A History of Coffee BONUS: Coffee’s Ticking Time Bomb
May 31, 2022
Scott Bentley, founder of Caffeine Magazine, Jools Walker, best-selling cycling author, and Stuart McCook, a coffee history professor, delve into the intriguing history of Sri Lankan coffee. They discuss it as a once-thriving industry, now facing ecological challenges. The countries of Ethiopia and Yemen are explored for their historical significance. The conversation touches on coffee leaf rust's devastating impact, the shifts in the global coffee market, and innovative solutions to revive Sri Lanka's coffee legacy, emphasizing the importance of biodiversity in farming.
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Rapid Rise And Collapse Of Sri Lankan Coffee
- Sri Lanka was once among the world's largest coffee producers after British colonial plantations replaced forests.
- Within 15 years the plantations were devastated, showing how quickly a plantation monoculture can collapse.
Ethiopia As Coffee's Diverse Origin
- Ethiopia hosts vast coffee genetic diversity and co-evolved pests and diseases.
- That biodiversity buffers against single-disease collapse because many varieties respond differently to pathogens.
Sanitizing Effect Of Yemen's Climate
- Moving coffee into dry climates like Yemen "cleansed" it of many pests and diseases, leaving a narrow genetic stock.
- That sanitized, limited stock later spread globally and increased vulnerability to epidemics.
