While most coffee-drinking Boston University students are unaware of the economics behind the beans in their lattes, one university group is fighting against unfair coffee trade practices they find particularly hard to swallow.
The BU Consumer Education Group [CEG], an organization working to address issues of hunger, poverty, labor rights and environmental stability, is dedicating its focus this semester to adding Fair Trade Certified coffee to the menus at all dining halls and on-campus food establishments, according to CEG member Alexis Degioannini.
According to Degioannini, a College of Arts and Sciences senior, the Starbucks Coffee locations in both the George Sherman Union and the School of Management will give students the option of purchasing Fair Trade coffee every Friday, in addition to the wholesale manufactured brands that are normally served. Additionally, Java City, located in the middle of the GSU food court, will be serving the coffee on a daily basis.
Operating a table outside the Warren Towers dining hall last night, Degioannini and other group members passed out free coffee samples and explained the importance of Fair Trade products to interested students.
“Fair Trade coffee gives more money to the farmers who grow the beans by cutting out the middlemen who take a large amount of profit,” Degioannini said. “Normally, these farmers get only a fraction of the money.”
According to Oxfam America, an anti-hunger agency promoting the Make Trade Fair campaign, the average coffee farmer makes less than one cent per cup of coffee, which often sells for more than $3. The decrease in wages, nearly 70 percent since 1997 and the lowest in 100 years, is due to both production exceeding demand and mass corporate distribution.
On the other hand, Fair Trade coffee, which is available in whole bean form at Shaw’s and Natural Frontier Market, is organically grown by co-ops of farmers who buy their own machinery and oversee aspects of production and exporting, Degioannini said.
Other schools, like Brown University and Tufts University, have integrated this philosophy by operating coffeehouses that serve only Fair Trade Certified products, Degioannini said.
As for Boston University, Steve Canario, director of operations for dining services, said the upcoming addition of fair trade coffee to university food outlets was because of increased student demand.
“We’re here to serve the student population,” Canario said. “Wherever there’s interest, we will do our best to get on board.”
And while getting the Fair Trade coffee itself is not a problem, Canario said it costs Dining Services $1.40 more per pound than the blends it normally provides. Students, however, will not pay any additional fees.
Canario said no plans exist to serve the coffee in the dining halls, but it may be a future possibility.
“We are providing it to the two biggest coffee operations on campus first,” Canario said. “If it’s a success and we get positive feedback, we will expand its distribution and plan accordingly.”
Courtney Spencer, a CAS junior and CEG member, said while recognizing the benefits of Fair Trade coffee is important, the economic awareness extends beyond cappuccinos and lattes.
“While coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world, a lot of campaigns only tend to focus on that aspect. There’s also production of food, clothing and basically anything else you can consume to consider,” Spencer said. “As a consumer, what you choose to buy indirectly supports unfair trade practices, whether it be Nike shoes or a Frappuccinio.”
Knowledge and access to the proper facts are key to being a responsible consumer, Spencer said.
“[The Consumer Education Group] is here to help others realize their purchases can have a good or bad effect on the world,” Spencer said.
While the addition of the coffee took nearly two years of petitioning Dining Services by CEG, Spencer said the current progress is still a significant victory. The group’s ultimate goal is to have the coffee available in the dining halls and have other Fair Trade Certified products available all over campus.
But for the moment, the group is just working on promoting the coffee.
“Every time a BU student buys a cup of this coffee, it’s doing something positive for a good cause. The more popular it gets, the more places will show interest,” Spencer said. “And if people know what it is, they’ll ask for it.”