There are not many young adults today who feel they can affect change. The task seems overwhelming, to be sure. But this is where we, as students and members of the human community, must step back and reconsider how we define change and what change is.
Change, in a progressive sense, does not have to transform entire economic and political systems immediately, nor should that be its initial aim. Change must start at a grassroots, such as at the University, and ask only one question: What can we do? One of the answers, as odd as it may sound, is buying coffee. The United States is the number one consumer of coffee in the world, importing onefifth of all the world's coffee. In fact, it is our second largest import after oil. University students do their fair share to keep this number high. But like most things that we consume, the origin of the product has been long forgotten and hot cups of coffee are all that we see.
Before coffee beans get ground for an early morning wake-up, they travel thousands of miles, usually from a small farm in Central or South America. These farms, while often owned by families, are at the mercy of huge multinational corporations which hire middlemen (called coyotes) to purchase the coffee beans from the farmer for an extremely low price (often under fifty cents per pound). The farmer is forced to either sell to the coyote for the offered price or risk the welfare of his/her entire family and other families that depend on the farm. Other problems also arise: Children are often exploited; wages for hired help stay below poverty ; workers' safety is nonexistent; farmers begin to use environmentally harmful chemicals to boost production. Though this situation is thousands of miles away, there is something we can do here to help.
Fair Trade coffee is a viable solution. It is a strictly monitored system of buying and selling coffee beans under specific criteria that must be met to receive the 'Fair Trade' stamp: The beans must be bought for no less than $1.26 per pound, buyers must provide much needed credit to farmers, and buyers must help in the transition to organic farming. On top of this, workers' safety is greatly increased and child labor laws are enforced—if not, the 'Fair Trade' status of the farm is dropped. Fair Trade coffee is well named. It's fair.
The question remains: What can we as students do? The Progressive Student Association and College Independents are beginning an effort to make our campus one of the only campuses in the region to be a wholly 'Fair Trade' campus. This consists of creating broad-based support on campus through petitions and letter writing, bringing the issue in front of the Student Senate for their support, and having input in the renegotiation of Sodexho's contract at the end of the school year. If the students demand this, the University is left with no choice but to listen, and if we can be loud enough others will hear as well. With what appears to be a small step, students can be at the forefront of helping workers around the world live a better life. It's our choice.
For more information go to:
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/coffee/actionKit.htmlOr write to: uwec_psa@yahoo.com
