Page 27 - LIN-May-June-July-2024-web-file

I s your
Is your
coffee
coffee

for
the Birds? ?
the Birds

by Tim L. Tetzlaff, Director of Conservation,
Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens

erhaps like you, I spent pruning. Without these benefits, farmers had to spend
many a childhood hour money on pesticide and fertilizer, some of which are not
P absorbed in Looney applied in healthy ways.
Tunes™ and laughing at various Here’s the good news. Because Americans drink
characters’ foibles including the about a third of the world’s coffee, our choices can shift
gag when someone like Yosemite how coffee is grown in a positive way. How? Buy Bird
Sam sawed the board or tree Friendly® certified coffee and ask for it where you get
branch they stood on leading to coffee. It’s the gold standard for shade grown, organic
a comedic fall. Of course, it’s not as amusing in real life coffee. We serve and sell this at Naples Zoo. Sadly, it’s
when we are caught acting against our own interests. One still rare to find in stores and restaurants and even rarer
of the more common of these examples I run across is meeting to find in K-cups. I bought a couple reusable K-Cup filters to
avid birders and nature lovers who are unaware their choice of avoid the plastic pollution and now I can conveniently sip the Bird
morning coffee is one of the prominent causes of the precipitous Friendly® coffee of my choice. Plus, I pay regular bag prices for
decline of their feathered friends. The good news is that the best great coffee instead of the $33 to $50 a pound that ordinary coffee
coffee for birds is also among the best for us coffee drinkers and in a K-Cup costs.
for the people who grow it. So feel great about waking up to a world that’s better for birds,
To understand the background of this issue, we go back the people who grow your coffee, and your taste buds.
not too long after some of those iconic cartoons hit the screen. To learn more about coffee and see the many Bird Friendly®
Before the 1960s, most coffee grew slowly on shaded hillsides. varieties you can order online, visit www.napleszoo.org/coffee.
But, to cut costs, corporations began mixing in cheaper, harsher Then brew a cup as good as when those classic cartoons first played!
tasting beans. To compete, many high quality coffee bean growers Until next month, that’s all folks...
clear cut their shaded farms to grow beans faster in full sun.
The result was a sacrifice in flavor and 94% fewer bird species
living on that coffee farm. Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens is a private 501(c)(3) nonprofit entrusted with educating
But it’s not just birds getting the short end of the branch. Birds families and caring for rare species in a century old historic garden. Since 2014, Naples
Zoo has invested over $3.5 million saving plants and animals in the wild and fully funds
and other wildlife on traditional shade farms ate crop pests. Fallen
the annual salary of 27 field staff in 7 countries including three wildlife veterinarians.
leaves from the trees provided natural mulch and fertilizer. Trees
To learn more about how you can invest in a better future for people and wildlife, email
also gave farmers additional crops and a fuel source from annual tim@napleszoo.org.

27
Life in Naples | May, June, July 2024 27