Coffee drinking goes to the birds

Posted Feb 16, 2012 By Scott Pettigrew

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EMC Lifestyles -Tweed - Recently the Hastings Stewardship Council hosted a seminar on bird feeding in Tweed with keynote speaker Terry Sprague. As part of that presentation Kathy Felkar was invited to speak on "Bird Friendly" Shade Grown Nicaraguan Coffee.

Kathy was at the seminar representing the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory and said that they were there to enlighten people about bird friendly coffee.

"Bird friendly coffee is coffee grown under the canopy of the rain forest, and unbeknown to most people, coffee is the second largest commodity being purchased on the world trade marketa lot of coffee is being grown. Because the coffee is grown only in countries with abundant rain forests, what happens is many of the countries looking for a large yield, and possibly two harvests each year, have taken down the rain forest completely and grow their coffee bushes in full sun. The cheap coffee we now buy in most of our grocery stores and in many of our favourite drive-through stores is full-sun grown."

Kathy connected the shade coffee to our migratory birds when she said, "When many of our migratory birds head south for their winter habitat, that habitat is very quickly being destroyed so more coffee fields can be grown. In poorer countries in the south it is obviously a way to make money and either sell or lease your land to coffee growers."

Kathy added there are different levels of shade tree coffees and although a company may say they are grown in shade it may be only partial shade, attracting a limited bird population, the shade may be man-made, not rain forest, and this is one way companies try to make themselves look good in the eyes of consumers, by putting birds on their packaging.

Kathy said she read that Margaret Atwood had put her name to a coffee as a fund raiser for Point Pelee and Kathy said this inspired her

to source the coffee and find a coffee to help raise funds for Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory.

"We are a non-profit organization and the proceeds from the coffee we sell goes directly to banding birds that are heading south so we can keep an eye on populations, what is happening with weather, as well as habitat here in Canada. When birds leave our country we tend to forget about them until they return but what we don't realize is decisions we make every day here affect that route of migration and affect where the birds will live in the south where they spend as much time as they do here in Canada."

Kathy has a genuine enthusiasm and passion for what she is doing and was excited to talk about the coffee they sell which is from a small shade tree farm in the mountains of Nicaragua called High Shade Tree Coffee.

"The family that grows the coffee is an interesting family and there has actually been a documentary done on CBC

about their coffee plantation. Farm owner Roberto Siallos came to Canada after the Sandinista revolution with his young daughters and they live in London, Ontario. Roberto headed back in the late 1990s to run the farm and their farm grows what we like to think of as "rustic grown" coffee because they have not taken any of the trees out of the rain forest. There are over 25 species of trees and three to four layers of undergrowth so when our birds get down south there is food they like to eat, habitat, and these farmers that grow the coffee we buy are in a small collective supporting this method of growing coffee."

Kathy said after the crop is harvested and processed it is sent to the daughters in London for distribution. "The daughters roast their father's beans and that is who we buy from."

Kathy said people can purchase the coffee from a store in Picton called County Sunshine and they can buy it from her organization as well by going to their web site at
ca>. Kathy said they sell most of the coffee at functions such as the Tweed seminar and during birding festivals.

"We have made it sustainable by having it sold through the store in Picton who take

none of the profit. People need to be more aware of making ethical choices when they buy their food. We know the farmer who grows our coffee and we know people who have been to his farm.

We know he is making ethical decisions that make sense for birds and the people who live down there."

Incidentally the By the Way Coffee Shop in Tweed sells "bird friendly coffee."

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