COFFEE THE DIVERSITY Coffee is one of the planet’s most OF OUR DAILY consumed beverages. Around GRIND two billion cups are enjoyed everyday, all over the world.

The long value chain from the According to Kew scientists, there through to a flat white provides many are over 124 identified species of coffee livelihoods – around 120 million people rely trees. Of these, only two are cultivated and on this plant – and the majority of them are traded in the mainstream market: Arabica small-scale . Nevertheless, the state and Robusta, the rest consisting of wild of the world’s coffee plantations is somewhat relatives. Although greatly cherished because precarious. Climate change and economic of their commercial value, these species are fluctuations provide shaky ground for the incredibly sensitive to diseases and pests. coffee . While monocultural Coffee rust, for example, wiped out most of practices provide the large quantities the world’s Arabica plants in 1890. consumers demand, they can lead to deforestation, upset fragile ecosystems and reduce biodiversity. Given that these large plantations are also highly susceptible to pests and disease, it is high time we looked at the future of coffee production.

Even back then, the world’s coffee people the choice to promote better industry realised that lesser known and starts with chefs giving this information to grown coffee plants were needed to sustain consumers and providing them with options this blossoming industry. This imperative of a sustainable purchase. hasn’t changed: today, more than ever, varieties including wild coffee species are Because if there is demand, crucial to keep supply going and to protect farmers will be empowered to and the habitats in which grow more diverse coffee in a they thrive. And yet, 60 percent of these sustainable way. resources are threatened with extinction.

Robusta Arabica

Educating consumers about the After a little stirring, it is alarmingly clear fragility of the coffee ecosystem is an that the coffee farming industry is a lot important part of a much-needed change in more fragile than the everyday cup coffee the coffee industry. Change can start with is served in. the menu description in any or café. Coffee houses are starting to explain sourcing in their roast options. ‘Wild grown’, for example, has a growing resonance, along with the more established quality marks such as ‘Fairtrade’ or ‘Rainforest Alliance’. Giving

“If everybody is ok with the fact that we are going to be paying USD10 - 15 a cup for crappy coffee in 30 years, that’s fine. But if you want your consumers to The Crop Trust is an international organisation based in Bonn, Germany with the unique global mission to ensure continue to enjoy the incredible flavor the conservation of in genebanks, forever. profiles of this plant, then you have to The Crop Trust, the United Nations and (FAO) and other partners started the Food invest in this conservation effort. Forever Initiative in 2017 to raise awareness on the There is no question about it.” importance of safeguarding agrobiodiversity to build resilient food systems. - Tim Schilling, World Coffee Research Chef DANIEL KAPLAN

Region Bogota, Colombia Favourite way to enjoy coffee diversity Coffee is an amazing ingredient in a BBQ marinade. Rich and smoky, it can boost the flavour of and add an incredible depth. Social @kaplanchef

My story with coffee I discovered my love of cooking in the heart to act on as chefs, it is protecting our environment. of an Israeli Kibbutz, where the simple and beautiful Many organisations are doing wonderful things – the task of washing and preparing salad leaves piqued my Colombian Coffee Federation, for example –, moving curiosity for the culinary world. Today, I live in Bogota forward amidst many challenges. Chefs are the link with my family, and run three in the city. between a diner and producer. We are responsible for Every day, in many different ways, I strive to bring supporting these organisations and opening up the into the heart of my restaurants. discussion as much as we can, bringing awareness The coffee from Colombia is up there with the best in to each and every ingredient we use. And bringing in the world. Only in recent years have our best coffee some action, too! My company is currently planting a beans reached Colombians themselves, because tree for every online delivery order we get (the ‘One we used to export most of the produce. As a result, Delivery One Tree’ programme). It is an extraordinary to get our local to appreciate and respect pledge, one which has seen over one hundred the bean, and where it has come from is a relatively thousand trees planted. A small token of what we can new concept. There are also many social issues do to assist in the healing of the land. Because, when around the production of coffee in Colombia that you look at the whole picture, our businesses have have effects on local farmers, and this is one of the the land to thank. areas we like to focus our sourcing credentials on at the restaurant. We look for coffee businesses who produce a delicious brew and at the same time pay their staff and farmers fairly. Working with companies who pay the right wages allows farmers to CALL FOR ACTION! send their children to school and invest back into the . This is really important to me. Getting deeper into sustainability and Paying the right amount and making sure biodiversity“ conversations is a process. the traceability leads back to the farmer is just You have to be patient, it is really hard to be “ one of the sustainability issues. Another is , 100 percent sustainable. Do whatever and as the production of coffee is water thirsty. New approaches exist that need less water, and we are as much as you can. Focus on one or two very interested in supporting companies that have starting points, too many shifts at once can a considered watch on water waste. Deforestation be overwhelming. We are a big of in Colombia due to agriculture is another important chefs, and in this together. If everyone does topic. From farming to coffee plantations, our something, we will go further, faster. sourcing is done with consideration for the jewel of our heritage – the Amazon. Increasingly, we look for ingredients that are produced with commitment to a better form of agriculture. Looking around the world, seeing the state of our food systems, I think it’s not just the right, but the only way to go! After a tough year with Covid-19, we’re learning even more that if there is one thing we need Chef AYLIN YZICIOGLU

