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Coffee People: Kirstin Hill, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center · Coffee People Podcast

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1:04
Hey, good morning everyone. Welcome to the Coffee People
1:07
Podcast, which is part of the Roast West Coast Coffee Network
1:11
and presented by Roast Star Coffee Packaging.
1:13
If you are roasting coffee and you want to put your perfectly
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crafted beans into a perfectly crafted package or tin, you're
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going to want to check out Roast star.com.
1:23
I'm Ryan Wolt and this is the Coffee People Podcast, where we
1:27
meet really interesting people from all corners of the coffee
1:30
industry. Today we're stretching a bit out
1:33
of our normal interviewee zone to chat with Kirsten Hill.
1:36
She has a long title, so I'm going to try to get it all out
1:39
in one breath. Kirsten is the bird Friendly
1:42
Program Manager for the Smithsonian Migratory Bird
1:45
Center. In coffee, she works to grow
1:47
demand and support for Smithsonian bird friendly
1:50
certified coffees, which they refer to as the gold standard in
1:54
biodiversity friendly coffee and the only coffee that guarantees
1:57
that every being sold is grown in a way that provides high
2:00
quality habitat. For birds and other wildlife, if
2:03
you want to dig into that a little bit while listening
2:05
today, you can learn more at drinkbirdfriendly.com.
2:09
The term bird friendly coffee overlaps somewhat with the term
2:12
shade grown coffee, but the Smithsonian certification you
2:16
know, I think Kirsten can do a better job of explaining it.
2:20
I'd love to talk a little bit about sort of what bird friendly
2:23
means and kind of the the scope of the program in in that sense.
2:27
So just to provide a little context for anyone who.
2:30
Perhaps hasn't heard of Bird Friendly or might be learning or
2:34
hearing about it for the first time.
2:35
So Bird Friendly is a third party certification program that
2:38
was created by Smithsonian to protect biodiversity habitat on
2:42
coffee farms. So in the simplest terms, Bird
2:45
Friendly coffee comes from farms that provide good forest like
2:47
habitat for birds and other wildlife.
2:50
We uphold some very strict environmental criteria around
2:54
what it means for a farm to be bird friendly, which is why we
2:58
kind of think of ourselves as the gold standard in
3:01
biodiversity friendly coffee that's currently on the market.
3:04
So the way that the program works is we certify at the farm
3:07
level and have licensing agreements in place at the
3:10
importer and the roaster level. And So what that means is that
3:14
third party inspectors come out to certify a farm as bird
3:18
friendly. Once the certification is
3:20
issued, then the farm can trade their coffee as bird friendly
3:23
for a period of three years. And that coffee can then enter
3:27
into our bird friendly supply chain of importers, roasters and
3:30
retailers where it makes its way to the coffee consumer.
3:34
And when we think about what it means to be bird friendly and
3:37
sort of the types of things that we look for in the
3:39
certification, one of the primary things is shade cover.
3:43
So we look for a minimum of 40% shade covering over the coffee
3:47
crop, so trees. Providing if you picture
3:49
yourself standing in the middle of a coffee farm, you look
3:53
straight up and about 40% of what you're seeing is covered by
3:57
leaves, covered by canopy. So that would meet the bird
4:00
friendly standard provided that nice high quality shade.
4:03
We also look for a canopy height of about 12 meters in order for
4:07
bird family certification to be issued.
4:09
And we look for tree diversity as well.
4:12
So we want to have at least 10 species of trees on the farm and
4:16
we want to have majority of those tree species being native.
4:20
And that's because native trees provide healthier bugs,
4:24
healthier insects, healthier berries for the birds and
4:27
biodiversity that are living there compared to trees that
4:30
might be. Native to a different area and
4:32
then kind of brought in and planted there as well.
4:35
We look for a lot of other criteria as well that are more
4:38
long lines of recommended criteria.
4:39
So things like maintaining stumps and snags, you know,
4:43
little areas for birds to hide and for bugs to hide for the
4:47
birds to then hunt out and eat. We want to see things like
4:50
riparian buffers, so areas that kind of keep.
4:54
Stretch of lands available between where the crop ends and
4:58
a stream or a river would begin and that helps prevent a lot of
5:02
excess nutrients and things like that entering into the the water
5:06
system there and then as. We've talked about a little bit
5:08
before, organic certification is a prerequisite for becoming bird
5:13
friendly certified as well. So those are kind of the main
5:16
tenants of what it means to be bird friendly.
