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Can we create a climate-resistant coffee in time? – podcast

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Worldwide, we drink around 2bn cups of coffee every day. But as coffee plants come under pressure from the climate crisis, sustaining this habit will be increasingly challenging. Recently, a new study provided a glimmer of hope: a climate-resistant coffee plant just as tasty as arabica. Patrick Greenfield asks Dr Aaron Davis about his work tracking it down, and speaks to Dr Matthew Reynolds about developing climate-resistant crops

How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know

  • Dr Aaron Davis is head of coffee research at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
  • Dr Matthew Reynolds is head of wheat physiology at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre, Mexico
  • Read about Davis’s study on Stenophylla coffee here
  • Find out more about the Age of Extinction series here

Photograph:Preparations before tasting of Coffea Stenophylla at the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) sensory analysis laboratory in Montpellier, southern France on December 10, 2020. - A once-prized coffee species, rediscovered in West Africa decades after it disappeared, is just as tasty as high-end Arabica and more resilient to climate change, according to scientists who said on April 19, 2021, the forgotten bean could help futureproof quality coffee. Photo by AFP PHOTO /CIRAD/C.CORNU
Photograph: C Cornu/Cirad/AFP/Getty Images
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