Rubie Shinedling
What’s up APES, welcome to my blog. The birds are dying. My absolute favorite creatures on this planet are disappearing at a frighteningly alarming rate. It might seem like there is no hope for our feathered friends. However, there’s a simple way that each and every one of us can help put a stop to this tragedy. It has a little something to do with our nation’s favorite beverage: coffee.
What’s up APES, welcome to my blog. The birds are dying. My absolute favorite creatures on this planet are disappearing at a frighteningly alarming rate. It might seem like there is no hope for our feathered friends. However, there’s a simple way that each and every one of us can help put a stop to this tragedy. It has a little something to do with our nation’s favorite beverage: coffee.
Birds are an essential part of the daily workings of our planet. Not only do they provide the human race with an infinite amount of beauty, inspiration, and wisdom (from the comfort of our own backyards!), but they each have countless purposes on this planet. They play the roles of predators, prey, and scavengers, and without them, entire ecosystems would collapse. These critters are great pollinators and aid in seed dispersal around the world. Some birds are even able to carry seeds over 300 kilometers. In addition to these and countless other reasons, these creatures are very sensitive to any changes in their habitats, and are easy for scientists to study; therefore, they provide invaluable information on the overall health of the environment.
A 2017 study published in Science counted for the first time in history a wide scale loss of birds in the United States and Canada. Since the 1970’s, 3 billion birds have vanished, equating to a net loss of 30% of the continent’s bird population. All ecosystems in North America have experienced this loss. Species native to boreal forests have experienced a 33% loss in population, while grasslands have lost 53% of theirs. These statistics are an accurate reflection of how urbanization, pesticides, and invasive species have had a negative effect on much of North America’s wildlife. However, even common backyard birds that actually benefit from human life, like barn swallows and dark-eyed juncos, have experienced major declines. In fact, guys like these seem to have suffered the most.
Most of the birds we get to see from our own back porches do not actually make permanent homes of our homes; they’re just passing through. You might see more yellow birds around here in the wintertime, or you might see an abundance of hummingbirds in the summer despite hardly seeing them during any other season. This is because these and many other birds are migratory, meaning they travel North and South with each changing season, following their main food source. For example, American Goldfinches may travel from Canada to Texas in the winter in order to find some seeds, whereas in the summer, Ruby-Throated hummingbirds will fly from Costa Rica to Texas in search of nectar. Migratory birds like these make up the majority of the backyard birds we see every day, but unfortunately, they also make up 2.5 of the 3 billion birds that have disappeared in the past 50 years. This is largely due to habitat loss in Central and South America.
Habitat loss is a major issue plaguing the entire planet, but it is especially important to migratory bird loss in the Western Hemisphere. These migratory birds spend a majority of their year in these continents, where their ecosystems are being converted into agricultural land. A large percentage of this new farmland is being used to grow coffee. Coffee is a shade and moisture loving plant, and until about half a century ago, it was grown using a technique called “shade-farming”, where rows of coffee plants were grown under a canopy of native trees and foliage. This process caused coffee beans to ripen quite slowly, but it gave them a rich flavor. It also allowed rainforests to continue to thrive, and protected native ecosystems, giving migratory birds a home whenever they need it. In addition, growing coffee in rainforests gave farmers natural “pesticides”, in the form of birds and other animals feasting on the insects that would have been damaging the crops. By using “shade-farming”, natural fertilizer from the waste of plants and animals was provided. However, because of the slow speed at which the plants grew, farmers and businessmen decided they needed to come up with a more “efficient” method of farming in order to keep up with the growing coffee industry. In the 1970s, a technique called open-sun farming was introduced. This meant clearing forested land in order to plant rows and rows of coffee plants to grow them in full sunlight. The method proved to produce more coffee and was much more efficient. However, without the benefits of growing these crops in rainforests, farmers started paying for artificial fertilizers and chemical pesticides, bringing soil erosion to an all-time high. On top of this, the coffee simply didn’t taste as good.
Today, coffee farms take up 27 million acres of the tropical forest belt, the place most of North America’s migratory birds call home for various seasons of the year. Currently, 93.4% of the global coffee market uses full sun farming, including all of our favorite coffee brands like Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts. The other 6.6% still uses shaded farming, the original way it was grown and the way it ought to be now. In order to save the birds, we need to switch back to shade-grown coffee. We can do this by buying coffee from certified Bird-Friendly® farms, which are required to use only sustainable practices as well as shade farming. Some companies that sell coffee from certified Bird-Friendly® farms include Birds and Beans®, Redstart Roasters®, and Wood Warbler Coffee®. In addition to switching the coffee we use in homes, we can urge big coffee companies to make the switch by boycotting them until they make the change, and maybe even sending in a letter or two.
In one year, Americans consume 146 billion cups of coffee. At this rate, all birds could be extinct within this century. The best way we can reverse this pattern is by thinking before we drink. Not only will responsible coffee drinking bring habitats back to birds and other living organisms, but it will also help in the fight against climate change and will help support small family farms that exclusively practice sustainable farming. Given the current events, now is a better time than ever to support small businesses like these. This is something that every single coffee-drinking person can do, including you. Do your part to save the birds and this planet. Make the switch to shade-grown coffee today!
TL/DR: The birds are dying but if we switch to shade-grown coffee we can save them!
Questions:
- Are you gonna switch to shade grown coffee? Why or why not?
- What are some other steps we can all take to help bring back the birds?
- What’s your favorite bird?
