At the Avian Science Center, we love our shade-grown, organic coffee!
But it's not all about coffee, we also love our shade-grown chocolate!
Did you know you're making an environmental decision every time you drink a cup of coffee? Coffee, an enormous crop worldwide, was historically grown under the natural shade of rainforest trees. But nowadays, large corporations own much of the coffee-growing land around the world and often make decisions based on the economic bottom line. Because of this, commercial coffee production often results in the clear cutting of forests to plant acres of coffee under direct sun. In a world where the amount of rainforest is shrinking daily, your 
simple decision to buy shade-grown, organic coffee helps to protect our planet’s tropical forests from the destruction often associated with commercial coffee production.
The Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, the American Birding Association, and the Smithsonian Institution, as well as many businesses here in Missoula, MT, support shade coffee. Here are four reasons to choose shade-grown, organic coffee:
1. Shade coffee allows for the coexistence – along with coffee production - of rainforest canopy. Many species of birds, insects, amphibians, mammals and more need this important habitat for survival. Sun grown coffee can only be grown in the absence of canopy, where the sun can shine through!
2. With trees shading coffee plants, soil erosion is reduced in addition to the need for fertilizers and pesticides. Without trees overhead, sun grown coffee farming requires more chemicals.
3. Shade coffee farms are often small cooperatives that historically have provided more equitable working and living conditions for their workers. Additionally, workers are less likely to be exposed to the harmful chemicals often used in commercial operations.
4. Most of the colorful birds of Montana summers – such as tanagers, orioles, and warblers - spend their winters in the tropics. These birds use shade coffee farms on average ten times more often than sun coffee farms for habitat.
Keep drinking shade coffee, and you can help ensure your favorite neotropical migrants are back in the woods again next May!
Pura vida!
Web References:
Smithsonian's Migratory Bird Center and Coffee
Northwest shade coffee Campaign
SHADE-GROWN CHOCOLATE
If you are going to eat chocolate (and who isn't?) you might as well make that bird-friendly too. The National Wildlife Federation has information on the importance of sustainable cocoa plantations to the North American birds that migrate to and from Latin America, and they provide a list of orgainic, fair-trade chocolate suppliers.
Finally, we have tasted many-a-fine chocolate bar and, hands down, the chocolate made by Kallari, a local cooperative based in Ecuador, is THE BEST. Visit their web site to learn more, and hopefully soon it will be readily available in the U.S. Maybe you can help support Kallari?
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