Page One

Coffee is for the birds

Alan Kaplan
Wednesday June 19, 2002

To the Editor 

Coffee is for the birds. Shade-grown coffee and migratory song birds, that is.  

Many of the birds we enjoy locally in Tilden Park and throughout the Pacific States now depend on shade-grown coffee plantations for winter habitat and survival. 

For example, 60 percent of El Salvador's designated “forest” is actually coffee plantations. Rick Young's ballot proposal would promote the wider use of shade-grown coffee, creating a greater incentive for coffee producers from Mexico to Colombia and beyond to maintain habitat that both produces a better cup of coffee and aids the survival of “our” birds. 

Alan Kaplan 

El Cerrito