http://buyorganiccoffee.org/1194/organic-coffee-threatened/ Organic Coffee Threatened We have written previously about the dilemma that organic coffee growers face when coffee leaf rust Infects their crops. Now Bloomberg has taken notice. In an article entitled Organic Coffee Threatened by Global Warming-Stoked Fungus the news organization discusses how growers are faced with spraying and losing their organic status or not spraying and losing their coffee plants. Teodomiro Melendres Ojeda, an organic coffee grower in Cajamarca, Peru, stands at a crossroads. Neither path is attractive. Leaf-rust fungus, known as roya in Spanish, has devastated about a third of his crop. Melendres, 48, can use chemicals to kill it, though he risks forfeiting his organic certification and the 10 percent price premium it brings. Or he can preserve the certification and watch his plants die. What are the possible remedies for organic coffee growers to this spreading coffee plague? Colombia Beats La Roya Leaf rust, called la roya in Spanish, requires night time temperatures above 50 degrees Fahrenheit to thrive. This usually kept the disease below about 3000 foot elevation. It also likes more rain. When el Nino hit Colombia in 2008 it provided the rain and higher mountain temperatures allowed the fungus to thrive at altitudes up to 6,000 feet. Colombia lost forty percent of its Arabica coffee crop that year. The Colombian Coffee Growers Association started cross breeding studies in the early 1980s and has two strains of Colombian leaf rust resistant coffee, Colombian and Castillo. The first is a cross between an old Colombian variety, Caturra, and a rust-resistant strain from Southeast Asia, the Timor hybrid. Castillo is an offshoot of further cross breeding of the first Colombian leaf rust resistant coffee strain. Replanting with Colombian leaf rust resistant coffee in Colombia has reduced the incidence of leaf rust from 40% to 5% from 2011 to 2013. However, to accomplish this, the Colombians needed to uproot forty percent of their coffee crop and replant. This is what organic growers are facing all across Latin America. What Is an Organic Coffee Farmer to Do? With organic coffee threatened by la roya many organic farmers simply spray and forget about their certification. But, if the infestation is severe coffee plants are lost anyway. An article in the online LaPrensa in Honduras, Los efectos roya del café en Honduras impactan en alimentación de familias pobres, notes that not only are coffee growers losing money and the economy of Honduras being affected but poor coffee workers are starving. “Los ingresos de las familias muy pobres y pobres -afectadas por la roya del café- cayeron al nivel de la línea de supervivencia”, subraya un estudio de Oxfam al que tuvo acceso Efe, que además recomienda acciones oficiales inmediatas para auxiliar a los pobladores de las zonas azotadas.