Campus will offer new coffee choice

  CATHERINE JUN Kimberly Easson, marketing
director of Transfair USA, and members of the Environmental
Coalition requested that fair trade coffee be available on campus
during a Jan. 12 meeting with ASUCLA officials.

By Kimberley Ma
Daily Bruin Contributor

Students will soon have the option of helping coffee farmers and
their families in developing nations by buying fair trade coffee on
campus.

The Associated Students of UCLA Board of Directors voted 9 to 0
““ with one abstention ““ to offer fair trade coffee
after a presentation by the Environmental Coalition on Friday.

“We’ve been working on this project for a year and a
half,” said David Halusic, a third-year economics student and
EC member. “We are very happy that the board decided to
implement this trial program.”

Fair trade coffee guarantees that small coffee farmers are paid
a minimum $1.26 per pound instead of 30 to 50 cents per pound by
eliminating middlemen.

Unlike industrial coffee productions, which involve
deforestation, fair trade coffee is shade grown under rain forest
trees.

The coffee, which will be available in a few weeks, will go
through a six-month trial basis. On average, one cup of fair trade
coffee costs six cents more than regular coffee.

UCLA’s current coffee supplier is Superior. Consumers will
have the option of buying Superior or fair trade coffee on
campus.

“We are here to present a viable alternative to a
currently unjust process that forces millions of coffee farmers to
suffer under a rigid economic system,” said Damon Taugher, a
third-year political science student and EC member, during the
presentation.

Developing nations’ coffee farmers are forced into cycles
of “debt and poverty,” according to EC members. Since
farmers can’t meet the costs of producing coffee with the
prices middlemen pay for their beans, they sell future harvests for
credit, which creates this cycle. But with middlemen out of the
picture, fair trade farmers have more bargaining power.

During the presentation, EC members said child labor is often
used because the current coffee wage is not enough to sustain a
family. By paying farmers a living wage through fair trade coffee,
children won’t have to work the fields and can go to
school.

Coffee is a $5 billion per year industry and is the second
largest traded commodity after oil. The U.S., which consumes
one-fifth of all coffee, is the largest coffee consumer in the
world.

“A complete switch over by ASUCLA would directly affect
the lives of over 120 producers and their families,” Taugher
said. “ASUCLA can change the livelihood of an entire
community.”

UC Davis, Berkeley, as well as Columbia, Brown and Bates
Universities already offer fair trade coffee. Retailers such as
Safeway, Trader Joe’s and Starbucks also offer the
coffee.

“Some schools offer only one brew,” said Christine
Riordan, a third-year international developmental studies and
Spanish student and EC member.

“At Columbia, the dining hall made a complete switch and
only serves fair trade,” she continued. “Each
university has a different setup.”

The EC will work with Robert Williams, director of Food
Operations of UCLA, and Transfair USA, the company that sells fair
trade products. Transfair USA, a non-profit agency, is a member of
the Fair Trade Labeling Organization, which monitors companies that
offer fair trade products.

“Offering fair trade coffee is a nice change,”
Williams said. “I think it will be successful and there will
be some demand for the coffee.”

According to Riordan, the group plans to market the product to
students. EC will plan out the details with Williams in upcoming
weeks.

“Some people will be affected by a price increase,”
Williams said. “But we’re not trying to make any extra
costs by selling fair trade coffee. My main focus is to provide the
best products at the lowest prices.”

Fair trade coffee costs more than the average cup, but it will
be up to ASUCLA to decide how much to charge. The projected cost of
fair trade coffee, compared to the coffee currently sold, is three
cents more for a small cup, six cents more for a medium, and eight
cents more for a large.

“As consumers, faculty, staff and students of UCLA, it is
important to make a socially responsible choice,” Taugher
said.