your coffee is changing; thank climate change

With every cup of coffee consumed, one square inch of a rainforest is destroyed. 


Q: With this knowledge, should you stop drinking coffee to save the planet from climate change? 

A: No, BUT supporting the right brands can actually help build a better coffee future.


Because climate change IS coming for your coffee. And it’s coming quickly. 

Photo by Manuel Aldana

The coffee industry is expected to triple in the next 30 years and in the same amount of time the industry will lose 50% of usable land.  


It’s hard to go a few blocks in any (American) city without encountering a Starbucks, a Dunkin’, or a person grasping a to-go cup. 


Coffee is practically essential to life. Are you drinking coffee right now?! (I am).


We’re not here to tell you to stop drinking coffee or we’re all going to die. Climate change is not your fault. 


It’s not your fault and you can’t solve it alone. Your personal coffee choices aren’t making or breaking climate change. But the companies you support? Their decisions impact thousands of farmers and massive supply chains. Back the businesses doing things the better way and your individual actions are helping push the whole industry in a better direction. 

we are not coming for your coffee; climate change is

For every cup of coffee consumed, one square foot of a rainforest is destroyed. By 2050, it’s expected the coffee industry will lose about 50% of the land suitable for growth. 


Your mocha-pistachio-caramel latte might be new, but coffee isn’t. 


Coffee is native to Ethiopia. From there it traveled to Yemen/Arabia and by the 17th & 18th centuries, it had begun its quest for world domination at the hands of European colonizers. By the 1950s, instant coffee had successfully infiltrated millions of lives worldwide.


Coffee is a cash crop, grown with the intention of making a profit (which TBH is most food). Coffee plants are looking for a specific climate that offers: 

  • mild temps
  • high humidity
  • rich soil
  • distinct wet and dry seasons
  • and occasionally, a high altitude

The specific climate coffee needs to grow in is also one heavily affected by climate change; and it’s expected to get worse. 


The story of coffee, human and environmental exploitation dates back centuries. But first, let’s talk about some things you can control. 


4 things you can do about coffee and climate change

Photo by Bill Salazar

Quitting coffee doesn’t feel like an entirely realistic option. In all honesty, changing just a couple of your actions can have an immense impact on the industry! 3 ideas include:

1. be aware

You can’t do if you don’t know. Awareness is the cornerstone of change. You can change your habits and consumption for the better once you know the environmental and social impacts of your purchase. 

  • Be aware of your own consumption and waste.
  • Ask local cafes and restaurants how they source coffee & what they do about waste.
  • Read, follow, and share the effects of climate change on the coffee industry with friends and interested parties.
  • Learn about the connection between climate news and how it might relate to the coffee industry. (i.e. import tariffs will raise the price of beans and it will come out of your pocket).
  • Learn more about your coffee beans: Country? Farmer? Roaster? 
  • Subscribe to organizations working to make a difference in the industry like Coffee & Climate, World Coffee Research & United Baristas (for starters).

2. consume sustainably & alternatively

If you want to make an immediate change with a relatively immediate impact, choosing certified coffee is perhaps your best option. (certifications are below).

  • You get a product that’s good for people and the planet (yay you!)
  • You’re paying a small business for their hard work and they get to keep that money.
  • Your money talks. When enough people support small, sustainable shops, the big players notice. That's how we nudge the whole industry toward better practices.
  • Your financial support for a small business allows them to continually do the good thing they're doing, and perhaps even grow to have a bigger impact. 
  • Try out coffee alternatives. If you’ve just been drinking coffee out of habit, try matcha or tea or mushroom alternatives! (matcha and tea are a conversation for another day.)

3. vote & take action on legislation

The beautiful thing about supporting legislation is that it likely already exists. It just needs supporters to boost it and get it attention. Here’s how you can help advocate for sustainability within the coffee industry. 

  • Spread awareness (see above).
  • Make financial donations to organizations advocating and researching for policies. 
  • Volunteer your time to the same organizations. 
  • Contact your representations (state, local, and federal) to express your support for climate action and policies that support sustainable coffee production. 
  • Register to vote. Then vote!
  • Before voting, research a candidate's position on climate change, sustainable agriculture, and honestly agriculture in general.

This article from United Baristas is a wonderful example of how a president’s policies can impact the coffee industry. 


More specific examples include: 

  • Supporting legislation and movements that push for shade-grown coffee.
  • Getting a local cafe to work with a sustainable farmer/producer.
  • Advocating with time, money, and visibility policies that support R&D for climate-resilient coffee varieties. 
  • Advocate and vote for subsidies or tax incentives for farmers who adopt sustainable practices. 

4. know your sustainable coffee certifications 

It’s probably not possible to buy a bean that has every certification, but we’re not aiming for perfection, we’re aiming for community support and action. 

