Fair-trade coffee is coffee that is purchased from farmer cooperatives as opposed to large coffee plantations. Farmers are ensured at least $1.26 per pound of coffee – a rate at which a farmer can support a family of five with adequate nutrition, health care, and education. In the current coffee market, because of speculation and flooding of the market by cheap coffee grown on industrial-sized plantations, the price that most farmers receive has fallen below $0.50/lb, which is not enough to cover the cost of production.
Although the outspoken motive of fair-trade is to support individual farmers and communities, also imbedded in its philosophy is environmental conservation and sustainable agriculture. Eighty-five percent of fair-trade coffee is organic, in contrast to regular coffee, which uses pesticides and fertilizers, including DDT, that then contaminate local watersheds and can harm the health of workers. Regular coffee is usually grown on large plantations with methods that cause erosion, deforestation, and loss of biodiversity.
To learn more about fair-trade coffee, visit these websites:
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/whatwedo/campaigns/coffee
http://www.transfairusa.org/content/about/index.php
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/coffee/
back to top
In 1999 the Middlebury trustees resolved that the college, when making decisions, should consider, among other things, "life cycles, ..., materials, community and product sources, community and regional impacts…." Buying fair-trade coffee is an opportunity for Middlebury to use its purchasing power to not only support a sustainable, socially-responsible product, but to also support a philosophy of making environmentally and socially-responsible decisions.
As a school that "expects its graduates to be thoughtful, ethical leaders able to meet the challenges of informed citizenship…. independent thinkers, committed to service, with the courage to follow their convictions and prepared to accept responsibility for their actions," it is important that the college itself set an example of making responsible choices – even choices that on the surface seem to involve nothing more grandiose than coffee beans (of which we consume about 10,000 pounds each year).
As an institution that takes pride in its social and environmental consciousness, it is only natural that Middlebury should purchase fair-trade, shade-grown, organic coffee. In doing so the college joins Yale, Harvard, Cornell, Williams, and over 200 other schools across the nation that have made the switch to fair-trade coffee.
back to top
The Fair Beans Campaign
In November 2003, a group of students started The Fair Beans Campaign to bring fair-trade coffee to Middlebury. The first step was to spread awareness about fair-trade by organizing a variety of educational events, including posters around campus and in the dining halls, articles in the Campus, and several fair-trade coffee houses.
Coffee for Waste Campaign Newsletter
Panel Discussion on the Economic and Social Issues Surrounding Fair-Trade Coffee
On January 21 2004, Cook Commons sponsored a fair-trade coffee panel discussion, led by Economics professor Peter Matthews and Anthropology professor David Stoll. Professor Matthews spoke to the economics of fair trade, discussing how markets respond to preferences for socially and environmentally responsible products, such as fair-trade coffee. In response to questions about theoretical economic markets, in which fair-trade coffee prices represent a price floor and would theoretically induce a surplus of fair-trade coffee, Professor Matthews argued that there are no truly isolated markets – that norms, cultural preferences, and ethics have an important role in shaping market economies. As an example, he noted that the decision to purchase fair-trade coffee is similar to the Middlebury Bookstore's decision to purchase clothes that are not manufactured in sweatshops and the college's decision to use sustainable wood in the new library. While these choices may have induced a greater direct cost, they represent the broader belief of the college as a conscious and responsible institution.
Professor Stoll elucidated some of the social implications of fair-trade coffee, drawing on his own experience in rural Guatemala. He described how the fair-trade coffee movement represents an opportunity for sustainable economic and social development for Guatemala. In noting that greater purchasing power is necessary for the development of the country, Professor Stoll described several ways in which Guatemalans are seeking to increase their purchasing power. Two of these: migration within and from Guatemala, and illegal-drug cultivation are the cause of much social instability regionally and nationally. The fair-trade coffee movement, which focuses on small-scale, family and community-run farms is one alternative that could greatly improve the welfare of Guatemalan farmers without undermining the environment or social stability.
"What is Sustainable Coffee?" Slideshow Presentation
On January 22, Bill Eichner, local ophthalmologist, owner of a fair-trade coffee cooperative in the Dominican Republic, and spouse of Middlebury author-in-residence, Julia Alvarez, gave a slide-show presentation entitled "What Is Sustainable Coffee?" He spoke about his and Mrs. Alvarez's decision to purchase the farm they now call Alta Gracia and to employ the philosophy and techniques of sustainable agriculture. With numerous slides, Mr. Eichner showed the striking landscape of the mountainous region where his coffee now grows in harmony with the local environment and community. He articulated the importance of organic, and shade-grown coffee, which protects the overall health of the local ecosystem, in particular preserving bird habitat. He also stressed the importance of community involvement and illustrated how Alta Gracia has positively affected the lives of members of the local community by building a small school and library on the farm. Mr. Eichner concluded his talk by emphasizing that supporting fair-trade, organic, shade-grown coffee is consistent with the Middlebury philosophy of taking socially and environmentally responsible actions, and that nothing should stop the college from making the switch to sustainable coffee.
Fair-trade Coffee Fiesta
In the spring 2004, the Fair Beans Campaign organized a symposium on the issue of fair trade coffee. Click here to see the schedule of speakers and events.
Agreement with Dining Services
The cost of fair-trade coffee, which is inherently greater than the cost of regular coffee because fair-trade coffee ensures farmers a "fair" price, is the biggest impediment to making the switch. The Fair Beans Campaign partnered with Matthew Biette, Director of Middlebury Dining Services, in their goal to bring 100% fair-trade, organic coffee to Middlebury. The students agreed to run a food-waste reduction campaign in hopes of reducing the nearly 100,000 pounds of food that are thrown away at dining halls during the course of the academic year and that represent hundreds of thousands of lost dollars. In exchange, Mr. Biette agreed to serve fair-trade coffee in the dining halls during the spring 2004 semester, and by the fall 2004 to open the bid to supply the 10,000 pounds of coffee that Middlebury consumes each year to other coffee companies that can supply 100% fair-trade, organic coffee.
back to top
Middlebury students waste as much as 100,000 pounds food during the academic year. If each pound of food, whether it's eaten or not, is worth $2, the 300+ pounds of food that is wasted at dinners alone each night represent a significant amount of money that could have been spent elsewhere – for example, on fair-trade coffee. The idea behind the "coffee for waste" campaign was to encourage students to waste less and thereby save Dining Services money that can be directed towards the purchase of fair-trade coffee.
As part of the campaign, signs were placed along the food line encouraging students to "underestimate [their] hunger" and to come back for seconds if they are still hungry. In order to increase awareness about how much food is wasted, volunteers took students' plates as they left the dining halls and measured the amount of edible food wasted (no peels, cores, bones, or napkins) two or three nights every week in both Ross and Proctor dining halls.
Before the campaign began, a baseline for the average amount of food wasted each night was determined – waste was weighed out of sight in the dish room on at least three separate occasions in both Ross and Proctor dining halls. From the total waste on those pre-waste-reduction campaign nights, a per-capita average was determined: at Proctor, the average was 0.14 pounds of edible food waste per person and at Ross the average was 0.22 pounds per person. This per-capita baseline was then used to make a projection for how much food would have been wasted prior to the beginning of the waste-reduction campaign, based on the number of students who eat at each dining hall on a given night. The amount of food waste that was reduced is the difference between the projection and the amount that was actually wasted on a given night.
During J-term, food waste was reduced, on average, 15% at Proctor and 40% at Ross.
back to top