University Dining Services soon plans to serve coffee certified by Fair Trade in its dining halls, largely because of a student-based effort.
Fair Trade Coffee is an organization committed to protecting coffee farmers from harsh working conditions by maintaining a minimum wage of $1.26 per pound of coffee and buying directly from the farmers instead of brokering through various middlemen.
University students Chris Antoun and Mike Figura began an organization known as Students Promoting Fair Trade in an effort to increase its awareness among the campus community.
They worked closely with Dining Services Associate Director Eddie Whedbee to switch the coffee provider of University dining halls to Pura Vida, which exclusively offers Fair Trade-certified coffee.
"The drive to do this was theirs," Dining Services Director Brent Beringer said.
Antoun and Figura could not be reached for comment yesterday.
University Politics Prof. Robert Fatton said he feels that helping the coffee farmers earn better wages is a good idea.
"If you give them higher prices, they will be more productive," he said.
However, Fatton said he fears that such an idea would be very difficult to achieve.
"Its not impossible, but you would have to be careful," he said.
Fatton cited higher prices as a problem for marketing such subsidized coffee and said that customers would have to be willing to pay the higher price to support the cause.
He also pointed out that even when they receive a higher wage, farmers only receive a small percentage of the actual selling price of coffee.
"There's a massive difference between what they get paid and what stores sell them for," he said.
Geoffrey Hennies, a customer outreach coordinator for Fair Trade distributor Cafe Campesino, emphasized that Fair Trade works directly with the farmers to ensure that they receive their proper wage.
Hennies also said he feels that the organization does much to protect the family farm, which has been threatened by the growth of plantations in many coffee growing areas.
"Fair Trade allows family farms to compete with larger farmers," he said.
The Java City Cafe, located in the University Bookstore, already offers certain Fair Trade-certified brands of coffee. However, while they serve at least one Fair Trade-certified brew every day, not all of the coffee that they sell has been approved, Beringer said.
According to a Java City spokesperson, who asked that his name be withheld, the promotion of Fair Trade coffee depends on the customer.
"The more consumer effort there is, the more our company can promote Fair Trade brands," he said, referring to the consumption of Fair Trade-certified coffee.
University dining halls will begin serving Fair Trade-certified coffee this month.
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