Lecture by Aarhus University: Coffee

Three researchers from Aarhus University present a lecture on coffee - from plant to cup, from farm to future.

Botanist Anders Sanchez Barfod, professor emeritus with over four decades of experience in tropical plant resources, introduces the botany of the coffee plant, including the latest research on its wild relatives and the importance of agrobiodiversity for agricultural production. He explains what the coffee bean actually is within the fruit and traces the journey from the ripe fruit on the bush to the finished cup.

Natural resource economist Aske Skovmand Bosselmann, lecturer in agricultural value chains, focuses on coffee cultivation and sustainability. Millions of farmers in the coffee belt around the equator produce enough coffee for 30,000 cups per second - a vast area that historically led to deforestation but today plays a different role under certain conditions. He also addresses the impact of climate change on the future of coffee and the research needed to secure supply in a changing climate. Danes' coffee consumption is also placed in historical perspective, tracing back to coffee's introduction to Denmark in 1665.

Diabetes and nutrition researcher Kjeld Hermansen, physician and professor emeritus, examines the many claims about coffee's effects on the body - whether coffee is unhealthy, causes cancer or heart disease, or shortens life. He reviews what research says about these questions and presents his research group's work on coffee's mechanisms in relation to type 2 diabetes.

This lecture is an updated version of a presentation from spring 2023.