Ka`u News Briefs Thursday, June 12, 2014

PREPARING FOR AN INVASION OF COFFEE RUST that is devastating Latin American coffee plantations and could make its way to Hawaiian Coffee farms? Long-term solutions could include creation of shade-grown coffee orchard environments, according to a story published in Audubon this week, saying that “the scientists worry that current solutions, such as fungicide application and developing resistant plants, focus too much on coffee alone – not on the health of the entire ecosystem.”

       The article quotes University of Michigan ecologist Ivette Perfecto saying, “Those narrow approaches tend to work in the very short term; they’re not part of a more sustainable approach to the management of coffee.” Perfecto and colleagues contend that shade-grown practices “promote a healthy web of interactions that, ideally, would naturally keep coffee rust in check,” says the story by Clara Chaisson.

      Chaisson writes in Audubon that “traditional shade-grown coffee farms preserve the existing canopy layers of the forest. In addition to fostering biodiversity and maintaining complex ecological relationships between plants, fungi, insects and bats, shade-grown coffee provides critical winter habitat for migratory bird species. ...
      “But sun-grown farms have their own appeal: they can produce higher yields and bring in more money. This approach has taken off in recent years; a study published in April found that the proportion of land dedicated to shade-grown coffee has declined almost 20 percent since 1996. That switch may have unintentionally exacerbated the spread of the fungus and the scope of the problem.
      “On sun-grown coffee farms, the plants are spaced very close together, making it easier for coffee rust to spread from one to the next. Fungal spores travel unimpeded in the open air surrounding the farms. The heavy use of fungicide to combat rust also kills beneficial species like white halo fungus, which naturally attacks the coffee rust fungus.
      “The Michigan researchers suspect that the breakdown of biodiversity in coffee farming has contributed to the coffee rust epidemic, worsening its impact on sun- and shade-grown plantations alike. While cultivating plants that are resistant to the fungus is certainly a positive step, it represents only one piece of what should be a multi-pronged solution.”

     “We need a more ecological approach,” Perfecto told Audubon. “We’ll drink (a cup of coffee) to that.” See more at audubonmagazine.org/articles/conservation/shady-endeavor-could-help-combat-coffee-rust.
     A report in Bioscience last year by Perfecto and colleagues said, “It is reasonable to suggest that the situation calls for a revitalization of what pest control specialists have come to call autonomous pest control.” 

     See bioscience.oxfordjournals.org/content/64/3/210.

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KA`U’S U.S. REP. TULSI GABBARD, a veteran who has served two tours of duty in the Middle East, discussed the crisis in Iraq on CNN this morning. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is expanding its hold on Iraq, having gained control of Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, and threatening to invade others, including Baghdad. 

      Gabbard expressed concern about getting involved in civil wars that are complex and difficult to sort out. “Who are the bad guys?” Gabbard repeatedly asked. “You’ve got to be able to define who were helping and who were fighting for.” She suggested that, if the U.S. is concerned about ISIS, “We should focus our resources on specific threats and take them out where they are.”

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