Does a cancer risk lurk in your morning cup of coffee? Many coffee addicts are skeptical about a California judge's recent ruling requiring cancer warnings on coffee purchased within the state. The ruling came after an eight-year legal struggle by the Council for Education and Research on Toxics. The not-for-profit took the coffee industry to court under a California law that requires warnings if chemicals known to cause cancer or birth defects are present. Coffee-roasting creates a chemical byproduct called acrylamide that's a carcinogen; it's found in many foods that are cooked. CERT fought a similar legal battle over potato chips several years ago, and the industry agreed to remove the chemical. Many coffee and healthcare professionals, oppose the court's...
by: MERRIT KENNEDY Pollinators such as bees play a key part of producing the beans that go into your morning cup of coffee. In fact, they are responsible for about 20 to 25 percent of coffee production by increasing the plants' yield, Taylor Ricketts, the director of the University of Vermont's Gund Institute for Environment, tells The Two-Way. Bees actually increase the quality of the beans by making their size more uniform. But climate change is threatening both pollinators and the areas where coffee can grow. A new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says it is the first to model the impact of climate change on both coffee and pollinators. The researchers projected that by 2050, climate change...
Have you heard of coffee naps? It could change your life. A coffee nap is exactly what it sounds like: You drink a cup of coffee, then immediately take a nap. Yes, this sounds like opposite land, but here’s the deal: The caffeine in coffee doesn’t kick in for about 30 minutes, so if you nap right after you drink the coffee, the caffeine will kick in right when you wake up. Power naps have already been proven to be effective in improving alertness and performance, but take one for 30 minutes after having a cup of coffee and you’ll wake up just as the caffeine starts to work. The result? Feeling refreshed and stimulated like never before. Coffee...
BY ANNA BRONES. Women around the world are the backbone of global agricultural production, making up almost half of the worldwide agricultural workforce. In some countries, that number goes as high as 70%. Women play a vital role in getting food to our table, and yet because of deep gender inequalities, many of those women aren’t able to realize their full potential, both as workers and as community members. From earning little (to sometimes no income) to lack of representation in leadership roles to access and control of land, women in agriculture face many obstacles. Tackling those obstacles provides an opportunity for change. Today, it’s estimated that eliminating the gap between men and women in access to agricultural resources would...
BY: NICOLE GALLUCCI Over the years, coffee consumption has become a crucial part of the millennial identity. Whether it's used to fuel an early morning wake-up, a late night of working or simply to inspire some extra likes on their Instagram accounts, there's no denying that today's young adults are seriously immersed in the coffee craze. In fact, a new report from Bloomberg shows that millennials have grown so accustomed to their daily caffeine kick that their massive consumption of coffee has pushed global demand to a record high. According to Chicago-based researcher Datassential, people aged between around 19 to 34 currently make up about 44 percent of the U.S. coffee demand. Surprisingly, during the past eight years, while millennial coffee consumption...
