EXPRESSIVE ESPRESSO: WHERE PLANTS HAVE A VOICE

Picture a coffee bean and you'll probably think back to the bag you picked up from the artisanal shop to grind at home.

- By Tiana Cline

You'll tell your friends or colleagues that these beans are a special blend from some free-trade plantation in Rwanda, Ethiopia or Uganda. You may even show off your connected coffee machine that turns on with an app and knows exactly how you like your next cup brewed. It's incredibly smart but what you may not realize is that technology has become an intrinsic part of the coffee life cycle, from farm to Frappuccino. “As a crop, coffee covers 10 million hectares of land. There are over 125 million farmers involved in coffee production,” says Massimo Battaglia, a tropical agronomist and Coffee Research Leader at Accademia del Caffè Espresso in Italy. “And that’s just the farmers, there are also traders, baristas, roasters... the population that is connected to coffee is amazing.”

Coffee is produced in about 70 countries worldwide, but for 12 nations—including four in Africa—it represents their primary agricultural export. This massive industry now faces serious challenges. Unpredictable weather patterns and temperature shifts are threatening not just coffee yields and quality, but the livelihoods of millions of farmers who depend on coffee cultivation.

“Climate change is a reality,” says Battaglia, adding that another issue is the distance between the origin and consumption. Unlike vineyards which are in good proximity to their end product-it’s possible to drink a glass of wine while looking at a valley of vines- coffee has a geographical issue. “You have to imagine the plantation. But if we can make a wedding between the biology and consumption, I think we can improve the overall value chain of coffee,” he says. “It’s my dream for this technology to help families have a better standard of living.”

Sensors and gatherers