By Brett Wilhelm
All over the world, awareness of the Fair Trade alternative is gaining ground. In the United States, nowhere is this awareness more pronounced than on the campuses of Universities. Many students from the religious right to the radical left have embraced the notion of Fair Trade; from the comfort of their own campuses, these students consider supporting fair trade as their way to ease the suffering of millions of families around the world. From Brandeis University in Massachusetts to the University of Florida to the University of California Santa Cruz, dozens of colleges have persuaded the powers-that-be to switch to Fair Trade Coffee (FTC). Even more impressive, there are over 200 universities with student groups that are currently operating some sort of Fair Trade campaign, Kent State University being one.
Fair trade is an alternative to the current model of trade because direct relationships are made between the producers and distributors. The middle-men, or "coyotes," who make their money gouging poor coffee-growing families by paying them less than their product is worth and keeping the profit for themselves, have long been looked upon with suspicion; however, in the fair trade model, direct relationships are formed between the companies purchasing the coffee and the growers. The fair trade model, moreover, requires fair labor conditions, freedom of association, and guarantees pre-harvest lines of credit for cooperatives and sustainable environmental standards. By giving people the opportunity to earn a fair wage and guaranteeing them certain conditions, the fair trade model truly allows people to "lift themselves up by their bootstraps."
So why all the action on college campuses? What is our connection to coffee-growers throughout the world? Our link is our money. Coffee is big business—about $5 billion per year (www.transfairusa.org). It is the second most heavily traded commodity after oil. As college students, we are responsible for drinking quite a bit of that coffee. Our money has the ability to either reinforce the current exploitative practices of international trade or reward the companies that do business in a more socially and environmentally responsible manner.
Actions taken by activists at each college vary as much as the universities themselves; the common thread linking efforts across campuses is the overwhelmingly cooperative spirit between activists and university officials. Actions have taken place in the interest of urgency or in response to non-responsive administrators. For example, in 2004, students at American University learned that the administration planned to use Starbucks as the sole coffee distributor without student consultation. As a result, student activists were forced to stage demonstrations that were successful in bringing Pura Vida to campus instead of the monolith Starbucks.
Although actions such as sit-ins, banner dropping and protests have and will continue to occur, the general approach is non-confrontational: meet with administrative decision makers, collect student and faculty signatures, bring in speakers, hold workshops and sign comment cards. In addition, students do most of the research concerning alternative companies or products for the campus.
"Last year when myself and another student decided to just ask for a meeting for the first time in two years," said Dylan of Miami University of Ohio, "we sat down for an hour about three times and in a month had fair trade options at half the locations on campus. By the time we came back this year there were fair trade options at every location on campus."
Gaining support of other organizations on campus so as to represent the whole student body has been another trademark of the FTC movement. By March of this year, about 350 universities had made partial or complete conversions to fair trade products on their campuses; Kent State among the many.
The push for fair trade at Kent has a long history, often lacking coordination and cooperation. This effort came to a head with the formation of CAFÉ (Campus Advocacy for a Fair trade Environment) about one year ago. CAFÉ’s goal is to persuade KSU Dining Services to serve 100% fair trade coffee (FTC) at all of its service locations on campus provided by a 100% fair trade company. We believe that coffee farmers, like all workers, deserve the opportunity to earn a fair wage in order to feed their families and send their kids to school. KSU is, also, primed to become a leader among institutions of higher education in the movement toward socially responsible business practices.
We have communicated our requests with Dining Services and the Administration and informed them of our desire to find a solution that satisfies both parties; however, in order to convince the university that there is demand for FTC on campus, individual students must voice their concerns. If you would like to be a part of the fair trade movement, please sign our petition; the petition requests, at all service stations, 100% FTC purchased from a 100% FTC company. Persuade your group to be one of many that have signed our letter of coalition, expressing their support of our campaign. Fill out comment cards every time you buy coffee on campus to let the managers know how we want our money to be spent. The next time you purchase coffee on campus, ensure that your money is supporting business practices consistent with your values: BUY FAIR TRADE COFFEE.