5:18
So when you see that logo, that's what that means, that's
5:20
what you're signing up for. That 100% of the coffee that
5:23
you're purchasing is coming from that type of habitat.
5:28
That bit of audio was from near the end of our conversation, but
5:32
it explains so much about the work they are doing at the
5:34
Smithsonian that I wanted you to hear it upfront.
5:37
Before we get into the rest of this chat, I should acknowledge
5:40
that I am a casual ordering on not so casual birder.
5:44
Just this week, my cousin and I spent a few minutes glassing
5:46
some egrets and blue herons out the window at his home in
5:49
Minnesota. He has been equally bit by the
5:52
Burning bug. One of my favorite parts about
5:54
the whole birding adventure is being able to enjoy a cup of
5:57
great coffee outside while I wait for something interesting
6:00
to wing into view. Today I'm drinking a cup of
6:03
French Pressed Sergeant Pepper's Coffee Roasters, which was
6:06
pulled from their honor box in the small town of Patagonia,
6:09
Arizona. I hope you're enjoying a full
6:11
mug of something delicious as well, because it is time for
6:14
another Coffee People podcast, this time with Kirsten Hill,
6:17
bird Friendly Program Manager at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird
6:21
Center. I think it's me.
6:34
I've had that kind of day where everyone is running a little
6:36
behind around me. Oh boy.
6:41
I spent three hours in the car this morning just to get coffee
6:44
because it was just chaos everywhere.
6:46
Oh. Boy.
6:47
I'm really excited that you were here on the show and.
6:52
You know, you come to this show with a different perspective
6:55
than maybe one of our normal guests.
6:57
Could you, for me and for everyone who's going to
6:59
eventually listen to this, let us know what your name is and
7:03
your job, kind of what your role is in coffee and where you're
7:07
located. Absolutely.
7:10
So my name is Kirsten Hill, I am the program manager for the
7:13
Smithsonian Bird Friendly Certification, and I live in
7:17
Port Moody, BC, which is just outside of the City of
7:21
Vancouver. And I did a little bit of
7:24
research before the show and I had actually in my notes
7:26
Vancouver, WA. So I'm glad that I had asked
7:28
that or looked that up before we actually chatted.
7:32
Although I just told everyone I should ask you right at the top,
7:35
do you have a favorite bird? That's a great question and when
7:40
we do get quite a bit. So I would say if I had to
7:44
choose, I might go with the Loggerhead Strike, which is a
7:47
really interesting little bird that is known for impaling its
7:52
prey on small spikes and thorns and and fence posts and things
7:56
like that. Which I just kind of fell in
7:59
love with sort of just the the kookiness of that behavior, that
8:03
really unique behavior in this bird.
8:05
So they're just kind of these little feisty birds that that I
8:08
I said, you know if I have to pick a favorite, I'm going to go
8:10
with this guy with this kind of unique behavior for how they
8:15
kind of impale their prey. I'm going to skip ahead in my my
8:19
thought process here to a question I was going to ask in a
8:22
few minutes, but based on that. When I think of the Smithsonian,
8:26
I think of the TV show Bones, but I don't think that's what
8:29
you guys are doing. That is like my experience with
8:32
the Smithsonian. What is your organization within
8:35
the Smithsonian Institute do? Yeah, good question.
8:39
So I've actually never seen the show Bones.
8:41
So I'm not sure what the, I guess they portray as their
8:46
connection to Smithsonian, but. They are a forensic scientist to
8:51
study murders. Okay interesting.
8:54
Not bird murders. Do they work for the
8:56
Smithsonian? Yes, they work for the
8:59
Smithsonian as scientists, and they are brought in as
9:01
consultants on Washington DC murders.
9:05
That's. A very intense show, but the
9:08
loggerhead strike is not, as far as I know, one of the murderers
9:11
in the show, but maybe some. So I'll let you get back to it.
9:16
What is kind of the role that you that you have your
9:18
organization has within the museum?
9:21
Yeah. So the the Smithsonian Bird
9:23
Friendly Program is part of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird
9:26
Center. So that is the center in which
9:28
we are housed. And Smithsonian is a really
9:32
massive entity. So it consists of 19 museums,
9:36
plus the National Zoo and research institutions and
9:39
centers that are found around the world.
