Clipmarks | BirdBarista's clips

Climate change threatens Brazil's coffee crop

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:43:48 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista

The future for Brazil's mighty farm sector could be grim, with hotter temperatures pushing crops past its borders, uphill into the Andes and toward the tip of South America.

Experts in tropical agriculture are developing genetically modified coffee, soy beans and other crops that can withstand higher temperatures in Brazil's expanding northeastern desert, new pests and diseases and more flooding in low-lying areas.

That could mean a 10 percent reduction Brazil's arable land for coffee by 2020 — and a one-third reduction by 2070 — as the crop's suitable climate migrates into the Andean foothills of neighboring Argentina

Brazil's coffee plantations extend across 5.7 million acres (2.3 million hectares) and produce more than twice as much as the next-largest grower, Vietnam.

Salamanders in steep decline in Guatemalan coffee area

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:11:26 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista
clipper's remarks: San Marcos is a prime coffee growing area in Guatemala. These declines are very disturbing.

Clip Source: news.mongabay.com

Salamanders in Central America — like frogs, toads, and other amphibians at sites around the world — are rapidly and mysteriously declining, report researchers writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"We document major declines of many species of salamanders at several sites in Central America and Mexico, with emphasis on the San Marcos region of Guatemala, one of the best studied and most diverse salamander communities in the Neotropics," write the authors. "Profound declines of several formerly abundant species, including 2 apparent extinctions, are revealed."

The authors note that salamander populations in mid- to high elevation forests have been particularly affected.

The researchers do not know yet what is causing the decline, though they suspect a human link.

Switch coffee, save birds.

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:07:53 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista

Clip Source: www.burlingtonfreepress.com

As a breakfaster, Bridget Stutchbury enjoys a good cup of coffee. As an ornithologist who studies songbird migration, she knows her choice of coffee can make survival more difficult for those birds.

Coffee in Latin America traditionally was grown under tall forest trees. Shade for the coffee also provides shade and essential habitat for forest birds that fly south for the winter.

To increase production, growers developed coffee plants that can be grown in full sun, with the help of pesticides. Hundreds of thousands of acres of shade-grown coffee plantations have been bulldozed, replacing complex forest ecosystems with monocultures unfriendly to birds.

Even among birders, he said, there's a low level awareness of the coffee-songbird connection.

Stutchbury hopes to change that.

"If people latch on to shade-grown coffee, seek it out, that one decision can make a huge difference," she said.

Green Mountain to continue to supply McDonald's in New England

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:44:11 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista

Clip Source: newsticker.welt.de

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR) has extended its agreement with McDonald’s USA, LLC to source, roast and package Newman’s Own^® Organics Blend coffee for more than 600 McDonald’s restaurants in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Albany, NY. McDonald’s first introduced Newman’s Own Organics coffee roasted by Green Mountain Coffee, a segment of GMCR, to its restaurants in New England and Albany, NY in October 2005.

Australian coffee growers compensated for erroneous pesticide spraying

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 01:47:43 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista

Clip Source: www.theaustralian.news.com.au

A COFFEE grower whose business was decimated in the 1990s by over-zealous spraying for fruit fly has been awarded more than $6 million in damages after a 12-year legal battle.

Two other coffee growers on the Atherton Tablelands will be awarded more than $1 million and $1.84 million for their ordeal.

The saga started in 1996 when an outbreak of fruit fly in North Queensland led Queensland's Department of Primary Industries to spray several coffee farms on the Atherton Tablelands.

Mr Jacques said yesterday that when he and other farmers were initially approached by government agencies to spray their farm, they pointed out that coffee does not attract fruit fly.

"But they went ahead anyway.

We tried to get rid of the poison, but in the end we had no alternative to pulling out all the trees and starting again."

Coffee-growing countries look to buy stake in Starbucks.

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:42:43 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista

Clip Source: uk.reuters.com

Coffee powerhouse Colombia hopes early next year to join other producers to buy an influential share in Starbucks, with Brazil and Central American growers also interested, a top coffee official told Reuters.

Colombia, the world's No. 3 producer, has held talks with banks for a year about a share in the U.S. giant, which would allow growers more say in the supply chain, said Gabriel Silva, director of the National Federation of Coffee Growers.

Silva said he hoped a Starbucks deal could be ready by the first quarter of next year and already had offers of alliances from other current investors.

Drought slashes Ethiopian coffee crop

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:35:47 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista

Clip Source: www.bloomberg.com

Coffee output in the two main export-growing areas of Ethiopia, Africa’s largest producer of the beans, may decline 60 percent because of drought, the United Nations said.

The lower harvest may aggravate malnutrition in southern Ethiopia’s Gedeo and Sidamo zones, where hunger is rife as a result of the drought, falling world coffee prices and higher food prices, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report today.

Production in Gedeo may fall 67 percent from a year earlier, while that in Sidamo may decline 53 percent, Tamirat Mulu, the author of the report, said in a phone interview in the capital, Addis Ababa, today.

Ethiopia exported 170,888 metric tons of coffee last year. About 35 percent of that was high-grade washed coffee and 65 percent lower quality dried coffee. Sidama and Gedeo provide about 60 percent of Ethiopia’s washed coffee, Mulu said.

Racing to the bottom

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:41:09 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista
clipper's remarks: Coffee should be priced according to quality, not by how little the crap next to it on the shelf costs.

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Kraft Foods Inc (KFT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) lowered its list prices for select Maxwell House and Yuban ground and instant coffees, effective immediately, a company spokeswoman said Tuesday.

