Clearly, coffee is a ritual, a simple pleasure, and not something that necessarily inspires deep thoughts about significant global concerns. But the Songbird Foundation, a non-profit advocacy organization, is part of a growing movement determined to show that, regardless of your taste preference, an even better cup of coffee might be as simple as ONE (fairly traded) - TWO (shade-grown) - THREE (organic).

After petroleum, coffee is the most heavily traded commodity in the world, and the international flow of coffee beans is like black gold for specialty-coffee companies. And with the glut of beans in the marketplace as more and more developing countries seek to capitalize, their price is at a ten-year low. While this works to the advantage of giants like Folgers, Yuban, and Maxwell House, it leaves coffee growers scraping to make a living. In Honduras, for example, many predict most of the country's 105,000 coffee farmers will soon be forced to abandon their insolvent farms.

Similarly, the falling price of beans has both been influenced by and has exacerbated coffee-related deforestation. Coffee, traditionally a slow-growing, shade-loving plant (it takes five years to bear fruit), gets higher yields in the bright sun. To gain coveted sunlight, growers -- whose economic fate may already be sealed -- are bringing down the trees. Unfortunately, along with the use of pesticides, this may also be sealing the fate of migratory songbirds, as many as 150 species of which rely on forests where coffee grows in the shade for habitat.

Founded four years ago by songwriter Danny O'Keefe, the Songbird Foundation is making a fundamental connection between the coffee you drink, the people who grow it, and the birds that thrive around it with the help of something people can easily understand -- music. This past June, Songbird connected social purpose with people's passions by featuring popular musical crusaders Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, and Keb' Mo' in a highly successful Seattle benefit concert, following a similar show in Philadelphia a couple of years back. Shade-grown coffee is the core of Songbird's message, but it's bigger than that. It's also working on the "fair trade" concept, trying to ensure that growers get a fair price for their beans. As it turns out, these issues are inextricably linked. Songbird's awareness campaign for the good of farmers and birds and in the name of conscious consumerism is showing people how their decision about the kind of coffee they drink can resonate with profound social benefits. Says O'Keefe: "We're marketing positivity and showing people how they, similar to the metamorphosis of a butterfly, can incrementally make change."

These issues are nothing new to scores of small non-profits that have long trumpeted the benefits of responsible coffee. Songbird partners with the Northwest Shade Coffee Campaign, a coalition of retailers, roasters, and growers aligned to preserve tropical songbird habitat. It also works closely with TransFair USA, a group that fair-trade certifies certain coffee beans. Other groups like Coffee Kids focus on the well-being of children in coffee-growing families in places like Guatemala. Trees for the Future works to reforest tracts of land in coffee country that have been bulldozed to grow beans on factory farms.

On Bainbridge Island, near Seattle, Bainbridge-Ometepe Sister Islands Association, a volunteer-staffed non-profit direct retailer, sells beans grown on an island in Nicaragua and uses all profits to fund efforts there that support sustainable farming and public health. Every year, BOSIA sends three to six delegations from the U.S. to work on coffee-related projects in Ometepe, including a team of high school students. This year, they're sending a group -- some of whom are parents of students who have gone previously -- to pick coffee and learn firsthand the value of shade-grown beans. It's likely they'll also see many of the same songbird species in Ometepe they've watched on Bainbridge, thus making an important connection. According to BOSIA's David Mitchell: "We're getting used to hearing, 'The experience changed my life.'"

Meanwhile, the Songbird Foundation will sponsor a series of cafe concerts throughout Seattle this fall featuring live performances by local musicians and multimedia educational exhibits, a series the group hopes to replicate in other North American cities next year as it continues sounding its broadly appealing message: coffee growers, specialty-coffee retailers, and, of course, songbirds can make beautiful music together.

Wood Turner
Editor/Publisher, GoodThings, Inc.

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