9:42
So we at the Migratory Bird Center are actually part of the
9:46
Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute,
9:50
which is headquartered in Washington, DC Our center, the
9:54
Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, works to study the grand
9:57
phenomenon of bird migration, largely thinking about migration
10:01
and migratory patterns occurring between North America where
10:05
birds will breed. And then flying down South for
10:09
the winter, where they kind of spend their time over wintering
10:12
in a more tropical or a warmer climate than they would during
10:16
the warm weather months, so studying that annual cycle of
10:19
migration and the birds that complete it.
10:22
That's shocking how large that is.
10:25
I didn't realize there's that many museums.
10:28
I just knew of the one before this, so that's really
10:31
intriguing to me. I want to get into kind of bird
10:34
friendly coffee momentarily, but before I do.
10:37
I want to know what is kind of the current status of birds and
10:40
and hope you're the right person to ask, but you hear these
10:43
ominous headlines or you hear on PBS or in the news about bird
10:47
species teetering on the edge of extinction, so to speak, and
10:50
losing species over the last several decades.
10:53
Lots of climate impacts. Where are we now?
10:55
What is kind of our current state?
10:58
Yeah, so unfortunately the state of birds is in a bit of a
11:01
perilous state right now. In 2019, there was a study that
11:05
were really that was released that documented the loss of
11:07
approximately 3 billion birds in North America since 1970.
11:12
So that's a pretty remarkable loss.
11:14
And 2.5 billion of those birds were migratory species.
11:19
So the species that spend some of their time in North America
11:22
and then migrate to a different location for their overwintering
11:25
period. To put that in perspective,
11:27
that's a loss of about 28% of the population of migratory bird
11:32
species since 1970. So the state of the birds is
11:36
honestly kind of a perilous one at the moment.
11:39
So we're seeing a lot of losses for animals like migratory
11:42
birds, warblers, thrushes, birds like that that you might often
11:46
see sort of in your backyard during the warm weather months.
11:50
Pretty drastic decline there that we're seeing.
11:52
So that's one of the things that our program is kind of looking
11:55
at and studying because a lot of that loss of bird species has to
12:00
do with habitat destruction and for migratory species in
12:04
particular. The interesting kind of question
12:07
for how do you resolve habitat destruction, how do you, how do
12:10
you restore and and conserve habitat for these birds?
12:13
Changes not just on one location like it does for animals that
12:16
kind of have a, you know, a home range of maybe, you know, a few
12:19
miles or few 100 miles. Even these birds are moving huge
12:24
distances. So you're having to protect
12:26
habitat at different points of that annual cycle of migration.
12:29
So you want to have habitat protected for them in the areas
12:32
in which they're breeding as well as the areas in which they
12:35
are overwintering and they'll stop oversights in between.
12:40
That makes a lot of sense that the the travel patterns where
12:44
they're going, they've got to be able to stop.
12:46
It's like it's like me driving across the country.
12:47
I'm going to stop at a hotel and rest up for the next day or
12:51
campsite probably more likely I want to wrap it around a little
12:54
bit to coffee. So birds and coffee, coffee
12:57
farms, how do they interact? Yeah.
13:00
So that is actually how we came up with the bird friendly
13:04
program. So we are bird scientists that
13:07
sort of stumbled our way into coffee.
13:10
So you know, we mentioned that study that was talking about the
13:13
the loss of birds since the 1970s.
13:15
The migratory bird center has been around since the 1990s and
13:19
we've had scientists who were studying this sort of decline in
13:22
bird populations. And during this kind of research
13:26
period what they discovered was that coffee farms.
13:30
That kept shade trees on their land and maintained good healthy
13:35
native vegetation on their on their farms could provide really
13:40
high quality habitat for birds and biodiversity.
13:43
So one of the founders of the Migratory Bird Center sort of
13:47
made this discovery that you know high quality shaded habitat
13:51
equals healthy populations of birds and from there that's sort
13:55
of how the bird friendly program came to be.
13:58
So those are that's kind of our origin.
14:00
Story, if you will, is this discovery of good shade, good
14:05
coffee, good for birds? How do birds provide a value to
14:12
those coffee farms, those coffee producers?
14:14
I mean, do they? Or is it more of a this is for
14:17
the good of the birds? You should do this.