The drop followed J.M. Smucker Co's (SJM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) announcement on Dec. 5 that it cut list prices on four Folgers coffee products because of a sustained decline in the cost of green beans.

Cheap coffee gets cheaper

Sat, 06 Dec 2008 23:03:31 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista
clipper's remarks: It remains to be seen if JM Smucker, which recently acquired Folgers, will improve sustainable sourcing for this brand. Smucker does have a decent corporate responsibility record.

Clip Source: www.forbes.com

Less than a month after acquiring Folgers coffee, J.M. Smucker (nyse: SJM - news - people ) Co announced that it cut list prices on four Folgers coffee products effective immediately because of a sustained decline in the cost of green coffee beans.

J.M. Smucker, known for its peanut butter, jellies and ice cream toppings, acquired the Folgers coffee brand and products on November 6 from Procter & Gamble Co.

Folgers is the largest producer of retail packaged coffee in the U.S. Its product offerings include Folgers brand, Millstone brand and a license to manufacture and distribute Dunkin' Donuts coffee in the retail grocery market.

Folgers said it uses both the richer quality arabica beans, typically used in brewed coffees, as well as the harsher tasting robusta coffee beans processed into instant or blended coffees, in its products.

Farmer Bros. to buy a hunk of Sara Lee's coffee business

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:07:26 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

In an effort to jump-start its long-struggling commercial coffee operations, Farmer Bros. Co. has agreed to acquire the Superior Coffee brand and sales network, almost doubling the size of its business.

The $45-million purchase from food giant Sara Lee Corp. would give Torrance-based Farmer Bros. annual revenue of about $500 million, a large roasting plant in Houston and a distribution and spice facility in Oklahoma City.

In addition to Superior Coffee, Farmer Bros. would pick up the Cain's, Ireland, Justin Lloyd, McGarvey, Metropolitan, Prebica, Suntipt (U.S. only), Wechsler, Cafe Royal and Royal Kona coffee brands from Sara Lee.

Sara Lee said earlier this year that it planned to sell the portion of its coffee business that it calls U.S. Direct Store Delivery Foodservice. The division had revenue of $228 million during the 2008 fiscal year. Sara Lee will hold on to its Douwe Egberts and Java Coast brands -- about $400 million worth of business.

Ethiopia changes green bean sales method

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 01:26:07 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista

Clip Source: www.bloomberg.com

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Ethiopia, Africa’s biggest coffee producer, has halted daily auctions and will begin trading the beans on the national commodity bourse from Dec. 2 to reduce fraud and help reassure buyers of quality.

Under a coffee law passed in August, the country is seeking to regulate an industry that employs 1.2 million growers and accounts for 35 percent of export earnings. While Ethiopia, on the Horn of Africa, shipped $525 million of coffee abroad last year, its beans aren’t used in setting benchmark international prices because of inconsistent quality, Gabre-Madhin said.

The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange, which began trading corn and wheat this year, opened eight warehouses in growing areas and will take control of the country’s grading and quality control system. Traders other than large growers and co-operatives that sell directly to international buyers will be forced to use the bourse, exchange director Eleni Gabre-Madhin said today.

Specialty coffee transforms Rwandan coffee industry

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:39:04 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista

Clip Source: www.bloomberg.com

Rwanda's $45 million coffee industry, which represents half of its income, has specialty buyers in the U.S. raving about its quality is news in itself, given how low the country's beans were regarded just eight years ago.

That situation has changed since 2000 thanks to investments by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Starbucks, USAID and other organizations, which have poured millions of dollars and resources into improving the coffee industry of the landlocked African nation.

Rwandan coffee now may sell on the specialty market for about three times what it previously sold for on the commodity market because of the infrastructure improvements.

Starbucks, which invested $1.1 million in the East Africa region in fiscal 2008, has tripled the amount of beans it buys from Rwanda since 2006

Bidders from across the globe paid between $4.20 to $18 a pound for the Rwandan Cup of Excellence winners, with an average price paid of $7.98,

Caribou Coffee to help charity this season

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:35:42 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista
clipper's remarks: Many companies have scaled back on their corporate giving. It's nice to see Caribou pitching in; they do a lot of good community work.

Clip Source: www.amonline.com

Caribou Coffee Company, Inc. announced a partnership with the Emergency Foodshelf Network (EFN) to feed struggling Minnesota families. Caribou Coffee will participate in EFN’s December Baskets of Hope program, which provides a full meal for up to eight people per basket.

To encourage customers to join the cause, Caribou Coffee is offering a free drink – any kind, any size – for each donation of one pound of coffee. The baskets will be delivered Dec. 19 and 20.

Wild coffee from Madagascar studied

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:00:29 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista
clipper's remarks: A Denver Botanical Gardens researcher is working on conservation of wild coffee species in Madagascar.

Clip Source: www.botanicgardensblog.com

Coffee belonging to the genus Coffea has 103 described species, of which 58 are native to Madagascar. Of these 58 species, many of them are endangered

Though these wild coffee species are not cultivated for commercial purposes, it is crucial to conserve the genetic diversity within this genus, with many implications for future breeding.

Island of Hawaii bans GMO coffee

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 15:47:16 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista

Clip Source: www.google.com

HILO, Hawaii (AP) — The Hawaii County Council has overriden a veto by the Big Island's mayor to ban genetically modified taro and coffee.

The council voted unanimously Thursday to override the veto of Mayor Harry Kim, who argued Hawaii has an obligation to help feed the world through the testing of genetically modified organisms. Council members had approved the measure in October.

Opponents of the bill included biology researchers, farmers and business leaders, who said science is needed to save both crops from disease and pests.