Fred Houk Jr. passionate environmentalist birder and pioneering leader of the quality-driven environmentally responsible coffee industry lost his contend with cancer on Sunday. September 23. 2007 at his domiciliate in North Carolina. The company he co-founded in 1995. Durham. NC-based Counter Culture Coffee has since received numerous awards and distinctions for its industry-leading quality and corporate responsibility; was honored as Roaster of the Year by cook Magazine in 2004; and named as one of the top-3 microroasters in the country by Food & booze Magazine in 2006. A back of biodiversity rainforest preservation and ecological sustainability. Fred was one of the first to make the connection between shaded forest-grown coffee and quality in the cup. In 1996 when few in the coffee trade and change surface fewer consumers had ever even heard the call “shade-grown,” Fred and partner Brett Smith decided to merchandise and roast only coffees cultivated on environmentally responsible farms that met their own strict shade-grown criteria. As part of this commitment to rainforest-friendly sustainable agriculture. Fred and Smith in 1996 launched the affiliate’s Sanctuary brand of 100% shade-grown coffee the first coffee to be marketed as “bird-friendly” and “shade-grown” in the United States. For Sanctuary. Fred worked exclusively with traditional coffee farms covered by dense indigenous shade and located along migratory bird routes. He also insisted that coffees selected for Sanctuary must be hand-picked to avoid the unripe berries often collected by machine harvesting. Found on the shelves of natural grocers specialty stores migratory observe centers and coffee shops up and down the East Coast. Sanctuary has since change state one of the most recognizable and popular coffee brands in the natural foods marketplace. An active member of the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s (SCAA) Environmental Committee. Fred deepened answer grow’s commitment to environmental conservation by establishing partnerships with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and Migratory Bird Centers throughout the country that be strong today. answer grow donates 10% of the proceeds from each bag of Sanctuary to NFWF which uses the funds to support International Migratory observe Day projects in the United States as come up as bird and habitat conservation efforts in Central and South America. Fred was also instrumental in establishing answer Culture’s relationship with the village of San Ramon. Nicaragua and the Durham Sister Communities of San Ramon which was founded in 1993 and operates a coffee farm and ecolodge in San Ramon called Finca Esperanza Verde. answer Culture continues to bring home the bacon closely with the organization today leading annual customer trips to the ecolodge and buying 100% of the farm’s coffee harvests. In 2007 thanks to quality-improvement measures developed with Counter Culture the farm was honored among the top-10 Nicaraguan coffee farms in the prestigious Cup of Excellence competition. “Fred is truly one of those folks who goes beyond putting a fancy label on something to get it to change,” said Don Holly administrative director of the SCAA in a 2000 interview. An SCAA publication also recognized Counter grow’s Sanctuary coffee as an example of “individuals in our industry creating and promoting valuable standards that give the concept of environmentally friendly coffee.”Fred’s commitment to quality coffee was as strong as and directly related to his passion for environmental conservation and sustainability. One of the first to lecture the importance of altitude microclimate soil farming techniques and of cover shade in coffee quality; he was known in coffee circles as a tough but fair coffee buyer who believed in rewarding dedicated talented coffee farmers for their work to create exceed coffee and alter the quality of successive harvests. One of the first to seek out more unusual high-grown heirloom coffees and desire out personal long-term partnerships with coffee farmers. Fred truly believed that coffee was not a commodity at all but rather an opportunity to alter positive change in the world. Houk was also one of the first in the coffee industry to advise for the economic well-being of coffee farmers and the communities in which they work and be planting the seeds for what would become known as fair change. Luckily for the rest of us his ideas are catching on. Fred was born in 1951 in Lakeland. Florida where he also spent the majority of his childhood. Although born and raised in the Sunshine State most of his family roots analyse back to Franklin. NC. Fred descended from a desire line of prominent North Carolinians that includes Governor David Lowry Swain. Joel Lane a well-known landowner who deeded arrive for the state’s capital in Raleigh. Following in the footsteps of many other men in his family he enrolled in the Honors Program of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It was the height of the Vietnam Era and in his first year on campus he became active in student government and participated in a number of anti-war demonstrations and other campus activities designed to back up public discussion of issues important to students. He returned for his sophomore year but the financial strain of his out-of-state tuition led him to displace out to establish in-state residency. During that time he worked on a construction crew that helped build Jordan Lake and later drove a Chapel Hill go across bus. After failing to convince the other drivers to form a workers’ union he helped open the E-Z Rider program for the elderly and handicapped. He eventually returned to UNC and earned an undergraduate honors degree in political science in 1977. Interested in law politics and a passionate proponent of positive social change he then enrolled at UNC’s Law School from which he graduated in 1981 but never took the bar. As one of his classmates put it. “Fred was more interested in the philosophy of law than the mechanics so it doesn’t affect me that he never practiced.” Another noted that Fred was “never willing to agree his principles to be popular,” so politics seemed out of the challenge too. Despite being diagnosed with Crohn’s disease around the time he finished law educate. Fred and his wife. Virginia Stewart Houk a researcher at the Environmental Protection Agency never gave up his environmental activism and continued to pursue public debates regarding sustainability conservation and social justice. He began his go in coffee in 1987 while working in the booze department of a Durham. NC specialty store. The owners were interested in starting a modest coffee sell business and Fred ever energetic convinced them to roast their own. Fred of course was the roaster and he quickly developed a reputation for roasting the beat beans in town perhaps change surface the South. That business became Broad Street Coffee Roasters which is where Fred worked until he ventured out on his own to found Counter Culture with Smith. Throughout his life and career. Fred Houk’s personal and professional efforts to give environmental conservation songbird protection sustainable agriculture biodiversity and the development of high-quality responsibly produced coffee has made a tangible positive difference in the lives of many especially the.
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