14:20
Yeah. Actually birds provide a lot of
14:22
really important ecosystem services, we call them.
14:25
So those are things like pollination or seed dispersal.
14:29
And then another really important one is pest control.
14:32
So the coffee Berry borer is a pretty problematic predator bug.
14:38
That's a predator to coffee cherries.
14:41
And one of the things that birds do is feed on these guys.
14:45
So for some of these birds, if you are, you know, providing a
14:49
healthy habitat. In which they can live sort of
14:52
on the farm. They're going to be returning
14:54
the favor by taking care of your coffee, Berry borer, pests and
14:58
other insects and pests like that for you.
15:02
At what point did this idea of like, oh like coffee farm seem
15:07
to be good for birds? Birds seem to be good for coffee
15:09
farms. We should create a system to
15:12
reward farmers that are providing this habitat for birds
15:16
with some sort of seal or some sort of.
15:19
Benefit, how did that certification come about?
15:22
And I'm wondering if you could tell me a little bit about that
15:24
process of certification. For sure.
15:27
So it started with that research that was occurring on the
15:30
grounds, and then from there we started talking to other folks
15:35
in the coffee world about what? It could mean to create a system
15:39
that would allow for the preservation of habitat and
15:42
native shade trees on coffee farms, so that it would benefit
15:46
birds and biodiversity. And the certification sort of
15:49
evolved from there. So there was an initial
15:52
Sustainable Coffee Congress that happened in the early 2000s that
15:55
Smithsonian was a part of. And that kind of paved the way
15:59
for the creation of the bird friendly certification from
16:02
there. So even though we're still a
16:04
relatively small certification in the grand scheme of things,
16:07
we have been around for about two decades now.
16:11
Wow, that's actually much longer than I would have guessed.
16:15
The Bird Friendly Seal and I just want to read it for
16:17
everyone. I pulled this from your website
16:19
so let me know if I misspeak, but it says that when you
16:22
purchased bird Friendly certified coffee or cocoa.
16:25
You preserve critical habitat for birds and wildlife, fight
16:29
climate change, protect biodiversity, and support
16:32
farmers committed to conserving bird and wildlife habitat by
16:35
farming sustainably, which I think is a pretty big, you know,
16:39
statement. But as a coffee drinker who is
16:42
not a farmer, do I have a reason to care beyond the fact that
16:47
it's another certification on the bag?
16:50
Yeah, so if you are a coffee drinker who is?
16:54
You consider yourself maybe a conscious consumer or someone
16:56
who cares about you know, the environment, about biodiversity,
17:00
about conservation. What the Bird Friendly Seal does
17:02
is provide an assurance to you that the 100% of the coffee in
17:08
that bag, in that cup, in that container is coming from a farm
17:13
that provides high quality habitat for birds and
17:15
biodiversity. Bird Friendly coffee is also
17:18
100% organic, so it's also guaranteeing that there are no
17:21
egg or chemicals used in the production of that coffee
17:25
product. So in that sense, if you kind of
17:28
identify as a conscious consumer, you want to be making
17:30
purchases that are, you know are good for the planet, good for
17:35
the environment, good for the climate, Bird Friendly is a
17:38
really good choice for you in that capacity.
17:42
How does a farm go about getting certified?
17:45
And you know, when I think about other certifications like
17:47
organic like fair trade, they often come with a fairly heavy
17:51
expense to get there and they kind of a recurring auditing
17:55
system. Is it similar with bird
17:57
friendly, Who's absorbing that cost?
17:59
And what does a farmer have to go through to let people know
18:02
this is what I'm doing? I'll add to that organic is a
18:05
common one that I hear from like local farmers in my area in
18:08
Southern California. They don't have the
18:10
certification, but they are organic farming, but they can't
18:13
afford the certification. So how do you manage that?
18:18
Organic certification is a prerequisite to becoming Bird
18:22
Friendly certified, so the cost of bird friendly itself.
18:26
Is relatively low in the grand scheme of things.
18:28
Because what we recommend farmers do is if they assess you
18:32
know do a self-assessment and they they take a look at their
18:36
land and at their practices and say we think we meet the bird
18:39
friendly criteria for things like tree diversity, tree
18:42
height, native species that are present on the land and several
18:46
other criteria that we look for within the bird friendly
18:49
program. Then what we recommend they do
18:52
is during their next organic inspection, they couple that
18:56
with a bird friendly inspection. So we provide a free training to
19:00
independent thirdparty auditors on how to conduct a bird
19:04
friendly inspection and what it means.
