Sodexho, the cafeteria provider at UMass Boston, has taken the initiative to provide Fair Trade certified coffee to our campus. Michael Forcier, manager at Sodexho, says that this is only the first step. The Green Mountain kiosk, run by Sodexho in the Quinn Administration Building, will be switching most of its coffee to Fair Trade on November 24. The UMB Fair Trade Initiative, a local student group, worked for the switch.
According to Forcier, “once you research the situation yourself, making the switch to Fair Trade is the obvious choice.” Though Fair Trade coffee is slightly more expensive, about four cents more a cup, Sodexho is willing to absorb that cost because it wants everyone to see its dedication to a great initiative.
Green Mountain will soon be selling its Fair Trade certified coffees, such as Organic House Blend, Decaf, French Roast, Hazelnut Select, and rotating flavored blends, on a daily basis.
Until now, the Starbucks kiosk in McCormack was the only spot on campus you could get a cup of Fair Trade certified coffee.
The Wit’s End Café recently signed a two-year contract with its coffee provider who’s product is not FT certified. The UMB Fair Trade Initiative, however, plans to establish a donation box at the popular student coffee shop for Oxfam’s Make Trade Fair campaign, an established international aid organization, which will allow people to donate independently to the cause.
The FT coffee movement is an international campaign for conscious consumership that has become vital for hundreds of thousands due to the global coffee crisis.
According to Oxfam, 25 million coffee growers and their families face starvation because the price of coffee has fallen almost 50 percent over the past three years and now hovers at a 30-year low.
This has left the majority of the world’s small coffee farmers to face starvation or displacement. It is reported that, taking inflation into account, farmers are earning less for their product than their ancestors did 100 years ago.
In addition, many developing nations depend on coffee as their chief export; as a result, their entire economies are collapsing with the market because of plummeting coffee prices.
FT coffee is farmer friendly because it guarantees two things. First, farmers receive a sustainable price for their product, at least $1.26 a pound, which is more than two times the current market rate. Second, the coffee must be purchased from an agricultural cooperative, thereby supporting farmers that own their land instead of giving money to exploiters.
One of the ways the higher price to farmers is made feasible is by cutting out middlemen who would classically get away with absorbing up to 80 percent of what importers in the United States pay.
Also, though they are independent certifications, 80 percent of FT coffee is also certified organic. Furthermore, the traditional shade-grown method of coffee farming that FT supports has been found to have great ecological value, particularly in helping sustain many species of migratory birds.
The FT certification in the United States was developed by Transfair USA. Almost 200 coffee companies, including Starbucks, Peet’s, and Seattle’s Best, sell coffee under that certification; however, many corporations sell only a few FT lines. A handful of companies sell FT certified exclusively, such as cooperatively owned Equal Exchange and Seattle based non-profit Pura Vida.
Over the past year, almost 200 universities have switched to FT coffee. Many, like Harvard and Wellesley, sell only Fair Trade coffee on their campuses.
The UMass Boston Fair Trade Initiative describes itself as “a local effort, led by students and faculty, to raise awareness of international economic breakdowns, particularly that of the current coffee crisis.” The group is currently working in conjunction with the Human Rights Working Group to organize a conference on globalization, which, besides coffee, will focus on the implications of the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) and the changing face of public education. The event is scheduled for December 2.
The Fair Trade Initiative claims to have seen overwhelming support among students and staff to get certified coffee on campus. A petition requesting that Fair Trade be made available to all kiosks and cafeterias has so far received 600 signatures.
Green Mountain is the biggest supporter so far. It adopted Fair Trade certified blends just this spring but already has provided more variety than any other large scale coffee company, selling 23 flavors with more on the way.
Asghar Syed is a co-founder of the Fair Trade Initiative