In recent years, plenty of studies have suggested that drinking coffee can be good for you, and can even help you live longer. But coffee addicts take note: for the first time, researchers have identified the limit for how much coffee you can have before it puts your health at risk.
A worker's hands injured by long hours of coffee harvesting. Lilo Clareto / Repórter Brasil
By Daniel Camargos
Eight months after slave labor was discovered at the Cedro II farm in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, Starbucks and Nestlé-controlled brand Nespresso — both of whom had quality certified the farm — said they would stop sourcing coffee there.
Grown only on the slopes of two volcanoes on the Big Island of Hawaii, kona remains one of the better-known geographical sources of coffee in the U.S., even as coffee from Central America and East Africa have become trendier. But kona is still extremely expensive—when it's real.
Robusta coffee beans growing on a tree. Dag Sundberg / Getty Images
If humans don't wake up now to the threats posed by climate change and habitat loss, we may be in for a permanently sleepy future. A study led by scientists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew found that 60 percent of wild coffee species are at risk for extinction.
This story was produced via a co-publishing partnership between Mongabay and Repórter Brasil and can be read in Portuguese here.
At first sight, the Córrego das Almas farm in Piumhi, in rural Minas Gerais state, seems to be a model property. "No slave or forced labor is allowed," reads one of several signs that display international certifications—including one linked to the U.S. based company Starbucks corporation.
More than 200 environmental activists were killed in 2017, according to the latest report from global rights watchdog Global Witness.
The troubling report revealed that 207 men and women across 22 countries were murdered last year defending their land and resources, making it the worst year on record.