19:06
And then those thirdparty auditors are the ones to perform
19:09
the inspection on the ground and issue the certification to the
19:13
producer. Now bird friendly certification
19:15
is valid for three years, so it's less of a.
19:18
Time commitments and resource commitments than an organic
19:21
inspection that may occur annually.
19:23
So that kind of helps with the cost and really the only cost to
19:27
bird friendly inspection is what the producer and the auditing
19:33
company negotiate as far as the per diem or the amount of time
19:36
it takes the auditing company to come out and perform the
19:39
inspection. But because we recommend that's
19:41
coupled with the organic inspection, the cost tends to be
19:45
quite a bit lower than what you might expect.
19:47
I feel like this third party auditors got it made.
19:49
They get to walk around coffee farms looking at birds, which
19:52
sounds fantastic. I am a I'm going to call it
19:56
early middle-aged gentleman who somehow became obsessed with
19:59
birds like every other early middle-aged gentleman in the
20:01
world. And I now own multiple bird
20:04
books and binoculars and so that sounds pretty amazing to me.
20:08
I'm wondering how the coronavirus impacted your
20:12
organization, kind of the growth and development over the past
20:15
few years, but also. The studies that you guys are
20:18
doing on migratory birds, how did you continue doing that work
20:23
over the last couple years and what changes have you seen?
20:26
There was a point where we thought the pandemic might
20:28
benefit habitats and wildlife, especially early on.
20:31
Nobody was driving, nobody was out doing things.
20:34
Has that stayed the same or has that changed?
20:38
So like everyone, our program was of course affected by COVID
20:41
and the pandemic. So we did have travel
20:45
restrictions that were in place and we were unable to kind of go
20:47
out into the field for field work and things like that.
20:51
However, we were fortunate that we do work with folks who are in
20:55
country and are on the ground and can continue some of the
20:59
work and research. But there were many areas in
21:01
which we had to pivot just like everyone else as far as kind of
21:05
how our program operations went. Unfortunately, we did have.
21:08
Many of our producers who were directly affected by COVID
21:11
through illness and unfortunately death as well,
21:14
which was a really very sad loss for for a lot of coffee growing
21:18
communities and for our program. So one of the things that we did
21:22
notice that's very promising though is that the bird friendly
21:25
program has really spectacularly rebounded since the pandemic.
21:29
So while we did see an initial drop in bird friendly coffee
21:33
sales overall that were reported to our program during 2020 and
21:38
in the early stages of 2021, since then we've had a really
21:42
strong rebound where there's been a lot of new roasting
21:45
companies who have joined into the bird friendly program.
21:48
We're beginning to sell new bird friendly certified products.
21:51
And who are helping contribute to that habitat conservation on
21:55
coffee farms? I met you briefly at the
21:59
Specialty Coffee Association Expo and saw your booth and just
22:03
kind of stop by to check it out. I'm wondering how do you get the
22:07
word out besides industry related events to people that
22:11
bird friendly certification is a thing, they should look for it,
22:14
you know, wherever they're buying coffee or?
22:17
You know, what challenges do you face getting that, that
22:19
education component out to the consumer?
22:22
One of the most challenging things for any company or
22:26
certification or NGO or conservation effort right now is
22:30
just getting and capturing the attention of your audience.
22:33
So this is something that we are up against.
22:36
Everyone on TikTok. Everyone on Instagram.
22:39
Everyone who is just clamoring for a little bit of that
22:42
audience attention to get you to care about something to to want
22:46
to back it to want to. Support it.
22:47
It's a bit of a tall order, but one of the things that our
22:50
program has found great success in over the past couple of years
22:55
is partnering with mission aligned institutions, so groups
22:59
like zoos, aquariums, museums, nature centers.
23:02
Universities who share our sustainability values and
23:07
actively want to be doing things to support conservation.
23:10
So through many of these relationships that we've sort of
23:13
cultivated and and new relationships that have come
23:17
about through some of the connections that we've made have
23:20
really helped us to reach new communities with the drink bird
23:24
friendly message and to engage new roasters in the bird
23:28
friendly program. So we had a lot of new zoos and
23:31
aquariums who. To work with our program to
23:34
bring bird friendly to their communities, their cities, their
23:37
areas. And not just sell the coffee on
23:40
site, but also share the message about what it means to choose
23:45
bird friendly as far as the benefits to biodiversity
23:48
conservation and the benefits to the coffee drinkers, to the
23:51
climate, to the environment, to everybody.
