rust-epidemic/all/)

 

[BrianK]

Oh, this is not good. Not good at all.

 

[jharkin]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

 

[begreen]

Coffee is more of a random plant that likes to grow in semi-shade. We set ourselves up when we grow monocrops of coffee in plantations like it was corn. Food crop failures happened to the potato and recently bananas, mostly due to lack of genetic diversity. The can spread quickly through row crops. When or if it happens to corn it is going to be a disaster. Monsanto is working hard to bring this about.

 

[Hills Hoard]

Time to stock pile some beans

 

[northwinds]

Time to stock pile some beans

Better learn to roast then. Good speciality coffee doesn't stay fresh for very long. It might be time to branch out to African and Indonesian beans. Sumatra is a great bean--generally low acidity and lot of body/earthiness. African coffees can be full of fruity notes and good brightness. For anyone interested in stockpiling green (raw) coffee and learning to roast, there's a site for home roasting enthusiasts at http://www.home-barista.com/home-roasting/ I've been roasting with a thrift store bread machine and a heat gun ever since I sold my coffee roastery.

 

[BrotherBart]

Stay away from the cheap crap house brand I drink. Don't go driving up the price!

 

[ScotO]

Well, sounds like it may be a good time for me to quit drinking it for good.......

LIKE THAT'S EVER GOING TO EFFING HAPPEN!!

 

[ScotO]

Coffee is more of a random plant that likes to grow in semi-shade. We set ourselves up when we grow monocrops of coffee in plantations like it was corn. Food crop failures happened to the potato and recently bananas, mostly due to lack of genetic diversity. The can spread quickly through row crops. When or if it happens to corn it is going to be a disaster. Monsanto is working hard to bring this about.

Monsanto is destroying more than just corn...they are on a path to destroying everything we eat! From some of what I've been seeing, they may be to blame for the eventual extinction of the honeybee.......

http://www.naturalnews.com/025287_bees_honey_crops.html

 

[BrotherBart]

Ground bees make nasty coffee.

 

[fossil]

Oh, c'mon...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NaturalNews

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/NaturalNews

 

[ScotO]

Sorry Rick...I'll look for a link from Salon.com. We can all trust them for honest news, can't we?

I don't have time to dig up other links. do the research yourself. Monsanto is nothing but death. Lots and lots of info out there on it....

 

[fossil]

I don't read Salon.com, Scotty, never have. But I am careful what I do read and believe. Rick

 

[ScotO]

I don't read Salon.com, Scotty, never have. But I am careful what I do read and believe. Rick

I'm careful about what I read too, Rick. That was just one of the first links that popped up....do you think that information in that article is all false? I read it, and I don't.

I'm not trying to turn this into a political post here. Have a good evening, my friend!

 

[Ashful]

Won't affect most Americans, if true, but it will be hell on Europe and Latin America! The overwhelming majority of American coffees ("brown water") are not even remotely 100% Arabica, being low-grade blends which vary according to current market prices.

The odd thing about this story is all the news just two months ago, about the trade price of Arabaca dropping. In fact, it had become cheaper than many types of Robusta beans, one of the cheaper varieties used in low-end coffee so popular here in the states.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/09/us-coffee-robusta-arabica-idUSBRE9380Q220130409

 

[Grisu]

Monsanto is destroying more than just corn...they are on a path to destroying everything we eat! From some of what I've been seeing, they may be to blame for the eventual extinction of the honeybee.......

http://www.naturalnews.com/025287_bees_honey_crops.html

A simple no because the honey bee colony collapse disorder also occurred in Europe where GMO plants carrying the Bt gene are rare and even outlawed in some countries. In addition, Monsanto seeds which are distributed and contain Bt are maize, soybean and cotton not canola as mentioned in your link. I agree with fossil: That site is dangerous as it contains just enough "science" to convince a lay person.

 

[begreen]

Won't affect most Americans, if true, but it will be hell on Europe and Latin America! The overwhelming majority of American coffees ("brown water") are not even remotely 100% Arabica, being low-grade blends which vary according to current market prices.

The odd thing about this story is all the news just two months ago, about the trade price of Arabaca dropping. In fact, it had become cheaper than many types of Robusta beans, one of the cheaper varieties used in low-end coffee so popular here in the states.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/09/us-coffee-robusta-arabica-idUSBRE9380Q220130409

It will affect a lot of Americans. Starbucks uses a lot of arabica beans.

 

[BrianK]

Oh, c'mon...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NaturalNews

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/NaturalNews

I'm no liberal by any stretch but I certainly don't trust NaturalNews either. They are very closely aligned with Scientology and therefore everything they claim becomes suspect.

 

[begreen]

This might be a more productive link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemileia_vastatrix
Coffee crops in Guatemala have been ruined by coffee rust, and a state of emergency has been declared in February 2013.
And Mexico:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/26/mexico-coffee-crop-fungus

 

[mywaynow]

Reminds me I don't hav a pot brewing. Be right back. Organic Guatemala today.

 

[jharkin]

It will affect a lot of Americans. Starbucks uses a lot of arabica beans.

Even Dunkin Donuts coffee is 100% arabica. And I run on Dunkins (tm).


Another Europe is better than us urban legend I suspect.


Edit to add:
It was hard to find but I found one link that seems to show 70+ % of the coffee beans we import are arabica. Top 3 countries we import from? - Columbia, Mexico and Brazil.

http://dev.ico.org/documents/cy2012-13/sc-28e-soluble-decaffeinated.pdf (ts titled decaf, but table 2 at the end has all coffee imports)


So yes, I would say this will effect us.

 

[jharkin]

Oh, c'mon...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NaturalNews

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/NaturalNews

AIDS denialist?, thats a new one....

 

[BrotherBart]

I'm careful about what I read too, Rick. That was just one of the first links that popped up...

" Even other quacks think it's a quack site."

 

[Ashful]

My statement is correct, and 72% is not that high. For every 100% arabaca (Starbucks, Dunkin, the hipster coffee shop on the corner), there is a large-scale counterpoint, using much less than 70% arabaca (Folgers, Maxwell House, etc., etc.). Not a "Europe is better" comment, just a statement of fact and numbers.

This could have positive effect, though! The lines at Dunkin Donuts are always way too long, and people who think Starbucks is good are just plain annoying. One stone, two birds.

 

[Grisu]

AIDS denialist?, thats a new one....

Not really new and another low for the intelligence of our species: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS_denialism

Conspiracy theories have been so widespread now that they become the topic of scientific studies: (broken link removed to http://psychologyforasafeclimate.org/resources/Motivated%20rejection%20of%20science-2.pdf)
The response to the first paper was another conspiracy theory!