California looks to grow the only crop it doesn't; coffee
Coffee doesn’t really like to grow anywhere in the continental United States. According to Coffee Research, the crop generally likes two types of environments: subtropical areas with defined seasons at moderate elevation, and tropical areas at very high elevations. The former includes most of Central and South America; the latter, Kenya, Ethiopia, and the like.
The U.S. doesn’t really have anything like that. The closest we get to a tropical climate is South Florida, which doesn’t have nearly enough elevation as it’s basically a gigantic swamp. On the flip side, anywhere with high elevation, like the Southwest, is too dry. So for decades, the only serious coffee-growing region in the United States has been in Hawaii, home of the famous Kona coffee.
But now, the New York Times alerts us to a new effort on the part of California growers to deal with their aridity and figure out a way to make coffee thrive in their agricultural wonderland. The coffee plant is a short bush that prefers the shade of taller trees. California happens to have an abundance of older, lower-yield avocado trees—adding coffee is a potentially ideal way to make these low-yield fields more lucrative.
Read more at modernfarmer.com