23:55
My brain is just going crazy right now thinking man, if I had
23:58
a cafe and I was pursuing this Ave. there's so many.
24:01
I could do bird friendly coffee walks.
24:03
I could do bird watching events. You could.
24:05
I mean I can see the branding in my head.
24:07
So I think it the drink. Bird friendly is a great
24:09
tagline. We jumped right into this
24:12
conversation about what the Smithsonian's doing and and your
24:15
program and birds. What about you?
24:17
Do you consider yourself a coffee person?
24:20
Are you a coffee drinker? I am a coffee drinker.
24:23
So I I do I have found I as I've been working in coffee, my, I
24:30
guess threshold for what makes for a good cup of coffee has
24:33
been continually getting higher the longer I've been working in
24:36
coffee, so my. Table downstairs of all the
24:40
different things that it takes to make a good cup of coffee in
24:42
the morning just keeps. I just keep adding to it with
24:45
more and more different different things to try.
24:48
So I went from you know when I started just you know with the
24:50
French press. Now I've got a pour over.
24:52
I've got a coffee filmer you know I've got different origins
24:56
you know bird friendly coffee in the drawer ready to try each
24:59
day. So it's a it's it's been a
25:01
really fun journey to get to know the coffee world a lot
25:04
better and to kind of become a de facto coffee person.
25:09
I mean that is a a struggle that a lot of coffee people can
25:12
relate to. I bought a special coffee cart
25:15
this year to kind of house all of my equipment and it's somehow
25:19
I've already grown it. So I'm I'm struggling with that
25:22
right now. I mentioned that we that I saw
25:24
your booth at the Specialty Coffee Association Expo.
25:27
What was that experience like for you?
25:29
I know for me it was quite overwhelming.
25:31
It was my first major specialty coffee Expo since I started the
25:34
show a few years ago and since COVID hit.
25:37
What was it like for your group? We absolutely love the
25:41
opportunity to participate in the specialty Coffee Expo.
25:44
So Bird Friendly has had a booth at the Expo for a number of
25:48
years, long before I joined the program just a couple of years
25:51
ago. And it's such a wonderful
25:53
opportunity for us to connect with many members of our bird
25:57
Friendly community. So we see folks from across the
26:00
supply chain, everyone from some of the producers who stopped by
26:03
to say hello, who maybe we've never met before or our old, you
26:07
know. Old friends of the program,
26:08
we're getting to reconnect with them and talk to them and hear
26:11
about the great things that are happening at their farm, the
26:13
importers and the rosters, the retailers.
26:16
So it's such a really fantastic opportunity to connect with many
26:20
different members of our program, just to catch up, to
26:22
chat with them, to hear what they're doing and what they're
26:25
up to answer any questions they might have for us.
26:28
And then of course to meet all the new people at the Expo.
26:31
It's such a massive, massive event that the first year I
26:34
went, I just was dumbfounded at just.
26:37
How much was going on and how big the coffee world really was.
26:42
So it was such a cool opportunity to to kind of see
26:45
all of these folks together in one place, to get to meet all
26:48
these new people who are interested in different areas of
26:52
the coffee world and just learn about things that I I just
26:54
didn't even know existed. So we we love it.
26:57
It's it's one of the favorite things that we do each year is
26:59
to get a chance to connect with friends new and old at the
27:03
coffee Expo. What comes next for the bird
27:06
friendly program? I mean, in the near future?
27:09
Long term, what are the goals that you have, that you that
27:12
you've set for yourselves? Yeah.
27:14
So one of the big things that we are really interested in doing
27:18
is continuing to raise awareness on the bird friendly
27:21
certification. So as we talked about a little
27:23
bit earlier, we've been around for about a couple of decades
27:27
now, but really it's only been within the last handful of years
27:31
that we started doing more active.