Sources:
Super Cool Live Bird Cams!!! (check out the barred owls!)
12 comments:
Terrific information, Rubie! I am glad you touched on agroforestry and the role it plays in coffee and birds. We keep birds fed in our yard year round. I enjoy watching their feeding and nesting habits and how they interact with each other. We see migratory birds each year. Yesterday, we saw a large contingency of female blackbirds. This was unusual because we rarely have any but this year we have a pair hanging around constantly! And joining in yesterday were some cedar waxwings. They usually come through around February so I'm not sure what this late appearance was all about. It makes me curious. I am partial to cardinals. They are locals. We have them year round, they nest close by and raise their babies where we can witness them grow up! Right now, we also have a nesting pair of bluebirds! They are nesting in a house right by my kitchen window. I get to watch the male bring food for the female constantly. He also takes his turn in the nest while she goes out and does... bird things.
Birds I CANNOT STAND: white wing doves!! They are invasives. They have taken over the native mourning dove and I just hate them!!!!!
Other birds we have year round: blue jays, two kinds of woodpeckers, mockingbirds, house finches, sparrows (also invasives), chickadees.
Our migratory birds include goldfinches (beautiful!!), hummingbirds, dark-eyed juncos, cedar waxwings, blackbirds, and I've even spied a yellowhammer!
Gosh. I love those birds, too!!
This also wanted to make me be more cautious about my coffee selection. I will search them out for certain!
Oh, and hawks. We have hawks come around. I got to watch one take down an dove and sit around eating it. Really cool!!
I personally do not drink coffee all that often as it is but when I do I will try to make sure that the coffee beans were produced through shade-farming in the future. One way we could help to bring back all the birds is to try and use land more compactly in order to preserve natural habitats for birds. My favorite bird is the penguin.
Sorry guys I forgot to un-double space the sources and questions and stuff so just pretend it doesn't take up as much space as it does
I am not an avid coffee drinker, so my conscience feels a little more guilt free! However, I think it is very important that this knowledge of certain coffee-growing practices harming birds, should be more commonly taught. This is the first time I have heard of bird-friendly coffee and I believe there are many coffee drinkers in the world that would be more than willing to make a slight change in their daily lives to help the environment.
I don’t drink coffee, so I can’t switch to a different brand, but I will keep this information in the back of my mind for the future. I think it’s important that people know this information, though. It shouldn’t be too difficult to switch to shadow-grown coffee, especially since it tastes better. I also think brands like Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts should be held accountable for their environmental impact.
I am not someone that drinks coffee, so I can't say much. However, if i was a regular coffee drinker I would switch to shade grown coffee. Some other steps we can take is that individuals can reduce our land consumption for coffee and think of other ways that we can reduce the amount of land we deforest. We can also find new agricultural practices which minimize the amount of land used but maximize the production of the crop. My favorite bird is a Hermoso.
I do not personally drink coffee, but I can convince my parents and relatives and friends who do to switch to shade-grown coffee and warn them about the danders of open sun farming. My grandparents are very interested in birds and are avid coffee drinkers, so I am sure that they will be glad to hear this information. I think that we can also work on preserving the trees that we have around us, especially in our parks and yards, and also plant trees that will serve as habitats for birds in the future. My favorite bird is the hummingbird because I think that they are very pretty and are also a sing of spring and summer coming.
I am actually not a coffee drinker, so I will not need to change brands or boycott places like dunkin donuts and other major coffee chains. However, I will definitely pass on this information to more avid coffee drinkers in my family like my dad and brother. I will encourage them to switch the brands they use in order to protect the birds. In fact, my grandmother is an avid coffee drinker but also loves birds. She sits outside on her porch every morning to watch the birds while drinking her coffee. Kinda ironic. I am sure that once she learns about this information she will quickly switch her coffee brand to save the poor birds. Some other steps we can take to help birds are slow or even stop deforestation. Deforestation is destroying the birds' habitats along with the agricultural practices used to make coffee. If we can stop this process from happening, the birds can return to their natural habitat and they will not be at risk of extinction. However, this will be difficult because many industries today are reliant on lumber and wood from the forests. But, I believe that we can slowly start to make a change for the better. I don't have a favorite bird, but I have always enjoyed watching the hummingbirds on my grandmother's porch.
I have tasted coffee before but never took a liking to it and I don't think I'll ever drink coffee later in my life. Some steps we could take to bring back birds is by planting native trees for the birds, and reduce pesticides for birds to have more foods to consume such as insects. We could probably start by planting in our backyards or use less pesticides. If I had to choose a favorite bird it would be the king of Saxony bird of paradise due to its feather shaft that look like chains flinging in the sky.
I don’t really drink that much coffee especially at home so I cant make a difference by switching coffees. but we can all definitely do things to help birds like protecting their habitats and not destroying them and I know that in some areas the local government asks hunters to kill invasive birds that are killing all the birds that naturally live there. While that means birds will still die, its better than the invasive species wiping out all the other birds because they bring hard competition. My favorite bird is probably a blue jay because I see them outside of my house and they are so noticible because of their cool blue feathers.
I don't drink coffee, but if i were to drink coffee I would change to shade growth coffee. However my mom drinks coffee and I would convince her to switch to shade growth coffee. Honestly I didn't know growing coffee harmed the birds. I think this is a important information people should keep in mind and if shade growth coffee taste better it isn't be too hard to change to. My favorite bird is the blue jay and hummingbird because I personally think their colors are so beautiful and because I rarely get to see them.
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