Climate change pushing Peruvian coffee to cooler heights

One of the joys of a Peru vacation is discovering the organic shade-grown coffee grown between 4000 and 6000 feet above sea level in the steep Andean valleys in the region around Cusco.

Usually it’s coffee that provides people the lift and pick-me-up.

But this article in cus tells how scientists are seeing the opposite effect: Human-caused global warming is pushing the broad leafed plant in the rubiacaeae family, or coffee, to unusually lofty elevations — as high as 8,000 feet in Peru’s Amazon basin.

“To see species move up-slope, that means they are responding to climate change,” says biologist Ken Feeley, of Florida International University. “So that’s a good thing, because if they don’t respond, they are almost certainly doomed to extinction.”

On a less gloomy note, here’s a fact to inspire coffee lovers to tour Peru: The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) earlier this year ranked Peruvian coffee among the best in the world.

Cafe Tunki was voted number two coffee in the world, with 86.91 points, slightly behind the top coffee, Kenya’s Ndumberi coffee. Cafe Quechua was voted the fifth best coffee, with 86.00 points, and Sol & Cafe was ranked as the ninth best coffee in the world, with 84.25 points, state news agency Andina reported.

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