Brazil: A Wind Without Pity

Up from the Antarctic last week blew a chill and unexpected wind, clutching with its frosty fingers the hillsides and greening fields of coffee-rich Brazil. Brazil's coffeegrowers have learned to live with the danger of frost in June or July —it is now winter in the Southern Hemisphere—but the cold August wind caught them by surprise. Striking in the predawn light across the entire state of Parana (where most Brazilian coffee grows) and as far north as São Paulo, it wilted leaves and left September blossoms stillborn on the branch. Within hours, a lifeless swath of brown marked its path....