Coffee crisis

That morning jolt of java may soon be a jolt on the pocketbook. A plant fungus, coffee rust, is devastating coffee plantations throughout Mexico and Central America while leaf scorch is attacking Brazilian plants.

Coffee, an important economic commodity in tropical countries, is one of the most traded products in the world, providing support for millions of small farmers. Officials have declared national emergencies in Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica. Coffee production could drop by 40 percent in Guatemala alone.

Coffee rust first gained notice near Lake Victoria, in Africa, over 40 years ago and spread quickly. “It became so devastating in Sri Lanka, southern India and Java that coffee agriculture had to be abandoned,” Ivette Perfecto, ecologist at the University of Michigan, told the National Science Foundation.

Experts believe the spread of coffee rust may be related to two changes in coffee-growing techniques. Farmers, attempting to increase production, have removed or thinned tree canopies that provided shade for the plants. Direct sunlight kills another fungus, white halo, which keeps coffee rust in check. Farmers have also increased use of pesticides that kill the Azteca ant. The ants are drawn to the honeydew produced by the green coffee scale insect. The ants protect the scale which, in turn, is a favorite food for white halo.

To make matters worse for the coffee industry, a bacterium that causes leaf scorch is attacking coffee plantations in Brazil, a country that produces 40 percent of the world’s coffee. The bacterium clogs the plant’s vessels and prevents transport of water and nutrients, eventually killing the plant.

Researchers fear the disease could hopscotch into citrus groves as well.

Ice break

The United States Agency for International Development announced the preliminary results of their “Grand Challenges” contest designed to encourage new and innovative ideas to assist workers fighting Ebola in West Africa.

The agency received 1,500 submissions. Major contenders for first place include protective gear that zips off like a wet suit, spray-on lotions that kill or repel the virus, and icy cold underwear to make the sweltering temperatures inside protective clothing more bearable. Workers wearing protective gear in the tropical midday heat are often near collapse within 45 minutes, Wendy Taylor, director of the agency’s Center for Accelerating Innovation and Impact, told The New York Times.

The agency will spend about $1.7 million testing the most promising possibilities.—J.B.

Hunger games

Scientists at Imperial College, London, and the University of Glasgow have developed an appetite-suppressing food additive which contains propionate, a substance produced naturally in the gut when microbes ferment dietary fiber. Propionate stimulates the gut to release hormones that reduce hunger, but it would take huge amounts of fiber to produce the effect. The new food additive, inulin-propionate ester (IPE), provides a more efficient way to introduce propionate into the gut.

Overweight volunteers participated in a 24-week study in which half of the 60 volunteers added IPE powder to their food, the other half added inulin. Only one out of 25 in the IPE group gained more than 3 percent of their body weight, compared to six out of 24 in the inulin group. At the end of 24 weeks the IPE group had less abdominal and liver fat.

Imperial Innovations, a technology commercialization company, is working on marketing IPE. —J.B.