Coffee Cooperatives Against Climate Change

• While many health studies connect coffee consumption to a beneficial outcome, they often don't really know exactly what the coffee is doing. A new study may have uncovered one way. Certain compounds in coffee, researchers found, bind with and activate a receptor protein called NR4A1. This protein works as an internal regulator, helping to protect our bodies from stress and inflammation. “What we’re saying is that at least part of coffee’s health benefits may come through binding and activating this receptor", study co-author Stephen Safe said in a press release.
• As this newsletter has covered numerous times, climate change is coming for coffee, and farmers are often on the frontlines of fighting it. In Brazil, some of the largest cooperatives have been stepping up to help their members, investing in things like regenerative agriculture and biochar production. Brazil is the world's largest coffee grower, and these cooperatives represent tens of thousands of producers, so their impact could be enormous.

Regenerative Agriculture: Climate Solution or Yet More Coffeewashing?

As the climate crisis intensifies, regenerative agriculture could play a key role in sustaining and strengthening the global coffee industry. That is, if it can escape becoming just another corporate sustainability buzzword.

The PouroverFionn Pooler

• Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol's plan to turnaround the ailing coffee giant involved many initiatives, from pared-down menus to comfier seats. He also required baristas to start writing fun messages on customers' takeaway cups, to "foster moments of connection" as a company memo read. But according to an article in the Boston Globe, customers don't always find them appealing, and unionised baristas say it has just added to their workload.

For more on all these stories, check out the full Roundup over at Fresh Cup Magazine:

Coffee News Club: Week of May 11

Scientists crack the code on coffee. Plus, coffee cooperatives in Brazil fight climate change, and everyone hates writing on cups, including customers.

Fresh CupFionn Pooler

Two new ICYMI articles from yours truly last week. First, a look at just how reliant the coffee industry is on petroleum and its byproducts:

The Coffee Industry’s Petroleum Problem

As the Hormuz Strait blockade and its cascading consequences lay bare, coffee is still profoundly reliant on petroleum and its byproducts.

The PouroverFionn Pooler

Plus, for Fresh Cup, I wrote this in-depth story on the case of Juan José Estrada Lopez, a coffee worker in Hawaii who was held in federal detention for over five months last year:

How an Immigration Interview Turned Into 168 Days in Detention for a Coffee Worker in Hawaii

A Nicaraguan coffee worker in Hawaii, married to a U.S. citizen, was detained by ICE during a green card interview. He spent more than five months in federal custody until the ACLU got involved.

Fresh CupFionn Pooler

Paid subscribers will receive their bonus article on Friday, but until then it's goodbye once again from my sister's cat Maru: