Poor Farmer

By Allison Aubrey NPR November 07, 2012   1:37 PM These four women are at the forefront of change, empowering other  women in the coffee industry (clockwise from top left): Angele Ciza, Fatima Aziz Faraji, Immy Kamarade and Mbula Musau. Photo: Karen Castillo Farfán / NPR If you're a coffee drinker, chances are the cup of java you drank this morning was made from beans that were produced or harvested by women. Women's handprints can be found at every point in coffee production. In fact, on family-owned coffee farms in Africa, about 70 percent of maintenance and harvesting work is done by women, according to an  analysis  by the International Trade Centre, but only rarely do women own the land or have financial control. The  International Women's Coffee Alliance  (IWCA) is trying to change that by giving them access to training and networking, and the opportunity to develop new trade relationships. We sat down recently wi...

By Kate Kelland Reuters November 8, 2012 (Reuters) - Rising temperatures due to climate change could mean wild arabica coffee is extinct in 70 years, posing a risk to the genetic sustainability of one of the world's basic   commodities , scientists said. Although commercial coffee growers would still be able to cultivate crops in plantations designed with the right conditions, experts say the loss of wild arabica, which has greater genetic diversity, would make it harder for plantations to survive long-term and beat threats like pests and disease. A study by researchers at Britain's Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in collaboration with scientists in Ethiopia found that 38 to 99.7 percent of the areas suitable for wild arabica will disappear by 2080 if predictions of rising temperatures pan out. Because coffee is a highly climate-dependent crop, the increase of a few degrees of average temperature in growing regions can put at risk the future of Arabica coff...