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bird habitat and coffee
- To: carolina birds list serve <carolinabirds@duke.edu>
- Subject: bird habitat and coffee
- From: E/L Pardue <eljeep@mindspring.com>
- Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 17:30:24 -0500
- Delivered-to: pardo@metalab.unc.edu
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
A e-letter about socially conscious investing recently offered a long piece
on the international coffee scene -- low prices, oversupply, and lots of
desperate third-world farmers. Of interest to birding enthusiasts, the
e-letter said:
"Along with the economic and social cost, the mass-production methods of
coffee growing that have helped drive down prices also carry a severe
environmental cost. Traditional shade-grown coffee is raised, often without
the use of pesticides, under a canopy that provides shelter for birds and
other wildlife. It is cultivated by using fruit, avocado, and other cash
crops to provide shade for coffee bushes. When 'sun-grown' coffee is
produced on clear-cut industrial plantations, this vital habitat is
destroyed."
The e-letter urged folks to buy Fair-Trade coffee (a system of guaranteeing
farmers a decent price, which leads them to leave shade trees in place and
use less poison) and offered these links for more information:
Equal Exchange
<http://www.equalexchange.com/>
TransFair USA
<http://www.transfairusa.org/>
"bird friendly" coffee
<http://natzoo.si.edu/smbc/Products/Factsheets/factsheets.asp?fxsht=1>
Len Pardue,
Asheville NC