  • Fair Trade Certified™: A Fair Trade label ensures coffee producers follow environmental and social standards and receive a fair price for their products.
  • Rainforest Alliance Certified: TRA works to conserve biodiversity and encourage sustainable jobs in coffee regions. Farmers must follow a strict set of standards that ultimately show the coffee was produced in a way that promotes environmental, social, and economic sustainability. 
  • Organic: An organic certification follows a strict set of guidelines and rules that ensure farmers are avoiding synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, and other chemicals. It’s worth noting Project 2025 HATES organic food.
  • UTZ certified: (now merged with The Rainforest Alliance) UTZ was founded by coffee roasters and stakeholders to promote sustainability within the industry. An UTZ certification means the coffee was produced in an environmentally and socially responsible way. 
  • Smithsonian Bird Friendly® Coffee: This was developed by THE Smithsonian and ensures coffee farmers are protecting natural resources, using sustainable farming methods, and provides a habitat to migratory birds. This includes shade-grown coffee. 

This coffee certification guide from Coffee Habitat is also a thorough resource on coffee certifications and information. 

A few sustainable & certified coffee brands

Not a comprehensive guide by any means but this can help you get started! 

This is just a preview of the many certified coffee brands doing amazing work to support coffee plantations, the environment, and people! 

human exploitation is climate exploitation

Photo by Nguyễn Tống Hải Vân

The resources taken from colonized countries for more than 400 years, have fueled and advanced empires while leaving the lands and people they were taken from barren, sick, and depleted. 


The colonization of these lands forced artists, farmers, textile workers, leaders, & nurses into slavery. They were forced to exploit their own land to ‘enrich’ someone else’s. 


Coffee brought wealth, but not to the laborers. Even to this day, the distribution of wealth in the coffee industry is far from equal. 


Large corporations, wealthy generational landowners, and American expats control the industry and the money. Small local farms made up of black and brown people are forced to do business with them for what they can get. 


This is why the Fair Trade Certified™ label is so important. It tells you the farmers who grew the coffee received a fair price. And that their community & environment weren’t exploited in the process. 


As is usually the case with a for-profit, unregulated industry, as coffee and its profits exploded, the plants ripped through the environment with many consequences such as:

  • deforestation and reduced shade cover. 
  • disrupted bird migration.
  • rainforest & habitat loss.
  • changes to the temperature of the land.
  • altered the chemical composition, health, & biodiversity of the soil.
  • pollutes rivers and streams with chemical runoff.
  • disrupted and destroyed entire ecosystems.

But because coffee plants require a certain kind of temperature, climate, and eco-system to thrive, they’re extremely susceptible to the effects of climate change. 

coffee crops are highly sensitive to climate changes

We now know from scientific studies that coffee crops are highly sensitive to climate change. 


Of the top 5 producers of coffee in the world (Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia, & Indonesia), FOUR are expected to lose their best areas for growing coffee by 2050. 


The entire planet is warming, yes, and scientists have looked to see if coffee production could shift to areas that are now warm enough to grow coffee (which is an expensive and extensive process) but the conclusion is that overall, coffee production will significantly decline. 


8 impacts climate change is having on coffee production

Photo by PROJETO CAFÉ GATO-MOURISCO; an eco-activism project that offers free content near agriculture coffee landscapes. 

1. suitable land is decreasing & farmers are forced to shift production

The coffee supply chain is a long one. Beans are planted 3-4 years before it’s even harvested. It would be incredibly expensive to pick up a coffee plantation. Knowing farmers would have to start completely over makes it practically impossible. 

  • new swaths of land must be cleared.
  • the health of the new soil examined and found suitable.
  • the altitude and slope of a hill must be compatible with the plant.
  • consideration must be given to how the new plant (coffee) and its plantation will affect the native plants and animals.
  • in addition to the effects on the existing ecosystem.

Relevant certifications: Rainforest Alliance/Utz; FairTrade International; Fair Trade USA; USDA Organic; Certified Sustainable Coffee (CSC); 4C

2. water instability

Coffee grows in its own little Goldilocks zone.Climate change comes in like the tasmanian devil and and says NOT TODAY SATAN during both wet and dry seasons. 


The effects of too little water on coffee: 

  • coffee plants experiencing drought are in a fight for their survival and therefore produce lower yields. 
  • can lead to stunted growth with fewer branches affecting yield for the rest of this plant's life. 
  • underdeveloped flavor because of the stress put on the plant. 

The effects of too much water on coffee: 

  • beneficial nutrients and minerals can be washed away (same with people BTW). 
  • the plant becomes more susceptible to funguses & bacteria that thrive in wet conditions. These can damage entire crops. 
  • the coffee plant has difficulty growing or getting its nutrients when faced with frequent landslides or soil erosion. 

Real world effects: Alma coffee, a sustainable coffee farm & cafe experienced a 30% loss in production in 2020 due to a heavier rainier season which caused the coffee cherries to ripen sooner than usual. They were simply unable to get enough coffee pickers out there before the water caused them to burst open. 


Just like a person, a plant fighting for its survival is not going to be its best self. 


