Are we about to face a coffee shortage?

By 2080 there might not be any coffee left, not even a single bean

Stop everything and stock up on your cocoa beans, because we could well be facing a coffee shortage in the very near future.

In a report published by The Climate Institute, half of the world’s farmland for our much beloved cocoa bean is at risk of being lost by 2050 (that’s only like 30 years away) if global warming continues at its current rate. This means that by 2080 there might not be any coffee left, not even a single bean.

Rising temperatures have paved the way for a fungus called Coffee Leaf Rust to spread through Central and South America, destroying crops and causing a significant drop in production.

Recent climate change has also made it easier for pests like the Coffee Berry Borer to spread, and a warming of just one or two degrees could see this insect’s population expand significantly.

Speaking to The Telegraph, the Sustainability Director for Starbucks said: “What we are really seeing as a company as we look 10, 20, 30 years down the road - if conditions continue as they are - is a potentially significant risk to our supply chain. If we sit by and wait until the impacts of climate change are so severe that it’s impacting our supply chain, then that puts us at a greater risk.”

The shortage of coffee production won’t just affect us coffee lovers either, it will also hugely impact the livelihoods of roughly 120 million people in more than 70 countries that depend on the coffee industry.

If this wasn’t bad enough, it also looks as though we may have reached peak Prosecco and we could be facing a shortage of gin. Is nothing safe anymore?