Region Istanbul, Turkey Favourite way to use coffee diversity A delicious cup of Turkish coffee brewed to perfection is difficult to beat! Social @aylinyazicioglu

My story with coffee As a chef, one of the very first things you learn things moving in a better direction. is that the quality of your ingredients is imperative Coffee in Turkey has a long and rich history, to your finished dish. You cannot with bad it is weaved into our folklore. For example, if you are ingredients to create something delightful; it just looking to be accepted by a future husband or wife, doesn’t work that way! And when looking for the best you visit their respective families. The coffee they ingredients, you are inevitably drawn to your local, serve is the answer to your future relationship with seasonal produce and heritage. The ingredients that them – bitter coffee represents bitter feelings towards might be forgotten, the history of your food culture you, and sweet coffee – well, you can work it out! It is you can share with the world on a plate – these are much more than just a cup of coffee for us, it is our the exciting moments for chefs that create culinary heritage. Turkish coffee is often brewed in a pot called journeys and experiences. a cezve, and brewed twice to create thicker, textured In the beginning it might start off as somewhat coffee with more bitter notes. The strong foothold of an egotistical journey: by sourcing the best in our culture made Turkish coffee worthy of being ingredients you stand a chance to be the best chef. inscribed into UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Accolades and awards, those are encouraging, but List. Even our translation of the word ‘breakfast’ means after time and effort, it is very clear that as chefs we ‘food taken before coffee’! We do not grow our coffee have a responsibility as a part of the . locally, it is imported. This poses many challenges Sourcing responsibly and carefully is a must. I love of sourcing for importers and roasters – looking at using wild herbs in my restaurants for this reason. farming methods and fair wages are important factors. These particular herbs only grow after a hot, dry spell, As chefs, we can find people who source the right and then a showering of rain, and the result is plants ingredients for us with our criteria in mind. The younger sprouting up with wonderfully intense, aromatic generation is definitely keen on the old style of Turkish flavours. The reason we have stopped using them is coffee and it is inspiring to see that they are concerned because we have lost the cultural know-how of how about sustainability issues. to use them, and because industrial agriculture has As a chef I enjoy working with quality taken the place of many wild ingredients with more ingredients sourced with care and respect, and homogeneous variants. Everywhere in the world, this producing them as part of a fine dining experience. sort of biodiversity is important to maintain. Once you I enjoy showing people that foraged, wild herbs are start losing these ingredients you lose the diverse the luxury ingredients we should be paying luxury flavour palettes we are so lucky to have, and upset the prices for. The new luxury in food is responsible and equilibrium of nature. considered produce. Sourcing ingredients has been a fascinating journey for me, because it is clear that their availability and quality has changed dramatically over the past decades. It begs the question: How did this happen? CALL FOR ACTION! “ Why has our produce changed so dramatically? The answers are complex. Our agricultural systems are I encourage chefs to follow their noses to elaborate and complicated, but as chefs we are part where the best ingredients lie in their geography.“ Talk to producers, farmers, market of them, have a role to play, and an opportunity to stimulate positive change. How can any small action holders, and find out what food they grow and make a big impact? That is the point, I guess, of change why. Engaging in dialogue is an important and and movements. We all have to play our part to get primary step. rt pe x E

