New Episode of Resources Radio on Coffee in a Changing Climate
WASHINGTON, DC—This week, Resources for the Future (RFF) released a new installment of Resources Radio: “Coffee in a Changing Climate, with Kim Elena Ionescu of the Specialty Coffee Association.”
In today’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Kim Elena Ionescu, the Chief Sustainability Officer of the Specialty Coffee Association. They discuss how coffee producers are likely to be affected by climate change, how they might adapt, and what resources are available to help them make decisions. They also talk about the role that consumers play in this discussion.
Notable quotes from the podcast:
- “Climate change is introducing a lot of uncertainty to not only the places where coffee can grow—because as the general global temperatures warm, then some of those lower elevations are becoming less suitable for coffee and more vulnerable to pest and disease—but also changing things like the weather patterns that determine when coffee flowers.”—Kim Elena Ionescu (10:28)
- “So when we're talking about the available land for future production, sometimes we're really talking about deforestation to plant coffee, which is just going to further exacerbate the climate change problem that we already have. There's no good scenario when it comes to warming temperatures.”—Kim Elena Ionescu (13:04)
- “And then as far as coffee’s taste, I would say that we probably are already tasting the impacts of climate change.”—Kim Elena Ionescu (14:45)
Resources Radio is a weekly podcast series exploring timely environmental, energy, and natural resources topics, and can be found on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, and SoundCloud.
Resources for the Future (RFF) is an independent, nonprofit research institution in Washington, DC. Its mission is to improve environmental, energy, and natural resource decisions through impartial economic research and policy engagement. RFF is committed to being the most widely trusted source of research insights and policy solutions leading to a healthy environment and a thriving economy.
Unless otherwise stated, the views expressed here are those of the individual authors and may differ from those of other RFF experts, its officers, or its directors. RFF does not take positions on specific legislative proposals.
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