Fair Trade

Ensuring Sustainability & Equality

For many, nothing tastes better on a cold, snowy day than a hot cup of coffee. But that $3 cup of coffee could mean only $.03 in the coffee farmer's pocket.

Students at Carnegie Mellon and John Soluri, director of the university's Global Studies Program, hope to change that by raising awareness about a transnational movement known as "fair trade."

Fair trade involves non-profits, small businesses, farmers' cooperatives and consumers working together to ensure sustainability and reduce economic inequities in agricultural commodity chains.

"The movement interests me because I have experienced first-hand the challenges faced by small-scale farmers in Latin America trying to forge dignified livelihoods," said Soluri. "More generally, I think solutions to global poverty require changes in human relationships — fair trade represents a concerted effort to modify the relationship between farmers and consumers."

Fair trade isn't just about economics — it's about sustainability, too.

"Fair trade keeps small-scale farmers growing coffee, a permanent crop that, when grown with shade maintains relatively high levels of bird, bat and insect diversity," explained Soluri. "It promotes ecological sustainability, particularly when contrasted with alternative annual crops that tend to contribute more to soil erosion."

Building New Hope, a Pittsburgh-based non-profit, has been buying organic coffee directly from a small cooperative in Nicaragua and — aided by area coffee shops and local roasters such as La Prima Espresso and Commonplace — sells tens of thousands of pounds of fairly traded coffee.

"That said, I do not think that affluent consumers can eat and drink their way to a more just world," Soluri notes. "Fair trade alone will not eliminate global inequalities, but it does help. So, I hope that while Carnegie Mellon University students ponder how to change the world, they do it over a fairly traded coffee, or tea or chocolate."

Amnesty International at Carnegie Mellon and SIFE Nicaragua are working to bring fair trade to campus. Learn more about fair trade through these upcoming events:

Saturday, Feb. 13, 1:00pm, La Prima Factory Tour, Strip District — Limit 40 people, please R.S.V.P. to amnesty@andrew.cmu.edu.
Monday, Feb. 15, 11:30-2:30 p.m., University Center Rangos 3, Fair Trade Fair — Purchase a range of products including coffee, chocolate, clothing, and jewelry from some of Pittsburgh's finest fair trade companies including 10,000 Villages, Building New Hope, La Prima Espresso, Tazza D'Oro, and Women of the Cloud Forest.
Thursday, Feb. 18, 7:00 p.m., Porter Hall 100, Coffee Tasting & Black Gold Documentary Showing — Come enjoy some fair trade coffee and watch an award winning international documentary that has brought coffee companies such as Kraft, Nestle and Starbucks to the fore to answer pressing concerns about their pricing policies.

Homepage Story Archives