The lecture will be livestreamed from Aarhus University. Free admission, support your cinema.*

Language: Danish
Break: 20 minutes
Lecturers: by researchers Aske Bosselmann, Anders Barfod and Kjeld Hermansen

The coffee plant is a perennial crop with enormous global importance – both economically and culturally. Botanist Anders Barfod, who has been researching tropical plant resources for more than four decades, will provide a broad introduction to the botany of the coffee plant – including the latest exploration of its wild relatives. The Coffea genus brilliantly illustrates the great importance of agrobiodiversity for agricultural production in an ever-changing world. You will also hear about what the coffee bean consists of more precisely in the fruit, and gain insight into how it goes from the harvest-ready fruit on the coffee bush to the steaming cup of coffee that many of us enjoy every day.

Millions of farmers in the so-called 'coffee belt' around the Equator produce enough coffee for us, worldwide, to enjoy 30,000 cups per second. It requires a large area, and historically, coffee cultivation has led to deforestation and loss of biodiversity, but under certain conditions, coffee cultivation today has a completely different role. Natural resource economist Aske Skovmand Bosselmann will talk about the cultivation of coffee and how farmers around the world not only produce coffee beans, but also ecosystem services that we can all benefit from - including in relation to climate change, which is today a central topic within sustainable coffee. You will also gain insight into the latest research that will ensure that we can continue to drink coffee in a changing climate.

The lecture also puts our use of coffee in a historical perspective. The development in the Danes' consumptionmønof coffee, from when it was introduced in Denmark in 1665 to the present, has been very remarkable. Diabetes and nutrition researcher Kjeld Hermansen will challenge the many claims about how coffee affects the body. For example, you often hear statements such as: "You should be careful not to drink too much coffee", "Coffee is unhealthy and can cause cancer and cardiovascular diseases" and "Coffee can shorten life". The question is, are these myths or facts? Kjeld Hermansen will review how coffee affects mortality as well as the major diseases of the population: cancer, cardiovascular diseases, neuropsychiatric diseases and type 2 diabetes.

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

Read more at ofn.au.dk/abstract/173.
If you want to be notified about upcoming lectures and receive extra material, follow the lectures' newsletter or social media.

__

*Note from the organizers at Aarhus University: your local cinema has generously provided its cinema hall and staff free of charge for this screening. Please support them financially by, for example, using their café/kiosk.

ABOUT THE LECTURE SERIES:
The lecture is streamed live from the Søauditorierne in Aarhus and is part of the series Public Lectures in Natural Sciences organized by Aarhus University in collaboration with several hundred locations across the country. The lecture series is supported by the Carlsberg Foundation.

The lecture lasts two hours including a 20-minute break and a session at the end where the lecturer answers selected questions submitted during the lecture by the audience via SMS.
The lecture is and will not be publicly available on the internet.