Leaves infected with coffee rust on Finca El Valle, outside Antigua, Guatemala.
Coffee Rust Threatens Latin American Crop; 150 Years Ago, It Wiped Out An Empire
An outbreak of coffee leaf rust, caused by the fungus Hemileia vastatrix, hit the celebrated coffee-producing region in 2012, and by 2014 it had infected the entire farm.
That year El Valle harvested a meager 28,000 pounds of coffee, an 80 percent drop. The next harvests were even smaller.
With the lowest coffee prices in a dozen years, reviving the farm has been deeply challenging.
The Salt : NPR