According to estimates by the UNESCO Water Resources Department, a cup of coffee in our hands consumes 39 gallons of water (147 liters) to produce. The climate change that is taking place today has in turn made the coffee-growing industry a vulnerable victim. The more unstable the environment, the more difficult it is for farmers to obtain stable yields and the inability to effectively organize production, and as the planet becomes warmer, it also intensifies the emergence of microbial infectious diseases that infect coffee crops.
Coffee farming may face unsustainability
The flourishing specialty coffee industry in the global metropolis ultimately failed to allow millions of small farmers in the upper reaches of agriculture to obtain sufficient benefits, which continued to aggravate the problem of "economic income inequality".
To improve the sustainability of the coffee industry, in the main coffee producing areas, governments and non-governmental organizations in some countries encourage coffee farmers to plan their production more orderly, and plant some wild coffee cherries.
Biotech may reshape the coffee industry
Recently, in Europe and the United States, biotech startups have begun to enter the coffee industry, just like the developing plant meat, alternative protein food industry, and cell culture food industry, they want to use technology to change the coffee cultivation of the past hundreds of thousands of years, in order to set out to solve the ongoing climate change problem.
1. Bean-free coffee cultivated through cell agriculture by VTT
Finland is the country with the highest per capita coffee consumption in the world, but this country does not produce coffee itself.
Finland and Sweden have always had the FikaFika coffee culture, which means gathering with friends and colleagues to enjoy coffee time at a pleasant moment of the day. In the severe cold of northern Europe, coffee is both warm and close to each other.
The Finnish National Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT for short), a Finnish state-owned non-profit company, recently successfully researched the use of cellular agriculture to grow beanless coffee. For the first time, in Finland, scientists created local coffee (local coffee) produced locally.
Finland used to lead the world in the fields of communication technology and industrial design. As a "state-supported interdisciplinary research organization", VTT has focused on laying out the forefront of biotechnology in recent years. They developed a Cellular Factory, including a microbial factory + plant factory, through the latest gene editing technology, synthetic biology technology, computer simulation computing and artificial intelligence design and other interdisciplinary progress, in laboratories and factories Cooperate with microorganisms and plants to create the needs of human life.
This technology places the cell culture in a bioreactor and then adds nutrients that promote growth. The cultivated substance is dried, roasted, and fermented to finally form brewable coffee. There is no need for pesticides in this process, and there is little demand for water, and because coffee made in this way can be produced locally, it also reduces energy waste and pollutant emissions during the transportation of coffee beans.
This kind of cellular agricultural innovation has not yet been approved for public consumption, so VTT products have not yet been launched on the market. They expect to obtain regulatory approvals in Europe and the United States within the next four years, paving the way for commercialized products.
2. San Francisco Compound Foods
-- Using synthetic biology and precision fermentation technology to produce specialty coffee.
Maricel Saenz, founder and CEO of Compound Foods, based in San Francisco, said that she is working hard to "reinvent" coffee in the laboratory and show people why it is important to do so-coffee is the world's greatest environmental impact One of the five cash crops in China, and the use of new technology for bean-free coffee production can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption by 90%.
Maricel Saenz was born in Costa Rica, a famous coffee-producing region, so she is particularly concerned about the impact coffee production has on the production area and growers.
Saenz also stated in an interview: "Currently rising global temperatures and unstable rainfall have led to a decline in crop yields. Because of climate change, farmers in Costa Rica have to sell their land or climb higher mountains to ensure yield and income. Experts predict that in the next few decades, 50% of farmland will not be suitable for growing coffee."
Compound Foods' bean-free coffee production process is different from VTT-Compound Foods uses microorganisms and fermentation technology to simulate the various flavors and aromas of coffee-these sustainable microorganisms can produce more coffee than any coffee on the store shelves today Coffee with brighter acidity and more delicate aroma.
Compound Foods has already received a seed round of funding of USD 4.5 million, and plans to launch a bean-free coffee product priced equivalent to specialty coffee by the end of 2022, and gradually reduce prices by expanding production.
From the perspective of greenhouse gas emissions in the food industry, the greenhouse gas emissions brought by coffee production are second only to beef, mutton, cheese and chocolate: the production of each cup of coffee requires about 140 liters of water, and the production of coffee will produce 17 kilograms per kilogram. carbon dioxide.
3. Seattle Atomo "Plant Ingredient Party" Bean-free coffee:
EVERY SIP SAVES THE PLANET!
Atomo Coffee was founded by technical veteran Andy Kleitsch and food scientist Jarret Stopforth. It is a start-up company located in Seattle (where Starbucks is headquartered).
It is consistent with the temperament of the city of Seattle-their corporate culture also places great emphasis on the concept of environmental protection and sustainable development. Compared with traditional cold brew coffee, they claim that using its new plant decomposition method to make coffee can save 94% of water, reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 93%, and will not cut down any forests.
The founding team not only improved coffee production through biotechnology, but also considered the integration with localized circular agriculture. They cooperated with local farmers in the United States to recycle and reuse the waste materials such as plants/mushrooms in their production process. Atomo Coffee’s The patented process can convert the compounds in these plant recycling materials into the same substances as the compounds in coffee beans (the ingredients written in the package ingredient list include water, jujube extract, chicory root extract, grape skin extract, inulin Extracts, natural flavors, caffeine).
Atomo Coffee roasts, grinds and brews these special ingredients to make coffee products, the process is the same as traditional coffee. So when consumers drink Atomo coffee ,"with every delicious sip of Atomo™ you are saving our planet."
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