27:34
Marketing outreach and awareness to the coffee community and to
27:38
coffee consumers about the bird friendly Seal and what it means
27:41
and that we exist. So we want to really be
27:44
continuing to do that to build upon the work that we've
27:46
started. We've seen some really good
27:48
progress so far just over the last few years and what we've
27:51
done. So we want to continue to build
27:53
on that to grow our community of folks who are involved in the
27:57
bird friendly supply chain to continue to spread awareness and
28:01
and raise. Raise awareness and really talk
28:03
about what it means to be Smithsonian Bird friendly
28:06
certified and to get more and more folks involved and engaged
28:09
in our program, whether they're drinking coffee, growing coffee,
28:12
importing coffee, roasting coffee.
28:15
We're open to everybody kind of coming on board and joining our
28:18
program. How would somebody listening
28:22
find a bird friendly coffee near them or available to them?
28:27
Bird Friendly Coffee can be purchased online at our website.
28:31
So you can go to bird friendly dot si dot Edu and that will
28:36
take you to the Bird Friendly home page and from there we have
28:39
a buy online portal where you can have Bird Friendly Coffee
28:42
shipped right to your door. If you prefer to buy your Bird
28:46
Friendly Coffee in person in your community, we are found in
28:50
many different areas. We're not everywhere just yet,
28:53
so you might not see us at your, you know, big chain grocery
28:56
stores and things like that. But many natural food stores
28:59
carry bird friendly coffee as well as some birding stores too.
29:03
So you know, if you're going to buy some bird seed or new bird
29:07
feeder, there's a chance you'll see some bird friendly coffee on
29:09
the shelves there. And we have a tool on our
29:12
website as well that will help you find some of the retail
29:14
locations where Bird Friendly Coffee is frequently sold.
29:19
Sure. And I find that businesses that
29:20
are selling bird friendly coffee generally are pretty vocal about
29:24
it. So if you're following your
29:25
favorite roasters. On social media or wherever,
29:28
it's likely you'll find that information there too.
29:30
If you're looking for it, I'll close out by asking.
29:33
When you go to a coffee shop, I'm assuming you're going to go
29:36
on a birding tour somewhere, let's say South America, and you
29:39
stop into a great looking coffee shop on the side of the road.
29:42
What are you going to order? Man, that's a tough question.
29:47
My go to order this time of year in the warm weather months is to
29:51
get an iced oat milk latte and I will get a Maple latte whenever
29:56
they have it on the menu. That's my absolute favorite.
29:58
One of my favorite drinks that I've ever had is a salted smoked
30:02
Maple latte. From Ogawa Coffee in Boston.
30:05
That's my my personal favorite that I've ever, ever had.
30:09
It was, it was incredibly delicious.
30:11
You know, not an endorsement from Smithsonian, but just for
30:13
me as an individual saying I would drink that coffee every
30:16
day if I could. But yeah, this time of year I
30:18
love an iced oat milk latte. I was gonna say that that
30:22
sounded very Canadian and then you threw me when you told me it
30:24
was in Boston. I really appreciate that you
30:28
took some time to come on the show and teach me a little bit
30:30
about the Burnt Friendly seal. And what that means.
30:33
And also just thank you for doing that work.
30:35
I think it's really important and it's something that I care
30:37
about. I would have never thought that
30:40
it impacted my cup of coffee until, you know, seeing your
30:43
booth and kind of Googling and learning a little bit more about
30:45
birds in general. Yeah.
30:47
Thank you so much for the opportunity to connect, Ryan.
30:50
It's, it's been really great to chat and that's probably my
30:52
favorite thing about the bird friendly program is that you can
30:55
picture yourself this time of year.
30:57
You know, you're sitting looking out your window, maybe you've
31:00
got a bird feeder, maybe you're going for a walk in the park and
31:02
you're enjoying your morning cup of coffee and you see a
31:06
Baltimore Oriole flyby or a Yellow Warbler.
31:09
That individual bird could be benefiting from the coffee
31:12
that's in your cup, which I think is absolutely incredible.
31:15
It's not just talking about a species.
31:17
That, you know, you may never see in person or that lives
31:20
several states or countries away.
31:22
That individual bird may have just come back up to North
31:27
America from spending their time over the winter on a coffee
31:30
farm, and it may be benefiting from the very coffee that's in
31:33
your cup, which I think is pretty cool.
31:45
Okay, Here are some key takeaways.
31:46
For starters, I am not back in the podcast and closet yet.
