Coffee—that unofficial drink of colleges and universities around the world—might no longer be there for us when we have 8 a.m. class.
According to Cosmopolitan, there may be a shortage of coffee in the near future.
Due to the rise in coffee demand, 40 to 50 million extra bags of coffee will have to be produced globally in the next 10 years to prevent a shortage. Climate change has also been cited as a shortage reason, since rising temperatures will affect farms and can destroy almost a quarter of farmers’ output, particularly in Brazil, The Independent reports. In addition, recent coffee prices have been quite low, making it even harder for farmers to grow, produce and sell coffee beans. Climate change will also directly affect Arabica coffee beans, which Starbucks uses.
“Sooner or later, in months or years, we’ll have to make a bold decision about what to do. We don’t know where this coffee will come from,” Andrea Illy, the chairman and CEO of Illycafe told Bloomberg.
Bloomberg reports that solutions to combat the shortage were discussed by producers and government and industry reps at the Global Coffee Forum in Milan this week. And it seems as if farmers are already feeling the impact of increasing temperatures.
“I visit farms quite often, and the farms are always going higher in the mountains, higher in the mountains,” said Jean-Marc Duvoisin, CEO of Nestle SA’s Nespresso, during a Global Coffee Forum panel. “Warming has a negative impact.”
So, if our GPAs begin to tank within the next year, lack of coffee will be a reasonable excuse, right?