Song Bird Coffee Protects Critical Forests

Songbirds are important, beautiful and a delight to the senses.

For over 25 years Thanksgiving Coffee has continued to support endangered migrating songbirds and the essential forest habitats they need to survive.

Our work to conserve Songbirds began 1998 with our line of Songbird Coffee. Here at Thanksgiving we continue to purchase from concious coffee farmers who understand the importance of shade grown coffee, and it's role in protecting biodiversity.

The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center recently released a wonderful video that highlights the process and the importance of shade grown coffee, and we want to share it with you.

It is called Cafe Y Aves

"In rural Colombia—and many parts of the world—coffee is essential to local culture and the livelihood of farmers. To birds and other wildlife, the places where coffee plants grow are just as essential. "

By 1996, the United States forests had run out of hardwoods such as oak, ash, maple, cherry, and all the wild fruit and nut trees due to unsustainable logging practices. The desirable wood of these trees is used for many things like furniture making, and also became very in demand as high end finishes for home building, like veneers for plywood, doors and window frames.

The timber industry, needed to find another source for hardwood. They turned their attention south, to the abundant rain forests of South and Central America, where these trees and many others grew plentiful, vitalized by the nutritious soil, temperate climates and abundant rain.

They noticed that the local coffee farmers had these valuable trees growing among their coffee crops and learned that coffee is a shade loving tree, that withers in the sun and needs the shade to be a healthy producer of coffee fruit. Mahogany, and a dozen other hardwood varieties were growing in unity with the coffee trees, providing the much needed shade for the farmers crops. There was a lot of money to be made if they could convince coffee farmers to log their trees. It is a long story of deception, but governments in collaboration with multinational corporations set out to convince coffee farmers, using flawed scientific reports and false information that by clearing away these trees and growing coffee in full sun would increase their yields and therefore make them more money.

The farmers, already living on humble incomes and with the idea of making more money in the future, allowed these large timber companies to log their land. But without the leaf litter from the big trees which fertilized the soil every year, oil based fertilizers would be needed (enter Dupont). With sunlight reaching the ground, weed killers would become essential (enter Monsanto). With forest habitat lost for migratory songbirds who fed on insects, the need for pesticides became essential. A destructive cycle of harmful chemicals became a necessity.

The big chemical companies now had new markets, timber companies gained new inventories of almost unlimited, inexpensive hardwoods, and the poor coffee farmers paid for all this with higher costs, lower quality coffee, and a 90% loss of biodiversity on their farms. It is a sad story, but one we want to bring awareness to and are actively working to reverse.

Thanksgiving Coffee Company continues to partner with the American Birding Association and is Smithsonian Bird Friendly certified. This is the "Gold Standard" for coffee grown to support biodiversity and song bird habitat.

You can support Songbirds too!

When you purchase our bird friendly coffee, you are part of the solution for our planets songbirds.