Poor Farmer

In July 2004, a Brazilian scientist, Paulo Mazzafera declared he had discovered a variety of naturally decaffeinated coffee from 6,000 specimens collected in Ethiopia in the 1980s. Paulo Mazzafera of the Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Brazil announced his discovery of the first naturally decaffeinated arabica plant in the prestigious science journal Nature last month. Reuters reported that Ethiopian officials reacted angrily, saying they had not been consulted and urging Mazzafera to explain under what conditions he was able to take 6,000 coffee specimens from Ethiopia in the 1980s. Mazzafera said on July 13, 2004 reports that he had taken coffee plants illegally from the African country were "nonsense." He told Reuters he "had never even been to Ethiopia" and that his find was based on plants collected by a United Nations scientific mission in 1964-65 with the approval of Ethiopia's King Haile Selassie I. According to Reuters, the potenti...

The company is now preparing for the possibility of a serious threat to global supplies. "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," Hanna said.  It was the second warning in less than a month of a threat to a   food   item many people can't live without. Starbucks sustainability chief Jim Hanna says the coffee giant has been pushing the Obama administration to little result Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent guardian.co.uk Starbucks in New York. Photograph: Lily Bowers/Reuters Forget about super-sizing into the trenta a few years from now: Starbucks   is warning of a threat to world   coffee   supply because of  climate change . In a telephone interview with the Guardian, Jim Hanna, the company's sustainability director, said its farmers were alrea...