Cue the Freakout: 'Coffee Rust' Hitting Hard

[11B4V]

  Fuck gobal warming, the Ukraine, Al-Qaeda, immigration reform, the national debt, gay marriage. This needs to be top priority.

Cue the Freakout: 'Coffee Rust' Hitting Hard
$1B in damages so far, as US gets in on fungus fight


(Newser) – There is a fungus among us, and this little devil is threatening to mess with your morning joe: Dubbed "coffee rust," the fungus has wrought some $1 billion in damage to the Latin American coffee industry, and as the AP reports, could drag production down by 15% to 40%, cost a half-million jobs, and jack the price of your caffeine fix. So Uncle Sam, bless his soul, is stepping in tomorrow via a $5 million USAID partnership with Texas A&M's World Coffee Research center aimed squarely at eradicating the fungus. But Washington isn't exactly acting with your best interests at heart: The theory goes that if coffee farmers are hit hard by blight, poverty and hunger could spike in the region—leading to a spike in the drug trade.

And the coffee rust—which is especially deadly to arabica coffee, the bean in most higher-end coffees—doesn't look like it's going to magically go away. "We don't see an end in sight anytime soon," says a Texas A&M researcher. While most coffee companies have been able to thus far find enough supply, a rep for the Specialty Coffee Association of America says the worst case is one in which we pay "extraordinarily high prices for those coffees, if you can find them at all." Coffee companies themselves are getting in on the fight, notes the AP, and Starbucks has even bought a research farm in Costa Rica.

http://www.newser.com/story/187059/cue-the-freakout-coffee-rust-hits-producers-hard.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=united&utm_campaign=rss_topnews

[Josquius]

Drink tea like a civilized person instead.

[11B4V]

Drink tea like a civilized person instead.

I'm the second generation standing upright. Fuck your tea. 

[jimmy olsen]

Drink tea like a civilized person instead.

I'm the second generation standing upright. Fuck your tea. 

Your parents were the first in your family to climb down from the trees?

[Razgovory]

Drink tea like a civilized person instead.

I'm the second generation standing upright. Fuck your tea. 

Your parents were the first in your family to climb down from the trees?

That doesn't surprise me at all.

[Jacob]

Drink tea like a civilized person instead.

I'm the second generation standing upright. Fuck your tea. 

You know, you're alright.

[grumbler]

Drink tea like a civilized person instead.

I'm the second generation standing upright. Fuck your tea. 

Your parents were the first in your family to climb down from the trees?

At least he knows who his parents are....

[Phillip V]

Prices are still stable for the coffee products I consume, so no problem here yet.

[CountDeMoney]

Shit coffee will always be shit coffee, Phil.

[Valmy]

The best part of waking up is shit coffee in your cup.

[mongers]

Where will Ed Anger now get the coffee cans to burying his money in? 

Maybe they'll just sell him empty cans at the old price?

[Admiral Yi]

He'll use Crisco cans.  Duh.

[Eddie Teach]

Prices are still stable for the coffee products I consume, so no problem here yet.

Same here, still zero.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Fuck gobal warming, the Ukraine, Al-Qaeda, immigration reform, the national debt, gay marriage. This needs to be top priority.

Don't worry, we have out top Aggies on it.  At least we will, after we get them off their cows.

[MadBurgerMaker]

It's sheep they've been getting all boozed up lately:

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Watchdog-group-A-M-researchers-are-doing-strange-5466137.php