| |
|
| |
The Birds & Beans® story began in Toronto in 1998 when Madeleine and David Pritchard opened their Café and Roastery – serving only ‘Bird Friendly’® coffee. Ten years later Scott Weidensaul (Pulitzer
prize finalist author and naturalist, 'Living on
the Wind', 'Of a Feather') and Bill Wilson took
up the cause to shift coffee drinking behavior of
bird lovers in New England and New York.
Our Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (SMBC) ‘Bird
Friendly’® certification means that Birds
& Beans® coffee is 100%-organic shade-grown,
ensuring the conservation of migratory bird habitat
in Latin America. Tanagers, thrushes, orioles, warblers,
oven-birds and other wonderful birds nesting in
Northeast America find sanctuary in the rustic canopy,
rain forest-like environments of family coffee farms
that carry the SMBC certification. Sun grown coffee
– genetically modified and heavily dependent
on chemical fertilization, pesticides and herbicides
– adds to the destruction of critical bird
habitat in Latin America. ‘Birds & Beans
the good coffee’™ is part of the solution.
We want to help add thousands of hectares of shade
grown, organic coffee habitat to the farms already
producing a truly sustainable and environmentally
responsible crop.
The Birds & Beans team has grown to include
three ' Voices for
the Birds' - authors, naturalists,
educators and conservationists. Kenn Kaufman (‘Kingbird
Highway’, Kaufman Field Guide series) and
Bridget Stutchbury (‘Silence of Songbirds’,
Professor and Director of The Stutchbury Lab at
York University, Toronto) have joined Scott Weidensaul
in getting the word out about The Good Coffee. Kenn,
Bridget and Scott are touring New England and New
York in 2009 and 2010 for The Birds & Beans
Talks™, a series of free lectures about the
birds we know and love and how our lives and theirs
are inexorably connected. Three family owned artisan
roaster partners have joined our collective. They
are experts in delivering environmentally sound
great tasting coffee. They select, roast and package
the best tasting ‘Bird Friendly’®
coffee in the world. Our coffee is fresh roasted
in New England within days of delivery to your door.
With the support of New England's and New York’s
birders, ‘Birds & Beans Coffee the good
coffee’™, will become a household name
and draw attention to the consequences of each cup
of coffee we drink. That's what we call good for
everyone! “Be Certain. Buy Certified”®. |
|
| |
|
| |
| The Smithsonian Migratory
Bird Center has developed strict scientific certification
standards for coffee farming which is organic, shade
grown, sustainable and environmentally friendly.
The SMBC certification is the best assurance coffee
drinkers can have that the coffee they are drinking
is helping preserve habitat needed by migrant birds.
Many of our most loved New England and New York
birds depend on environments such as those provided
by ‘Rustic Canopy’ coffee farming for
sustaining their populations – perhaps even
for their survival. The development of GM coffee
that can be grown in full sun with heavy chemicals,
the growth of ‘factory’ agriculture
in the coffee lands and the destruction of rain
forest make it increasingly difficult for many species
to maintain viable population levels. Organic, shade
grown coffee farms – family farms –
are the best protection we can provide. However,
the SMBC ‘Bird Friendly’® certification
has not yet become the consumer ‘gold standard’
for sustainable coffee. Birds&Beans™ coffee
fills the void and promotes the certification. |
|
