At the University of Toronto, we are proud to be socially aware. On a short stroll around campus, one can see posters advocating social action—whether to stop the bombing of Iraq or to attend a protest against the lack of affordable housing. Another example of U of T’s growing social awareness is the presence of “fair trade” coffee in places such as Diabolos at University College and the Vegetarium Café at the International Student Centre.
Fair trade coffee entails many things. First, it means the corporate middleman is eliminated. Starbucks, which buys some of its coffee from Costa Rica and other developing countries, sells its brew at an average of $1 per pound instead of the current 40 cents on the unregulated world market, according to the International Coffee Organization. Regular coffee sold at world market price means cheap beans and lots of them, for us, anyway. For farmers, it means they may get as little as 5 to 10 per cent of the price the middleman buys it for, which means they may not have enough to survive on.
Another aspect of fair trade coffee is that it’s beneficial to the environment. When I spoke with Hilary and Emmy, managers of Diabolos, I found out many farmers who produce fair trade coffee do so without destroying their land.
Much of the coffee is shade-grown, which means trees stay on the land. This decreases soil erosion, which means farmers can stay on their land longer without having to slash and burn more forest. Regular, “free-trade” coffee has many problems. Almost half the coffee in the world is controlled by four huge multinational corporations—Kraft, Sara Lee, Proctor & Gamble, and Nestle. These companies have huge profit margins, as they sell coffee for an average of $3.60 a pound, while farmers reap a small portion of those benefits. These companies unfairly exploit farmers, who work very hard to earn little money. Do you want that in your cup?
Personally, I’ve learned that we, as consumers, have a huge role to play in the coffee business. By demanding fair trade coffee, we are giving farmers a better chance at life and we send a message to companies that we won’t agree to exploitation.
There are many places around campus where you can purchase fair trade coffee: Diabolos, Starbucks, and the Vegetarium Café are just a few of them.