Relevant certifications: Rainforest Alliance; FairTrade International; Fair Trade USA; Certified Sustainable Coffee (CSC); 4C

4. increased temperatures & unreliable weather conditions

The most important factor for coffee’s ability to grow is temperature. As global temperatures increase, it starts to move out of that Goldilocks zone becoming increasingly difficult for the plant to survive.


These high temps, along with drought, can lead to:

  • reduced overall growth.
  • less or no flower/bean production.
  • early ripening. 

If farmers can’t predict how the weather during growing and harvesting seasons is going to be, they can’t plan for it and can lose large amounts of crops they planted years ago. 


Relevant certifications: Rainforest Alliance/Utz; FairTrade International; Fair Trade USA; USDA Organic; Shade-Grown (Bird-Friendly Certified).

4. vulnerability to pests and diseases

When the temperature and the climate change so do pests and diseases. Water brings out new funguses and certain bacteria that thrive in warmer temperatures or a rainier season, like coffee rust. 


Not only can pests and diseases wipe out entire crops, but it increases the amount of (toxic) pesticides farmers use to keep their plants and yields safe.  


This is not only dangerous for the plants, but for everyone working in the fields, and for the end consumer. 


Relevant certifications: USDA Organic

5. deforestation

Every two seconds, a football pitch sized piece of the forest is destroyed. Not all of that is coffee related but exploitative coffee causes deforestation. 


When a forest is cleared it has devastating effects that contribute to climate change: 

  • carbon dioxide (and other gasses) stored for hundreds+ years in plants are released.
  • the ground temps warm due to a lack of tree cover.
  • the soil dries out disrupting soil quality
  • bad soil removes flood prevention.
  • removal of a clean source of oxygen
  • all the plants, animals, bugs, and people that relied on it are displaced or die. 

Relevant certifications: Rainforest Alliance/Utz; FairTrade International; Fair Trade USA; Certified Sustainable Coffee (CSC); Bird-Friendly

6. loss of shade cover & bird migration 

Coffee plants like shade. It helps them stay at a regulated temperature. And coffee plants grown in shade can also grow in partnership with other plants. 

Shade grown coffee has a variety of benefits: 

  • it can produce a higher yield (of all plants).
  • increases the number of bird habitats and species of bird.
  • better soil health & erosion control.
  • brings back birds which are natural sources of pest control and pollinators.
  • shade also helps protect the coffee plant against varying temperatures and rain. 

It seems like a no brainer, however, with the demand for coffee tripling in the next 30 years, farms are under pressure to completely clear the land, aka deforest it. 


Relevant certifications: bird-friendly (Smithsonian) 

7. water pollution, chemically altered soil composition

As the land dries and warms up, the biodiversity disappears: animals, birds, worms, fungi and even bacteria. This fundamentally alters the chemical composition of the land. It becomes unsuitable for life. 


Combine that with monocropping and the soil health declines real quick leading to the increased use of pesticides and fertilizers. 


Chemical pesticides & fertilizers “leech nitrate into the water source, deplete the oxygen supply and kill aquatic life.” They’re bad for everyone.

  • for farmers, the majority of which are smallholder farms
  • for the people who live nearby
  • for the people who live downstream
  • for the people who consume the final product (you)
  • and for the land itself.  

Relevant certifications: USDA Organic; Utz/Rainforest Alliance

8. coffee farmers & their bottom lines 

All of these factors, and every single effect of climate change is ultimately felt by the farmers. Small farms produce about 33% of the world’s food. In the coffee industry, it’s about 60-80%. 

  • These small farms are often forced to take loans out from a mill or exporter with high interest rates (like 27% high). This is actually why Mayora Coffee started — to help a friend avoid this trap. 
  • The majority of coffee farms are smallholder farms (less than 5 hectares) yet 44% of smallholder farmers live in poverty (globally). 
  • Coffee continues to be grown by indigenous and people of color. 
  • Although a major player, Africa is out produced by Latin America because former European colonies took the infrastructure and resources with them when they left. 
  • Between 1982-2008, what the farmers get paid decreased by 27% while the retail price in the U.S. for coffee increased by 98%. 

While farmers can do things to help mitigate the effects of climate change, it is extremely expensive and time-consuming for a small business, especially when they’re not getting paid for their work. Additionally, it is not guaranteed that production will be able to keep up with the effects of climate change or that the bean will take to a new ecosystem.


Relevant certifications: Fairtrade International (FLO); Fair Trade USA; Rainforest Alliance/Utz; Certified Sustainable Coffee (CSC); Cooperatives (not a real certification.


Coffee’s complicated past hits differently when you look at the exploitation that has gone on for centuries. We can still love our favorite drink while acknowledging that the current system isn’t working. 


You don’t have to stop drinking coffee, but supporting brands with sustainable certifications, that actually treat farmers right, isn’t just nice anymore — it’s crucial to the future of coffee.

Featured image by Livier Garcia

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