Re: bird habitat and coffee

[Elizabeth Wiley <ewiley1@sc.rr.com>]

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