The past year of climate shocks and surging coffee prices has felt portentous. Without significant investment and industry cooperation, coffee’s future seems increasingly uncertain.
Will there be a day when a coffee shop no longer sells coffee? The beverage trends continue to roll through without regard for their footprint (guilty matcha drinker over here) or the labor conditions/economics for the producers..
How wonderful might a locally grown and steeped beverage be? But how does Starbucks operate globally with that kind of hyperlocal focus..?
I think also of chicory coffee - how might we hold onto our cups of coffee when there is scarcity?
As always, thank you for an incisive story that gets me thinking!
Thanks for your thoughtful comment, Amelia. From what I've read, I'm not sure we'll ever run out of coffee completely, but there will be less and the quality will be worse for sure. Maybe it will become more of a luxury than a commodity.
You also raise an interesting point about Starbucks: how does a company of that size and scope reconfigure its operations in a future world with less coffee and more instability? Maybe it doesn't, maybe it just externalises more of the climate costs to the rest of the supply chain and carries on as normal until it can't anymore.
Interestingly, there are several farms now growing tea here in Scotland - perhaps a more local focus means rethinking coffee consumption in places it can't grow? Gosh, lots to consider!
Will there be a day when a coffee shop no longer sells coffee? The beverage trends continue to roll through without regard for their footprint (guilty matcha drinker over here) or the labor conditions/economics for the producers..
How wonderful might a locally grown and steeped beverage be? But how does Starbucks operate globally with that kind of hyperlocal focus..?
I think also of chicory coffee - how might we hold onto our cups of coffee when there is scarcity?
As always, thank you for an incisive story that gets me thinking!
Thanks for your thoughtful comment, Amelia. From what I've read, I'm not sure we'll ever run out of coffee completely, but there will be less and the quality will be worse for sure. Maybe it will become more of a luxury than a commodity.
You also raise an interesting point about Starbucks: how does a company of that size and scope reconfigure its operations in a future world with less coffee and more instability? Maybe it doesn't, maybe it just externalises more of the climate costs to the rest of the supply chain and carries on as normal until it can't anymore.
Interestingly, there are several farms now growing tea here in Scotland - perhaps a more local focus means rethinking coffee consumption in places it can't grow? Gosh, lots to consider!