Drink Your Coffee, Save a Bird

When we are in the states, we enjoy a cup of Starbuck’s coffee. Here in Canada, there is always Tim Horton’s. But at the outset of our cross-country trip looking for hope, we met a man who believes there is more to a cup of coffee than taste. His name is Wes Bergmann and he owns and runs the Blue Moose Coffee House in Hope, B.C. He sells ‘coffee with a conscious.’ On his website he states, We are happy to announce that all our coffee is now Fair Trade - Organic - Shade Grown. Ethical Bean from Vancouver roasts our Coffee. That was our first introduction to Ethical Bean coffee. All of this coincides with watching the return of our migratory birds, and a book I am currently reading called, SILENCE OF THE SONGBIRDS by Bridget Stutchbury. Stutchbury is a leading authority on the science of migratory songbirds, and the news is not good: The bird migration system that is the heart of our northern lands is slowly but steadily eroding. By some estimates, we may have already lost almost half of the songbirds that filled the sky forty years ago. We may have learned the hard way that when birds begin disappearing, we may be next.

The good news is that we can make a difference by simply choosing to buy only shade grown, organic coffee. Granted it is more costly, and with the rising costs of food that is no small matter. When we were at the grocery store on Saturday we spotted the Ethical Bean brand of coffee sitting on the shelf for the first time. Whew – that is expensive (13.99/pound CDN). We talked about it, weighing the pros and cons and then decided to pay more and make up for it by drinking less coffee. We bought one pound of Sumatra medium dark beans, and ground them in the store’s coffee grinder. Now we make one pot of coffee with a French press each morning. It’s hard to feel like we are making any big sacrifice when the coffee tastes so darn good! But it is nice to know that while we enjoy our morning coffee, we are helping to save the rainforest and migratory birds. It’s called “How to have your coffee and songbirds too.”

Shade Grown Coffee (Ethical Bean website)

Coffee is traditionally grown under the shade of a forest canopy. With advances in mass-harvesting technology and a soaring global demand for coffee, many farmers have shifted to open plantations with little or no surrounding vegetation. This 'open-field' concept of farming was introduced to encourage greater crop yields, and was often tied to international aid from countries like the United States. While it maximizes production, with no canopy to protect it, soil erosion quickly becomes a problem. And by destroying the surrounding forest to create plantations, farmers destroy the natural habitats of animals, insects and migratory birds.

The technification of the coffee, as this process is commonly known, also dramatically increases the need for chemical fertilizers to replace the organic material that used to come from the natural shade canopy. Studies have shown that up to 1/2 pound of fertilizer is needed to produce one pound of coffee beans on these farms.

Another excellent website explaining the importance of shade-grown coffee plantations to migratory birds, is the Smithsonian’s Migratory Bird Center.

COMMON BIRDS IN DECLINE

Last year the Audubon Society released a State of the Birds Report. In it they reported, Since 1967 the average population of the common birds in steepest decline has fallen by 68 percent; some individual species nose-dived as much as 80 percent. All 20 birds on the national Common Birds in Decline list lost at least half their populations in just four decades. I went to the Audubon website to look at the list of twenty birds that have declined in number. I found four birds on the list that are common to our area, the boreal forest. They were: Evening grosbeak (above photo) – 78% decline, Boreal chickadee – 73%, Rufous hummingbird – 58%, and the Ruffed grouse – 54%. If you want to see if some of your birds are on the list, go to: State of the Birds Report.

I also went to the Boreal Songbird Initiative website – a suggestion I found on the Audubon site. “Promote conservation of the Canadian boreal forest by supporting the Boreal Songbird Initiative that works to save Canadian boreal habitat for all birds, specifically by fighting inappropriate logging, mining, and drilling and by promoting the designation of protected areas.”

... P. L. Morningstar