It's called coffee rust, a fungus that is devastating some of the best Arabica coffee bean crops in Latin American and the Caribbean.

Coffee growers in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama and Costa Rica have been hit the hardest.

"This is a disease that has been around for a long time, we believe that hotter and dryer growing conditions related to a changing climate is making it more prevalent," says Rajiv Shah, the chief of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

"In its worse form, it actually destroys the trees and prevents future years from having agricultural output on those farms."

Many of the high end coffee beans are grown on small farms by farmers who can't afford fungicides and lack the special training that's needed to avoid contamination. Researchers say that coffee production in the affected areas will decrease by 15 to 40 percent in the coming years, severely impacting families.

"Millions of kids would go hungry. Economies throughout the region would face significant strife and the loss of the basic economic activity that supports 20 - 30 percent of their populations."

Large U.S. coffee companies like Starbucks have been able to secure enough supplies to avoid price increases. But it's the smaller boutique coffee houses that are so popular with coffee connoisseurs that may have to increase their prices, if they do not get the fungus under control.

Monday, the U.S. government will announce a $ 5 million partnership with Texas A&M University's World Coffee Research Center in an effort to keep the fungus from spreading and the coffee industry in Latin America, from rusting away.

Source - http://www.ozarksfirst.com/