Students are circulating a petition to make all OU purchases of on-campus coffee and tea 100 percent fair trade.
“Our goal is to have coffee and tea sold to students as guilt-free and as conflict-free as possible,” said Lindsay Baugh, Norman Fair Trade spokeswoman and public relations junior.
She said fair trade is a system aimed at protecting coffee and tea farmers around the world, who would otherwise be exploited for their products by large, international corporations.
Housing and Food Services began selling some fair trade products four years ago through partnerships with Starbucks Coffee and Prima Coffee, Lauren Royston, Housing and Food spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.
The petition aims to take the fair trade initiatives further.
“50 percent of the coffee Housing and Food sells across campus is fair trade,” Baugh said. “We want it to be 100 percent.”
Housing and Food Services is open to students advocating change.
“The nature of Housing and Food Services is to give the OU community a choice,” Royston said. “By providing the students, faculty and staff with multiple options, it is in their power to choose the type of coffee they prefer.”
Baugh said Norman Fair Trade proposed the changes to Housing and Food Services Director Dave Annis, and they are waiting to talk to OU President David Boren.
Baugh said drinking fair trade coffee and tea benefits consumers, as well as producers.
“I personally think it tastes better,” she said.
To be labeled fair trade, growers must not use pesticides, fertilizers or hormones, Baugh said.
“There is less processing between the producer and the consumer. Eighty percent of the time, the coffee arrives fresher than if it were sent through a popular brand company,” she said.
Royston said student petitions for changes in food service have been successful in the past when it came to expanded after-hour meal exchange benefits, adding nutritional information to the H&F Web site and bringing healthier eating options to campus.
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JJanowiak 3 years, 2 months ago
Something like this went around last year, and I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea, but there are some things to be acknowledged:
1) The coffeeshop in Cate does use fairtrade coffee, as does Crossroads. 2) They also use Numi tea which is not all Fair Trade, but is described to be ethical when it isn't, since getting Fair Trade certification is difficult on more specialty blends of tea. 3) The Bookmark and Starbucks in the Union usually don't do Fair Trade, but they do describe their coffee as being ethically traded.
I think the problem here really has to do with how comfortable these petitioners are with the gray area of corporate self-description. Obviously, this petition is just a waste of time and will come to naught as H&F officials point to their already-Fair-Trade sources, but it's also difficult to convince the majority of people, including me, that just because something isn't FT-certified, it isn't ethically traded. Starbucks has come under significant scrutiny and instituted many changes after putting in a new CEO, and without some kind of research backing this petition that says "hey, Starbucks is lying," I just don't think it matters right now. If you want the Fair Trade, go to Cate.