Mexican coffee farmers are forced to ask themselves this hard question every day: if climate change destroyed your livelihood, what would you do to feed your family? With the world heating up, many coffee plants simply cannot fight off the “roya” - a devastating plant fungus decimating coffee production. (Read more about how climate change impacts coffee here.)
With little coffee to grow, poppy cultivation has reached epic heights and farmers are incidentally on the front line in a drug war making headlines today. In Mexico’s Guerrero state, coffee production fell 88 percent between 2003 and 2016, while the demand for heroin in the United States has gone up by nearly five times since 2002.
This is why we fight climate change.
Read more about the coffee-poppy connection here…
CNN - May 9, 2017 - "Mexico was 2nd Deadliest Country in 2016"
El Universal - September, 2016 - "Guerrero: dejan cafe por amapola"
Insight Crime - September, 2016 - "Farmers Switching from Coffee to Poppy in Mexico's Heroin Hub"