Awareness of Fair Trade flows onto campus

Especially during finals, coffee can be the ultimate source of energy for students looking to pull all-nighters. But whether it is taken as an espresso, a cappuccino, or a cafe au lait, coffee’s consumption can have a much wider impact than just stimulating the nerve cells of its drinkers.

Putting in a few extra cents for a cup of Fair Trade coffee can help improve the standard of living of coffee-growers around the world.

Fair Trade coffee, strongly supported in Europe for decades, has gained popularity in the United States in recent years, promoted largely by student and church groups.

UCLA came on board two years after TransFair USA began certifying Fair Trade coffee in the United States. In March 2001, after a year of pressure from the UCLA Environmental Coalition, the UCLA Medical Center made a full conversion to Fair Trade coffee through Starbucks Coffee.

Shortly afterward. the Associated Students of UCLA coffeehouses began selling a Fair Trade blend from its supplier, Sara Lee, which hadn’t offered a Fair Trade-certified coffee before ASUCLA requested it.

Roy Champawat, associate director of operations and business development at the UCLA restaurants, said that it was "in no small part" because of UCLA’s pressure that Sara Lee began carrying the line of coffee – which then became available to numerous other universities.

At UCLA, Fair Trade now accounts for 11.6 percent of coffee sold at campus shops, Champawat

said. Though speciality drinks are available upon request with Fair Trade, their sales are low compared to the amount of brewed Fair Trade coffee sold.

Sarah Church, a fourth-year international development studies student who has been involved in the UCLA Environmental Coalition’s Fair Trade campaign for three years, said demand for Fair Trade goes up as more people are aware of it.

"As people are informed, they make an informed decision to buy Fair Trade," she said. "We want to create education about Fair Trade so that people have the opportunity to support it."

Some of that education has included hosting speakers from Guatemala and Colombia and passing out fliers with nickels attached to encourage the purchase of Fair Trade.

Still, some students don’t know about Fair Trade. Others, including third-year anthropology student Harkomel Malhi, said they thought Fair Trade was used in every cup.

Malhi was under the impression coffeehouses on campus, as well as Starbucks locations, used only Fair Trade coffee because of advertisements for the product.

Some suggested that coffeehouses should offer only Fair Trade.

"Having it on the menu is a step in the right direction … but hopefully it will all be Fair Trade coffee in the future," said Deborah Basckin, a third-year philosophy student.

Such a transition seems to be unlikely anytime soon.

Champawat said ASUCLA is dedicated to offering the choice of Fair Trade, but not forcing anyone to order it.

"Our main responsibility is to make people aware of the option," he said. "It’s not our place as the managers of the restaurant division to make a judgment on this issue." Champawat said there may be less demand for Fair Trade because it costs more. "

It’s either something that you want to give money from your pocket to, or you don’t," Champawat said.

Depending on the size, Fair Trade costs anywhere from 3 to 8 cents more per cup than gourmet blends.

Heather Putnam, a UCLA alumna who has been living and working on cooperatives in northern Nicaragua since graduating in 2002 said, "The value of the benefits of Fair Trade for these farmers is far greater than the difference in price of the coffee."

Local Fair Trade availability

Starbucks and other area coffee locations serve limited amounts of Fair Trade.

At Starbucks stores – two of which are located in Westwood Village – Fair Trade coffee is brewed once a month based on a rotating coffee calendar. Starbucks spokeswoman Megan Behrbaum said the company determines the calendar based on supplies, customer demand and seasonal promotions.

Behrbaum said customers can always ask staff to make Fair Trade coffee from Starbucks’ one-pound bags – which are available throughout the year – when the item is not on the menu.

Starbucks stores in Westwood respond to customer requests by making French press coffee, a brewing technique that involves steeping ground coffee in hot water in a press pot to produce fresher coffee than that from automatic drip machines. The process takes about four minutes.

Though Starbucks stores throughout North America generally follow the same brewing calendar, Behrbaum said the schedule is not rigid and that a store can opt to brew Fair Trade coffee if customer demand is high.

Starbucks bought a total of 2.1 million pounds of Fair Trade-certified coffee for its stores worldwide in 2003, making up about 1 percent of its global purchase of coffee. The majority of its coffee comes from regions in Latin America, Indonesia and East Africa.

Behrbaum said the company pays fair prices for all its coffee regardless of certification. The average rate Starbucks pays for all its coffee is about $1.20 per pound, she said.

According to TransFair and human rights groups such as Oxfam America, however, the money paid for coffee products that are not certified risks falling into the hands of exporters and local middlemen in coffee-producing regions rather than farmers.

At other coffeehouses such as Peet’s Coffee & Tea in the Brentwood area, Fair Trade coffee is also brewed about once a month and offered in one-pound bags all year round. The company buys its coffee from a cooperative in Costa Rica with whom it has had a 14-year relationship.

Despite demand for large coffee companies to certify its coffee products, some coffeehouses such as The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf have opted to bypass TransFair. Coffee Bean has been buying the majority of its coffee from the same farms in Costa Rica, Columbia and Papua New Guinea for at least 10 years, said Jay Isais, the company’s senior director of manufacturing and distribution.

Isais, who is also responsible for purchasing green coffee for the company, said the company pays a fair price for its coffee but prefers to work directly with farmers rather than through a third-party organization like TransFair.

"We would rather see the direct benefits to the farms we work with … I have gone to visit those farms and regions quite recently," Isais said. "TransFair’s certification system is definitely important in raising global awareness and helping farmers in developing countries … but (Fair Trade-certified coffee) is not the only coffee in the world that is grown under conditions that are fair," he added.

With reports from Kelly Rayburn, Bruin senior staff.