31:50
I've actually recorded this intro in my car, then again in
31:53
the basement at a friend's home, then again in the closet at My
31:55
Inlaws. So far this has been the best
31:57
take. Secondly, Bones is a great TV
32:00
show. If you haven't seen it, you got
32:02
season upon season to catch up on drink.
32:04
Bird friendly is a great motto. I like birds.
32:07
I like coffee. Why wouldn't I want to drink
32:09
bird friendly? The bird friendly certification
32:12
has been around for a long time. And it is a certification that
32:15
is dependent on the organic certification.
32:17
You can be organic and not be bird friendly, but you can't be
32:20
certified bird friendly without also being organic.
32:25
I also learned today that the Smithsonian is huge 21
32:28
libraries, 19 museums, a national zoo, and 9 research
32:32
facilities around the world that isn't even accounting for the
32:35
200 plus other museum affiliates located in the United States,
32:39
Puerto Rico, and Panama. It is also one of America's
32:42
oldest institutions, having been formally organized in 1846.
32:47
The Migratory Bird Center Wing. See what I did there?
32:50
Was founded in 1991 to focus on the migration of birds and has
32:54
currently turned their attention to the perilous state of birds
32:57
due to disease and environmental challenges including climate
33:01
change and habitat loss. Just a reminder, birds need
33:04
habitats along their migration routes, not just at points A and
33:08
B. The Bird Friendly Coffee Program
33:10
is a bit younger than the organization itself, having been
33:13
established in 1998. The program is developed by bird
33:16
scientists that stumbled into coffee.
33:19
After observing that coffee farms often create high quality
33:22
shaded habitat for birds and it isn't A1 sided relationship.
33:27
Birds eat insects and pests, including the coffee borer
33:31
beetles which are the scourge of the coffee farmer worldwide.
33:34
I hope I use that word right with the Bird Friendly
33:37
Certification Program. The team at the Smithsonian are
33:40
focused on growing awareness. The community of bird loving
33:43
coffee drinkers and encouraging us all to look for the
33:46
certification as part of being an eco conscious consumer.
33:49
On previous episodes of the show we've talked about
33:52
certifications and their value. There are a lot of opinions on
33:56
which are best or most equitable.
33:58
There is cost associated with being organic or fair trade or
34:01
bird friendly and some farms, especially small ones who've
34:05
been on the wrong end of the sea market for generations may not
34:08
be able to afford them. That doesn't mean that they
34:11
aren't eco friendly farms, but it doesn't mean that they are
34:13
either. Certifications generally serve
34:16
as a tool for us consumers to try and make educated decisions.
34:19
I didn't know that all bird friendly coffees were also
34:22
certified organic. Now when I'm picking up a bag at
34:24
my local roasters, I'll have that info in my coffee shopping
34:27
toolbox. Finally, I did spend 3 hours in
34:30
the car hunting down coffee. A combination of rain traffic
34:34
enclosed cafes did me in. However, in the end, as it
34:37
always does, it worked out. I spent a lovely hour at Lucky
34:41
Coffee in Poway, CA chatting with former guests of this show
34:44
and owners Tom and Katie learning how things have gone in
34:47
their first year of business and even being the recipient of an
34:50
impromptu piano concert. We mentioned a lot of various
34:54
websites and links Today. The big one is
34:56
drinkbirdfriendly.com. You can find that one and all
34:59
the rest, including that original interview I did with
35:02
Tom and Katie at Lucky Coffee in this podcast, show Notes or in
35:06
the newsletter that goes with the pod.
35:08
Found at roastwestcoast.com While you're there, please sign
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35:50
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Source Coffee People is off. Next week I'll be airing one of
36:17
our classic episodes as we've crossed the halfway point of
36:20
season eight. If you're only looking for that
36:21
newness, we'll be back the following week to talk
36:24
sustainability and packaging with row stars.
36:26
Danielle Toby. This Coffee People podcast is
36:29
part of the Roast West Coast Coffee Network and this show is
36:34
was has been written, produced and recorded by me, Ryan Walt.
36:38
I hope this episode has found you happy, healthy, and with at
36:41
least a threat of sanity left, enabling you to make it through
36:44
the day. Always took your baristas and be
36:47
sure to drink good coffee. Hello all you coffee drinkers
37:28
out there. If you are in the early stages
37:31
of your coffee journey, we want to support you.
37:34
Season 2 of the Coffee Smarter Education Podcast is now
37:37
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37:40
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37:42
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