Simran Sethi - Birds of Unusual Vitality

Simran Sethi

Simran Sethi is a woman of many talents: having studied Sociology, Women’s Studies, and Sustainable Business at university, she’s since gone on to be a professional journalist, educator, and something of a global spokesperson for environmentalism and sustainability (just ask Al Gore, Ellen, or Oprah).

While, up until recent years, the extent of her involvement in coffee was the sacred ritual of her daily cup in the morning, her research into the agricultural biodiversity in our food systems—and the gradual deterioration thereof—led her to look into coffee, and to further investigate the complex coffee production chain and its beginnings.

Simran initially came across the topic of agricultural biodiversity in Italy while researching the use of transgenic crops (aka genetically modified organisms), “All the scientists I spoke to kept saying to me that transgenic crops were an issue, but they were worried about a much bigger thing that no one was talking about – genetic erosion – this loss of agricultural biodiversity.”

As a communicator and an environmentalist, Simran took it upon herself to look deeper into the diversity of food systems, with the goal of completing a book on the topic with to educate a wider audience.

“Scientists, because they’re not communicators in the same way that we are, have done such a shoddy job of telling these stories – for example, when you call these things ‘plant genetic resources for food in agriculture’ instead of just calling them what they are - seeds - no one cares. No one cares because they don’t even know what you’re talking about because you’ve abstracted it too much.”

Agricultural biodiversity in our food systems is an important conversation that needs to happen, with a focus on cultivating different varieties like that of potatoes, tomatoes, apples, or mushrooms, for example. By growing and cultivating these unique varieties, it allows for a rich ecosystem of crops (not to mention a delicious range of things for us to consume.)

As Simran elaborates, “We’ve put ourselves in this precarious position, where we’re growing fewer things, eating fewer varieties of things, and we’re losing diversity. On the surface it seems insignificant, but the problem is that it really infuses risk into our food system and food supply and we’re in big trouble not seventy-five years from now, but in less than a decade.”

In coffee, the topic of agricultural biodiversity has become increasingly relevant over the last few years, largely due to the effects of coffee leaf rust outbreaks, as Simran outlines, “Ninety-four percent of your coffee is Arabica, so what are the implications of that? In the US we talk a lot about the food pyramid, and our agricultural pyramid has such a fine point on it now… because of things like coffee leaf rust, farmers now have to use more pesticides, largely because of the way we’re allowing these crops to grow in monocultures, and we’re cutting down all the shade trees [ruining the natural ecosystem], and doing that makes it a riskier venture.”

When certain varieties are in danger of extinction (whether due to disease, lack of cultivation, etc) there are certain steps that can be taken, as Simran explains,

“The UN, through ‘The Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture’ identified different ways that we can save this biodiversity – so we can save it ‘ex situ’ which is established with the global crop diversity trust and the seed bank, or we can do it ‘in situ’ in the wild, or ‘in situ’ on the farm. The easiest way is to stick it in a seedbank, and the harder, messier ways are in the ground.”

“The issue is how do you get a farmer to plant something on their land and use their precious water, fertilisers, pesticides and labour to grow something purely for the sake of growing it? It seems kind of audacious to ask any farmer to do that, so until there is that demand for other varieties from the coffee industry, I want to highlight how important things like wild coffee forests are (as discussed by Aaron Davis at SCAA Symposium), what that genetic diversity means, and what happens if we lose it.”

“Also I think that a lot of people believe that if you put something in a seed bank or gene bank then that solves the problem – only then it’s frozen in time and not evolving naturally… everything is evolving, whether it’s in response to climate change or cultural change.”

In her investigations into coffee, Simran has travelled across the world, from Melbourne to drink coffee and learn from roaster Aaron Wood and the team at Seven Seeds, all the way to Ethiopia, the birthplace of our much of the world’s diversity as we know it.

For Simran, the issue of coffee’s origins is more than a scientific concept – for her, the human element is what brings it all together, “To me, it’s just incredibly important that people understand coffee, moreso than chocolate or bread or wine… this crop, this cup, and this act are important, because I think of these things as those that are the farthest apart in a sense - it’s gotten farthest away, and that’s what I want to bring the closest… that place, that soil, those hands, your coffee.”

In specialty coffee, the varieties that are cultivated are largely derivative of the Coffea Arabica family, with sub-types such as Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai, Geisha/Gesha, and SL-28 being commonly cultivated for specialty grade coffee across Central & South America and Africa. With more than a hundred wild coffee species in existence besides the typically cultivated Coffea Arabica and Coffea Canephora, it’s surprising that very few of these alternative varieties haven’t had an opportunity to be grown for commercial consumption. A lot of this is most likely due to the typical demand and supply concept, which begs the question: if consumers are demanding Arabica (or even Robusta), why bother cultivating anything else?

In this dilemma, Simran believes that the onus is on the industry, rather than the consumer, to change the demand & supply conversation, “I think it’s important to understand that while consumers can demand coffee that tastes like a coffee, the industry does have the power to change those tastes – I can only speak for myself, but even over the last six months my tastes have evolved and become more sophisticated, and that can only come from being exposed to different things.”

“The first geisha I had was at Blue Bottle, and I thought: ‘this coffee tastes sour and weird and I don’t like it’, and that was what my mouth told me because my brain wasn’t used to that experience. Fast forward three years and now I love those type of coffees - the explosion of flowers that are in my mouth when I have that first sip of an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe is unparalleled for me.”

Peter Giuliano first helped Simran understand that, “How people respond to the coffee they drink in the morning versus the coffee they drink in the afternoon is interesting, as your tastes and wants are different. In the morning you want that caffeine, so the way you taste it and the way that you perceive it is different to the afternoon - if your perception of coffee can change over the span of eight hours, then imagine how it can change over the span of a life. As a result, I feel like the weight should be on the roasters and on the specialty purveyors, because they’re in the unique position to be the one that connects both ends of this coffee chain”

If the coffee industry were to make an effort to open people’s minds up to new types of coffees they haven’t had before, there is huge potential to bring new varieties into circulation, and also to possibly discover delicious coffees that we may have never otherwise known existed.

For Simran, “More than anything I want people to understand that you don’t have to like it, you don’t have to want that one all the time, but at least give it a shot, and understand that by getting out of your comfort zone and doing that, you’ve already changed what may be available to you in the future. It’s what you did for me, Eileen, in suggesting I take my coffee without milk and sugar – so I could really taste it.”

“It’s way more exciting, because diversity in everything makes it better. It’s less familiar, arguably more frightening, but also more satisfying, whether you’re talking about the diversity of ideas, people, places, tastes… diversity only enriches our lives, that is, if we’re willing to open ourselves up to it.”

Despite all the science and overwhelming information that can come along with discussing agricultural biodiversity, Simran’s ultimate message is essentially one of enjoyment.

“It’s all about going back to taste and pleasure, this is about doing something that makes our lives better. I’ve been involved in environmental journalism for a while now, and oftentimes the message is to do less of something—it’s about scarcity or deprivation—so to turn around and be able to say ‘I want you to do more of this, but do it better’ is so joyful for me.”