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Re: bird habitat and coffee



Here's a place online to order shade grown coffee easily and the price with shipping works out to under $8 a pound for a five pound bag of delicious beans. Different types available.
You can order at =
http://shop.qualitycoach.net/shop/searchresults.asp?ProdManList=3DALL&Pro=
dTypeList=3DCoffee%2FBulk+5+lbs%2E+Whole+Bean


Eric is right. More birders should be concerned about this and other environmental concerns. As Bob Sargent said at his banding site a couple of years ago, not mentioning any party, "...please vote for the birds", and a way to do that is to purchase shade grown coffee.

An article in an Atlanta paper led me to post this about a year ago.

Subject: birds and coffee!

The case for shade grown coffee!
Beth

a.. More than half of Georgia's neotropical birds spend the winter in =
Mexico, Central America, the Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican =
Republic and Puerto Rico. Haiti, for example, is nearly devoid of native =
forest. Mexico is losing an estimated 5 million acres a year. Much of =
Cuba is under sugar cane cultivation.
But what's going on in the coffee-growing region in Puerto =
Rico and in Latin America is particularly alarming. Numerous tracts of =
shade-grown coffee are being bulldozed for conversion to the more =
profitable sun-grown coffee groves.
Neotropical songbirds thrive in the dense canopies of =
shade-grown coffee plantations, but they shun the thin, exposed =
sun-grown coffee fields. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is =
encouraging farmers to go to the more profitable sun-grown coffee, even =
threatening to withhold crop insurance and other subsidies if they =
don't. (ISN'T THIS AWFUL!!! Thank you not, Dept of Ag. Beth)
"Shade-grown coffee plantations are the last remaining =
refuges for [overwintering] neotropical songbirds, but the habitat is =
threatened by the incentives from the Agriculture Department," says =
Leopoldo Miranda-Castro, a biologist who keeps track of neotropical =
birds in Puerto Rico for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
USDA officials say they are aware of the concerns, and the =
agency is considering re-examining its policy favoring sun-grown coffee =
over shade-grown.


You can order at =
http://shop.qualitycoach.net/shop/searchresults.asp?ProdManList=3DALL&Pro=
dTypeList=3DCoffee%2FBulk+5+lbs%2E+Whole+Bean




Harrold, Eric S wrote:


Len,

I don't know what an accurate estimate would be, but I would venture to say
that most of us that use and promote shade-grown coffee would be
disappointed to know just how small of a proportion of coffee-drinking
birders routinely purchase shade-grown coffee.


I have personally taken responsibility at the Charlotte Nature Museum to
educate staff and interested visitors on the importance of shade-grown
coffee to birds and their habitats. Sadly, I'll be surprised if anyone
champions the cause there once I'm gone (which isn't much longer). Hopefully
I'll be wrong.

To put it concisely, if birders who drink coffee will not by-and-large
purchase shade-grown brands, who on earth will? If a poor graduate student
can budget it, surely others out there can. Put your money where your heart
(supposedly) is folks!

Eric Harrold
Charlotte, NC

-----Original Message-----
From: E/L Pardue
To: carolina birds list serve
Sent: 1/1/03 5:30 PM
Subject: bird habitat and coffee

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