As midterms progress, tired students appreciate coffee more thanever. If they want to, those Tufts coffee lovers can promote socialand environmental sustainability while getting their morning buzz,thanks to the increasing availability of fair trade coffee atcampus eateries.
Fair trade is a type of partnership that works toward a moreequitable system of international trade. The theory behind the fairtrade certified label guarantees that producers receive a pricedetermined to be fair for their labor. By becoming fair tradecertified, small farmers can try to avoid being underpaid bymiddlemen, who will then sell their product at a higher price tolarge corporations.
Certified fair trade coffee is available at the OxfamCaf�, Brown and Brew, and the new Tower Caf�. "Fairtrade is important because paying people living wages is alwaysimportant," senior and Oxfam Caf� manager Louise Weed said."It's really easy for people to get screwed over in the agriculturebusiness, especially when dealing with the U.S., so it's importantfor us to take action against it."
"Buying fair trade is an extremely direct, easy way to fight theoppression of people living in developing countries," Weed added."It's a great way to start stamping out hunger and povertyworldwide."
ECO, a student environmentalist group at Tufts, is now launchinga campaign to replace the conventional coffee sold in the campuscenter with fair trade coffee. Green Mountain Coffee has sent freesamples to Tufts in hopes of encouraging the University to switchto fair trade. ECO will be supplying informational pamphlets atHotung to increase awareness about fair trade issues.
"Many people think that fair trade goes against the tenets offree trade," senior and ECO coordinator Erin Allweiss said. "But infact, it creates a niche in the market. People will buy fair tradebecause they know that it wasn't produced at the expense of theenvironment or communities."
"To understand fair trade, we need to look at the history ofexploitation by foreign markets," said Tufts graduate TeagueChanning (LA '01), now an organic farmer. "In the absence of fairtrade, buyers can essentially steal goods of high quality and thensell them for five times the price.
"Fair trade enables small-time indigenous farmers to continuetheir tradition and do what they love and know how to do," Channingadded.
"I became involved in the fair trade movement a couple of yearsago when I heard a speaker at Tufts who was part of a cooperativein Nicaragua," Allweiss said. "She told how several farmers hadabandoned their coffee fields to grow cocaine because it was somuch more lucrative. She identified cooperatives as a way ofenabling farmers to keep growing coffee."
In order to become fair trade certified, small farmers mustabide by certain standards that require the fair treatment ofworkers and the gradual implementation of more environmentallysustainable growth methods.
Certified organizations are encouraged to adopt organic growingmethods, and prohibited from using pesticides cited in either thePesticide Action Network's "dirty dozen" or in the Food andAgriculture Organization/U.N. Environment Programme's "PriorInformed Consent Procedure" list. Yearly inspections ensure thatcertification requirements are met.
Starbucks, which offers compensation to farmers willing to growin an environmentally sustainable way, has entered an agreementwith Transfair USA, which conducts the inspections, to purchasecertified fair trade coffee. However, only 1 percent of Starbuckscoffee is currently certified fair trade.
"All of our coffees are fair trade in the sense that wecompensate farmers appropriately," said Dustin Reeser, manager ofthe Starbucks in Davis Square. "Most farmers won't seekcertification because the process is so long and difficult. ButStarbucks prides itself on long-term relationships with farmers, soit is in our best interest to compensate them appropriately."
Certified fair trade coffee, however, is slightly more expensivethan its conventional counterpart because of its rarity and thedifficulty of the certification process.
"I think it is true that many small farmers don't have the meansto go through the process of certification," said Anja Kollmuss,project coordinator at the Tufts Institute of the Environment. "Itcould also be hard for Starbucks to get certified fair trade coffeein the right quantities and of the desired quality."
Certified producers must also implement integrated cropmanagement to balance environmental protection with businessresults. This requires close monitoring, a projection plan, andminimized use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers.
"Starbucks is in many ways a wonderful company because theytreat their employees well," Kollmuss said. "But they are still amulti-national organization that looks to make the largest possibleprofit."
"Environmental groups pressured them for years to make moreconscious choices and they needed to be pushed really hard,"Kollmuss said.
According to Kollmuss, the most environmentally friendly coffeewill be fair trade, organic, and shade grown. Coffee grown in theshade is necessarily integrated into an ecosystem that alreadyexists, whereas coffee grown in the sun often requires thedestruction of ecosystems for the sake of procuring open space.
Forty percent of Starbucks coffee is shade-grown. "Shade grownbeans are actually preferred to beans grown in the sun," Reesersaid. "When the sun does not directly hit the tree, the fruit growsbigger, making the beans bigger. The slower erosion made possibleby the shade-grown environment also makes for a healthiertree."
"Less pesticides are used in growing shade-grown coffee becausethe shade-grown environment has high rates of biodiversity," Reesersaid. "So the shade-grown bean is cleaner."
People search out fair trade coffee, according to Weed. "Somepeople will only buy their coffee at Oxfam because it is guaranteedto be fair trade," Weed said. "Other people's interest is sparkedand will become interested in using fair trade with theirorganizations."
"Of course, some people just want coffee and are apathetic aboutthe source of it," Weed said.
This Halloween, Tufts ECO will sponsor "trick or trade,"serving free fair trade coffee and chocolate at Hotung. Also laterthis month, a Latin-American coffee producer will speak about thehopeful economic effects of fair trade on nations that rely heavilyon coffee growing. A panel discussion will follow his speech, andECO will provide free fair trade coffee at the event.
