Bird friendly organic coffee is the way to go. I did not know what this was when I first saw the Smithsonian Bird Friendly stamp on a bag of beans. Some research into the history of coffee growing makes me think that purchasing this type of coffee is a…

One question I get a lot you may have an opinion on. Many people email me asking where they can buy bird certified coffee. Because they can’t get it locally where they are, they want to know if by purchasing organic, shade grown coffee, even without the Smithsonian seal, are they are getting the same thing? I direct them to your map of locations, but then encourage them that if they can’t find it but are buying organic, shade grown, even without the certification, they can believe they are contributing to the “cause” by doing so. It does raise the question of why more of these shade grown, organic coffees are not certified. Perhaps it is the 25 cents per pound cost, but that seems unlikely. Do you have thoughts on that to offer readers?

Thanks again!

This blog and interchange is great to see. I’m glad that you, Will, pursued the questions you had about Bird Friendly® coffee and were able to solve most of them satisfactorily. In response to the question about Fair Trade and BF, I’d say that most BF coffee (aside from being organic, which is a pre-requesite for the BF seal) is also Fair Trade certified. It is the small producer cooperative that most frequently has coffee grown in ways that satisfy the BF criteria. Some estate (large, single-owner) farms certainly meet the criteria, and are listed on the website, but smaller holdings are those more likely to have the shade characteristics defined by the BF standards.

We try to post on the website the other certifications that farms or cooperatives have, so you’ll see that listed for some origins (Utz, Rainforest Alliance, Fair Trade, etc.)

Thank you Will for spreading the word on this great program!