The Green Room

David Pritchard of Birds and Beans Inc. in Toronto, ON writes:

Thank you for including information about the importance of buying Bird Friendly® coffee in your November update . We are encouraged by your interest in the subject, however it is important to correct your use of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center’s Bird Friendly® trademark.

If we are to have any hope of saving our migratory bird populations, it is essential that consumers come to understand the environmental impact of their buying decisions.  Unfortunately, according to the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (SMBC), not all coffee sold as shade coffee is actually providing habitat to our migrating birds.

The SMBC created the Bird Friendly certification in order to allow consumers to be certain that the shade on certified coffee farms is providing homes for our migratory birds and other wildlife. They developed their certification criteria based on scientific study that includes an underlying organic certification and diverse shade conditions. Their research shows that not all shade provides good habitat.

We at Birds and Beans specialize in Bird Friendly® coffees. We are the only roaster in Canada that actively sells and promotes certified Bird Friendly Coffee. We offer the widest selection of shade grown coffees in Canada and are currently working with a group of coffee roasters in the USA to form a collective that will promote certified Bird Friendly coffee in Canada and the USA.

Meantime, here’s a list of roasters and retailers of certified Bird Friendly coffees and more detailed information about the Bird Friendly Coffee program.

Lindsay responds:

We really appreciate your effort to bring some additional clarity around coffee labeling. Our readership is becoming increasingly savvy about their consumer choices and we really enjoy the opportunity to bring them along.

Definitely in the future we can elaborate on the layers and layers of information around topics such as the Bird Friendly Coffee. In the issue you’re referencing we used the expertise of the Boreal Birds Initiative as well as doing some research of our own. Of course, you can never capture it all but this is a great way to learn.