My work has (including whether the for disease resistance

focused on studying the roaster trades directly or drought tolerance, “genetic diversity of wild with the farmer or farmer which will be critical for coffee species, especially co-ops), the means of breeding climate resilient, in Madagascar, and transporting the beans cultivated coffee. looking at conservation and so forth. At the practices. Coffee cannot consumer level, wastage Action needs DR. SARADA be conserved long-term is a key consideration. KRISHNAN as seeds, like those in the Trying to reduce waste to happen Svalbard Global Seed Vault. can help determine on two fronts Director of Horticulture, Instead they are preserved your brewing device or Center for Global Initiatives 1 We need to ensure as living plants in field coffee packaging. that smallholder Denver Botanical Gardens collections known as ‘field In the biological @saradak farmers are paid a genebanks’. Unfortunately, sense, diversity in coffee fair price for their maintaining coffee genetic can be seen in two ways. produce that allows resources in these fields The diversity of the them to earn a is costly and makes them cultivated coffees and decent living wage. vulnerable to numerous the broader diversity of If farmers can’t threats that result in loss the coffee genus (Coffea). afford to support of plants. I was involved The two cultivated coffee themselves by producing the in a collaborative project species are Arabica coffee crop, they with the Crop Trust and coffee (Coffea arabica) will abandon coffee World Coffee Research and Robusta coffee for other, more to develop a Global (Coffea canephora). Over remunerative crops, Conservation Strategy for half of the global coffee which is already Coffee Genetic Resources. production is of Arabica happening in many The purpose of the coffee. Arabica is lacking locations. This will strategy is to ensure the in genetic diversity within eventually lead to a conservation and use of the species, making it shortage of coffee. coffee genetic resources vulnerable to threats for a positive, sustainable like diseases, pests and 2 From the standpoint of the plant itself, future of the crop and for climate adaptation. coffee production those dependent on coffee The greater the genetic is already and will for their livelihoods. diversity within a species, be further impacted Considering the the greater the chances by climate change. complexity of the coffee are for its long-term In order to sustain supply chain, a sustainable survival. When you look the future of the cup of coffee cannot at the genus Coffea, crop, investments be defined by a single there are 124 species need to be made factor. From producer to distributed in , in protecting consumer, sustainable Madagascar, Mauritius, coffee genetic resources and in practices can be applied Comoros, Reunion advancing coffee to every segment of the Islands, Australia and research so that we supply chain. Coffee South and Southeast can develop new has many certification . These Coffea varieties utilising systems, but the real species inhabit varied the available genetic question is whether environments, which has resources that are farmers are getting the resulted in adaptations to more resilient to a promised premium for different environmental changing climate. their coffee or whether conditions. These non- the cost of certification cultivated species are negates that. At the known as ‘crop wild On a personal note, exporter/roaster level, relatives’. These wild as a grower with coffee things to consider are the relatives can have genes farms in Jamaica, I have price paid to the farmer with specific adaptations first-hand experience with rt pe x E the impact of climate Today, the yields, Having these new

change. The past few collection at the Tropical varieties available will summers, the droughts Agricultural“ Research support the small-scale have been severe, and Higher Education coffee farmers who so impacting not only the Center (CATIE) consists desperately need them. yield, but also the quality of almost 2’000 types of A message for of the coffee. Every year domesticated and wild chefs is to keep searching during hurricane season, coffee, maintained in for new flavours and I worry when the next big ROLANDO H. close rows of trees on ten characteristics. As long storm is going to strike. CERDA hectares of land. They as new varieties are met A bad weather event have been collected over with interest, farmers Researcher and Progressor can be devastating for decades from Ethiopia, at CATIE will be motivated to a smallholder farmer. Yemen, Kenya, Tanzania, grow more! In doing so,

Sharing personal stories Colombia, Brazil, Mexico the chef community will of farmers with Coffea Arabica and all over Central be communicating the consumers can humanise America. Eleven species “ which accounts for need for a better coffee the of coffee, are represented, but 90 70 percent of global industry, directly driving bringing awareness of percent of the plants coffee production, and encouraging new the blood, sweat and belong to Coffea arabica, is one of the least varieties and flavours. tears that have gone into which accounts for the genetically diverse every cup. majority of the world’s crop species in Coffee is similar cups of coffee, and also the world. to wine in exhibiting for the most highly valued terroir. The same variety Source: Crop Trust ones. Although not every CATIE cultivated in different plant in the collection has the only coffee locations can taste very would make a delicious collection globally different. My message to Geisha brew, the diversity it accessible to coffee chefs is to experiment a variety of Coffea holds is the foundation for breeders via the with coffees from arabica collected breeding more resilient Plant Treaty; the different regions of the from a forest coffee for Central America other 18 coffee world and even from in Ethiopia in and beyond. genebanks do not different farms within a the 1930s, was Our programme have use and specific region. There is forgotten about aims to help small-scale sharing agreements. tremendous opportunity “ because of its low farmers. When we start for a chef to experiment production levels. crossing varieties of with flavors that they Decades later, in coffee with promising If 25 million can incorporate into , the characteristics, we people paid USD 1 to their creations! plant nurtured by bear in mind that the secure permanent, a higher altitude aim of creating future sustainable funding and volcanic soil, varieties should be for the world’s produced a unique adaptiveness to new coffee genebank spectacularly weather patterns. Global collections, aromatic coffee. At climate change is altering coffee would be a recent , the traditional habitats safe forever. one batch sold for for coffee all around the an unprecedented world – both wild and in USD 803 per pound! plantations. Taking this Source: World Coffee Research into account, the hybrids we work on should have resilient characteristics Tools to find out more while maintaining or, Chefs’ Manifesto Instagram: @chefsmanifesto hopefully, increasing Chefs’ Manifesto : www.chefsmanifesto.com SDG2 Advocacy Hub Website: www.sdg2advocacyhub.org Food Forever Website: www.food4ever.org For sources and more data, visit: www.chefsmanifesto.com/casestudies Produced in collaboration with the Crop Trust and Food Forever