Oxfam Canada handed out free coffee last Wednesday — along with a message.

On September 16, representatives from the international charity were set up outside The Students’ Administrative Council, Robarts Library and Sid Smith in a bid to provide U of T students with a much-needed caffeine fix and to spread their message about fair trade coffee.

Shelley Smith, a volunteer at the Oxfam booth outside Sid Smith, said that the main purpose of this event was to “celebrate the progress” that has been made towards guaranteeing fair prices to coffee producers.

According to Oxfam, coffee farmers are often exploited by middlemen and international coffee cartels and are paid such low prices that they are unable to support themselves or their families. Organizers said they felt the event was a success and they were glad to get their message out to so many avid coffee drinkers.

Oxfam’s volunteers said over 90 per cent of the coffee sold in Canada has not been certified by TransFair Canada, the organization that officially labels coffee as Fair Trade. On campus, fair trade coffee is widely available at places such as Diabolos in University College and at the Vegetarium in the International Student Centre.

One of the more specific goals of this event was to encourage the administration, together with the Students’ Administrative Council to create a campus-wide fair trade coffee policy along similar lines to the recently approved U of T garment policy. The fair trade campaign aims to increase the prices paid directly to over 500,0000 coffee farming families and to encourage sustainable and organic farming methods.

Jimmy Duong, a fourth-year economics student, said that, “students drink a lot of coffee so I think I would support this [cause] because it seems like it could make a real difference.”

If fair trade coffee resulted in price increases, however, student support may be less forthcoming. According to Oxfam volunteers at Wednesday’s event, fair trade coffee should represent little to no price increase for the average consumer.

Coffee farmers are currently in a crisis and because of this, the campaign in support of fair trade coffee has been stepped up in recent months. Worldwide, coffee prices have been decreasing steadily over the past decade, placing a great deal of stress on independent and family-run coffee plantations.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, much of this decline has less to do with market liberalization and exploitative business practices than it does with drastic increases in production from countries such as Brazil and Vietnam, who have had bumper crops for the last several years.

Proponents say that fair trade not only affords farmers and their families a better standard of living, but also allows them to make social and economic investments such as roads, processing plants, schools, and health facilities.

TransFair and its partner, Oxfam, are hoping to spread the message with future events and more coffee give-aways.

The Oxfam campaign is geared to target the four largest coffee producers in Canada: Kraft, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble and Sara Lee. “Together they buy nearly half the world’s coffee crop, yet they have done virtually nothing to keep the price paid to farmers from collapsing,” said Rieky Stuart of Oxfam Canada.

Photograph by Simon Turnbull