We know that to-cups leach microplastics, but whether that’s actually a health risk remains an open question. Plus, Peet’s closes dozens of stores, and everything you need to know about agroforestry—and how to potentially save coffee from climate change—all in one place.
‘The Knowledge To Save Coffee Already Exists, Now It’s in One E-Library’ – via Mongabay
It’s widely accepted that coffee is under threat due to climate change. A 2015 study found that 50% of the world’s coffee-growing land will become unsuitable for cultivation by 2050. A more recent 2022 study puts that percentage even higher.
One proposed solution to the threat of climate change is investing in agroforestry, or growing coffee under shade trees within a complementary ecosystem. Researchers have been studying the topic for decades, finding clear benefits such as increasing biodiversity and soil health, protecting plants from excessive heat and sunlight, and improving farmers’ incomes.
Over the years, hundreds of researchers worldwide have studied the impact of agroforestry on coffee, but their findings have been scattered across many journals. Now all that research is in one place thanks to a new collaboration between the non-profit Coffee Watch and the tropical research institute CATIE.
Announced on Jan. 19, the new e-library contains 1,317 references from the past 60 years of research on coffee agroforestry, including peer-reviewed scientific articles, technical reports, and manuals. The freely available database is designed to be a living document, with new research added over time.
“Anything that’s ever been written about agroforestry coffee is in this library,” Coffee Watch CEO Etelle Higonnet told Mongabay. “That way, companies don’t have to do a million stupid pilot projects and reinvent the wheel for 20 years that we don’t have. They can just hoover up all this knowledge quickly, easily.”
Collecting coffee sustainability information in a single database is obviously useful for many stakeholders. Other organizations have also prioritized creating central repositories of coffee knowledge: In June 2025, the International Coffee Organization launched the Coffee Sustainability Support Database. The database features nearly 450 sustainability initiatives around the world, and aims to “consolidate scattered information and make it accessible to key stakeholders,” as ICO executive director Vanúsia Nogueira said in a press release at the time.
Read the full story on the free agroforestry research resource here.
‘Peet’s Coffee To Close Dozens of Locations This Month’ – via Nation’s Restaurant News
In August, Keurig Dr Pepper announced that it had agreed to acquire JDE Peet’s for $18 billion, with plans to create a coffee mega-corporation once the deal was complete. But just last week, news broke that Peet’s will close 30 locations in the Bay Area and Illinois by the end of January.
News of the closures came just days after Keurig formally launched its takeover bid, making a cash offer for JDE Peet’s shares, which the board and a majority of shareholders agreed to accept. Peet’s said the closures “reflect a broader effort to align our business with long-term growth priorities and current market conditions,” according to a statement given to Nation’s Restaurant News.
Peet’s was founded in Berkeley in 1966 and at one point had nearly 400 locations. But the brand ended 2024 with just 255, mostly in California, according to data from the restaurant industry research firm Technomic.
The closures will mainly impact stores in California’s Bay Area. But a store manager in Evanston, Illinois, told the Daily Northwestern that three Chicago-area locations would also close. In an email to employees at the Evanston store, Peet’s cited “continued underperformance that affects the sustainability and profitability of store operations” as the reason for the closure. One employee told Evanston Now that workers were offered severance pay but not transfers to other Peet’s stores.
Several Peet’s locations on the West Coast have unionized in recent years, including the first-ever store opened by Alfred Peet in 1966. One unionized location in Berkeley is among the stores set to close. In an Instagram post, the union accused the company of failing to bargain over the impact of the closure on workers. The union said Peet’s went directly to workers with severance offers rather than “meeting their legal obligation to bargain.”
Read more on Peet’s plans here.
More News
‘Brazil Annual Coffee Export Earnings Soar Despite Volume Dip’ – via Global Coffee Report
‘Explorer Cold Brew Acquires Caffeine-Conscious Brand Savorista’ – via Daily Coffee News
‘Jane Espante, Representing the United Arab Emirates, Is the New Cezve/Ibrik World Champion’ – via Comunicaffe
‘Brazilian Researchers Promote Targeted Application of Bees for Coffee’ – via Daily Coffee News
‘Indonesia Planning To Become World “Coffee Hub”’ – via Global Coffee Report
The Week in Coffee Unionizing
In November, workers at eight Kaldi’s Coffee locations in St. Louis, Missouri, announced their intent to unionize. Organizers requested voluntary recognition, which the company declined to provide, so the stores filed for elections to join Unite Here Local 74. On Jan. 9, workers at Kaldi’s Skinker Boulevard location became the first to vote in favor of unionizing.
However, the National Labor Relations Board still needs to certify the results after the union challenged several ballots it claimed were cast by ineligible employees. Earlier this month, organizers filed multiple Unfair Labor Practices charges against the company. The union accused management of, among other things, “unit packing” or diluting support by transferring new workers to a location before an election.
Despite the delay, workers celebrated the victory. “Today’s vote proves that workers are stronger united and that when we stand together, we win,” barista and organizer Aliyah Wilcox said in a statement. “We will keep fighting for better conditions at the workplace that we love, and we hope that Kaldi’s will stop fighting us and start negotiating. We love this community and we’re here to stay.”
In a statement to St. Louis Public Radio, a Kaldi’s spokesperson said the company “respects our team members’ rights under federal law to discuss working conditions and make their own choices about union representation. Any decision on unionization is theirs, and we will follow the established legal process and abide by the result once it’s confirmed.”
In other union news, workers at Rising Star Cafe in Cleveland, Ohio, voted to unionize last week. Staff began organizing in July in response to safety concerns, including a faulty carbon monoxide alarm.
Also last week, workers at The Board and Brew board game cafe in Philadelphia announced their intent to unionize. Organizers asked the company’s owners to voluntarily recognize the union, saying, “We need management that supports us.” When The Triangle, the outlet reporting the union news, reached out, the company’s co-owner declined to comment.
Is Coffee Good For You?
Another week, another study showing how to-go coffee cups leach microplastics.
This is a topic we’ve covered a lot (and rightfully so—it’s scary to think we’re all drinking bits of plastic!). We’ve brought you news of several studies that show to-go cups shed microplastics, and many focus on how heat and hot liquids break down the lining of to-go cups.
Well, let’s keep piling on. Researchers in Australia came to the same conclusion, but took it a step further. Their study, published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials: Plastics, found that higher temperatures “sharply increases” the release of microplastics from several types of plastic.
In an article for The Conversation, study co-author Xiangyu Liu noted two important trends. First, the type of cup matters. “The paper cups with plastic linings released fewer microplastics than the all-plastic cups,” Liu wrote. Secondly, heat plays a big role in how microplastics shed: “For the all-plastic cups, switching from cold to hot water increased the microplastic release by about 33%.”
What we still don’t know is whether microplastics are harmful. Over the years, studies have found microplastics in human brains, blood, and many other areas of the body. However, as Damian Carrington recently reported for The Guardian, some researchers have raised doubts over the methodology and results of several high-profile studies that found microplastics in the body.
One concern critics have is that, because microplastics are so small, even the latest state-of-the-art equipment can’t properly measure them. Additionally, some researchers questioned the methodologies and analytical approaches of the studies.
“This is really forcing us to re-evaluate everything we think we know about microplastics in the body,” said chemist Roger Kuhlman. “Which, it turns out, is really not very much. Many researchers are making extraordinary claims, but not providing even ordinary evidence.”
Beyond the Headlines
‘How Xpresso in South Africa Makes Coffee Affordable for All’ by Daniel Muraga
‘Column: On Balancing the Ideal and the Possible in Coffee Production’ by Jonas Ferraresso
