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The main reason for the decline in bird populations is habitat loss. For migrants like wood warblers, cuckoos, and vireos, that loss happens in both their summer and winter ranges.
Logging, mining, oil and gas extraction destroy habitat in the northern range but coffee is the culprit in Central and South American habitat. Coffee cultivation alone has led to 2.5 million acres of forest destruction. Worldwide, 75 percent of coffee is grown in ways that harm wildlife, vegetation, and climate.
Fact: if every US birder switched to drinking coffee grown in ways that protect bird habitat rather than destroy it, just three times a week, the impact would be enormous and immediate. Economic levers like this are often the most powerful and fastest way to create change, but they require building awareness, making noise, and millions of individual choices.
If we make a different choice and choose bird-friendly coffee, the incentive to protect critical habitat in some of the most sensitive and valuable ecosystems in the world would rapidly increase. Add to this, greater stability and economic prosperity for “smallholder” farmers—coffee is one of the top five most valuable commodities traded by developing nations.
In many parts of the world, coffee is still grown on family farms—providing income and jobs to 125 million people.
Certified Bird-Friendly coffee is shade-grown coffee, grown sustainably under tree canopy without chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Shade-grown coffee farming isn’t something new. It’s how is how coffee grows naturally—and how most of the world’s coffee was grown until the 1970s when industrialized farming took over. What’s much less natural is the large-scale, high-impact, monoculture farming of certain species of coffee in full sun that focuses on yield. That approach destroys habitat as well as valuable farmland, demands the use of fertilizer and pesticides, and wastes massive amounts of water. Long-term, industrialized coffee farming is not sustainable without pesticides, more water, and fertilzer.
Shade-grown coffee farms also practice “polyculture” farming—mixing fruit trees and other trees for shade and pollination while coffee plants grow in the understory. This kind of farming needs little or no fertilizer or pesticides, preserves more moisture in the air and the ground, stabilizes and moderates temperature, which makes for better-tasting coffee, stores more carbon, and provides a healthy habitat for hundreds of species from fungi to insects to reptiles as well birds.
Studies consistently show that birds alone consume more than 80% of insects that would otherwise be damaging to coffee plants. Other predators do the additional work.
Shade-grown bird-friendly coffees are also organic and delicious. Certified coffee plantations provide winter habitat for more than 42 species of North American songbirds, including everyone’s favorite warblers, which also help check the spread of destructive insects and caterpillars in North American forests.
Every cup you drink helps small farmers be more successful and protects a little more habitat.
Click on the logos for more detail.
Beans sourced directly from small-scale farmers who were paid a fair price.
Not required to be organic. Lacks some transparency. See this article.
Coffee is organic and grown in a manner that actively protects biodiversity, water, and native trees—certified by independent 3rd parties. Science-based.
The Smithsonian Bird Friendly Certification is generally regarded as the gold standard and by far the most stringent. Growers that meet these standards for sustainability are eligible to receive the Bird-Friendly certification. This program takes an ecological approach at the intersection of habitat ecology and sustainable small farms. The Smithsonian is now working on chocolate and expanding certifications worldwide.
Look for the Bird-Friendly seal on the coffee you purchase. Most are also USDA Organic and Fair-Trade certified.
Americans drink a lot of coffee and right now American coffee habits are a big part of the problem. Why we don’t drink as much per person as the Finns, we drink the most by far as a nation. (LINK).
Unfortunately, most of the coffeeshop coffee we drink is grown in grown in ways that are harmful to habitat and climate. But if 45 million birders were to ask consistently for a bird-friendly choice, retaiilers would notice. Food is an industry that is extremely sensitive to consumer preferences.
A 2021 Cornell/Virginia Tech study revealed that less than 40 percent of birders understand what shade coffee is and that only 9 percent have purchased it.
“We know birdwatchers benefit from having healthy, diverse populations of birds, and they tend to be conservation-minded folks,” said Ashley Dayer, assistant professor in Virginia Tech’s Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation. “We need to mobilize the estimated 45 million U.S. bird enthusiasts to help limit bird population declines. One way to do that is to encourage birdwatchers to seek out and purchase bird-friendly coffee, in stores and online.”
Not surprisingly, people are confused about the terms organic, shade-grown, fair-trade, rainforest-friendly, and other labels.
The good thing is that you don’t need to worry. The Bird-Friendly certification is all you need to look for to know that your choice will have a positive impact—many Bird-Friendly coffees are also certified “Fair Trade.”
Progress depends on a global and intersectional approach where we look beyond our backyards. Coffee is good for you. Let’s make it good for animals, plants, communities and the climate, too.
As you explore the internet for articles about coffee, be aware that coffee is one of the world’s most valuable crops, rooted in colonial history, with an incredibly complex commodity chain involving many players who stand to make a profit. A great deal of the content you may encounter may be misleading.
How Shade Coffee Aids Conservation, Smithsonian Magazine,
Coffee and Conservation, a blog by Julie Craves, an ornithologist and ecologist at the University of Michigan
Smithsonian Bird Friendly Certification
Shade-grown coffee could save birds—if people drank it, Cornell Chronicle
Wonder about the impact of your daily cup of coffee on the planet? Here’s the bitter truth, Ideas TED
The World’s Love Of Coffee Is Causing The Destruction Of Natural Habitats And Ecosystems, Inhabit
The Environmental Impact Of Sun-Grown Vs. Shade-Grown Coffee, The Call to Conserve
Shade-grown coffee could change the world, The Coffee Chronicler
In Colombia, shade-grown coffee sustains songbirds and people alike, All About Birds (Cornell)
How to Choose Bird-Friendly Coffee, Audubon Magazine
Coffee Growing Can Be Good For Birds No Matter What Bean You Choose. The Smithsonian
How to Brew the Best Coffee French Press and Pour Overflow, Larry’s Coffee
PHOTOS: Getty Images
Birds & Beans *
(all the coffee they sell is certified)
Dean’s Beans *
(employee-owned, a few varieties are certified)
Thanksgiving Coffee
(they have a nice decaf!)
*Massachusetts based
Wegman’s has one store-brand Smithsonian Bird- Friendly Guatemalan coffee that is surprisingly bright and delicious for a store brand and makes a wonderful summery ice coffee.
The Whole Foods Allegro branded Early Bird—is a chocolate-y Bird-Friendly coffee. However, sometimes the Allegro Early Bird is NOT Bird-Friendly and comes in a different package wth the same name. Please check the label carefully.
Star Market does not offer a house brand that is bird-friendly, but they do sometimes carry the luscious Peets Coffee Organic Yosemite Dos Sierras, which is Bird-Friendly certified.
Stop & Shop does not list any Bird-Friendly options on their website.
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