March 15, 2004
A Cooperative Cup A REPORT FROM MATAGALPA, NICARAGUA by Bridget O'Brien from The Daily Bruin http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu
In the United States, many college students have the opportunity to buy Fair Trade coffee between classes. In rural Nicaragua, many students have the opportunity to go to classes because of Fair Trade coffee. The Fair Trade system is designed to promote social and environmental responsibility and offers small-scale coffee farmers, organized into cooperatives, an above-market price for their product. In Los Alpes, a small mountain community in northern Nicaragua, Fair Trade allowed a group of farmers to build a much-needed elementary school for their children. For eight years, coffee farmer Adolfo Talavera held classes in a dirt-floored room of his home while he wrote to government officials explaining the need for a school in the area. But no progress was made until he and other members of a Fair Trade coffee cooperative decided to act on their own. The co-op provided land, international non-government organizations donated materials, and parents of children in the community did the manual labor. "Individually, we have no voice, but as a cooperative we can accomplish things," Talavera said. Some of those things include clean drinking water, fuel-efficient stoves that reduce the amount of firewood used, latrines, reforestation projects and technical assistance in the transition to organic coffee farming. Many cooperative members in the region received or purchased property during the land reforms of the 1980s, forming cooperatives which later enabled them to join the Fair Trade system. The difference in quality of life between those involved in a Fair Trade cooperative and those who aren't is clear in Los Alpes. From their simple, yet sturdy, wood-slab house, Talavera and his family watch the truckloads of plantation coffee pickers pass by on the bumpy dirt road. These pickers, not under the Fair Trade system, live in crowded barracks called "campamentos" during the week and are trucked out each Sunday for a day off. On plantations, the day begins for most at 5 a.m. and earlier for the women who cook tortillas and beans for breakfast. Coffee pickers work until mid-afternoon, filling the baskets strapped to their waists with red coffee cherries. The workers are often exposed to harsh pesticides and chemical fertilizers which, according to Talavera's brother Antonio, create a dense cloud over the plantation whenever they are applied. The plantation down the road from his house produces sun-grown coffee, which means that all the native trees were cleared before the coffee was planted, leaving workers exposed to the sun and rain. The days are long on small-scale farms during the harvest, too. The family picks coffee most of the day, then brings it to a small wet-processing mill on the property. There, the men and boys take turns cranking the wheel of the depulper, which removes the red shells from the beans. During the peak of the harvest, depulping may stretch late into the night, the mill lit by kerosene torches made out of old Coca-Cola bottles. Meanwhile, the women complete the similarly grueling task of grinding corn for tortillas. After dinner, the family might find time to play a few rounds of "desmoche," a popular Nicaraguan card game, before falling asleep on wooden platform beds. Then it's up with the rooster's crow to wash the coffee picked the day before, cleaning the beans of their sweet, honey-like pulp. They are then laid in the sun and mixed frequently so they dry evenly. Family members work together to pick out cracked or stained beans so the bags they take to town the next day will be free from defects. Whether on a plantation or a small farm, coffee harvesting is hard work. But Talavera notes one major difference. "I work for myself, not for the rich. (On the plantations) they work and work and don't gain anything. Their kids have to work, and there's no school," he said. After the coffee harvest, which lasts from November to February, small-scale farmers are kept busy harvesting other crops such as beans, corn and fruit. Maintenance of the coffee plants, a labor-intensive crop all year long, also takes time. But for plantation workers, most of whom are landless and have no other source of income, the nine-month period between coffee harvests is called "the time of silence." According to the Association of Rural Workers in Nicaragua, during this time, 90 percent of plantation workers are out of work, adding to an already high national unemployment rate. Esperanza Rivera has been picking coffee on a plantation outside of Matagalpa for the past 10 years. She lives in a one-room house with her five children, two of whom pick coffee with her during the harvest. Between three pickers, they earn about $2 a day. She says in the last few years, since coffee prices started dropping, the work on the plantation has been harder. Because the plantation owners are making less money, they employ fewer workers year-round, leaving the coffee plants poorly maintained. On some plantations, the weeds are taller than Rivera's 11-year-old daughter, Meicy. The pickers have to dig through vines, wasps' nests and clusters of "spider houses" to get to the coffee cherries, which are often dry or moldy. And though Rivera lives just 50 yards from a government-run school, only one of her children attends because she can't afford the mandatory uniforms for all of them. "What can I do?" she asks. "When there's no work, there's no money for the children." She says the Fair Trade farmers are better off because "the cooperative is united; they work together. It's much harder individually." Plantation workers' recent efforts to unite have led to little change. Each of the past two years, thousands of unemployed, landless workers have protested in the streets, closing down parts of the PanAmerican Highway and demanding access to land, work, health-care and education. In July 2003, 17 people died during a 100-mile march to the capital city of Managua, according to the ARW. The government had agreed the previous year to meet many of the protesters' demands, but has been slow in allocating land. Rivera doesn't know if she will join the protests this year if they occur, because "it's a big sacrifice, especially with young children." But if the government makes good on its promises, thousands like her may find themselves in the same situation as many Nicaraguans 20 years ago ?owners of small parcels of land with the possibility of forming cooperatives. Until then, Rivera says she and her family will survive the "time of silence" by consuming little but "air and bananas."
Coffee "crisis" and Fair Trade -------------------------------------------------- Having always fluctuated, coffee prices used to be regulated by the International Coffee Organization. But when the United States withdrew from the agreement in 1989, the market was left open to increased volatility. In 2001, due largely to corporate consolidation, which gives buyers more power, and huge increases in coffee production in Vietnam and Brazil, the world coffee price fell to 42 cents per pound, the lowest in over 100 years after adjusting for inflation. The drop has been devastating to countries like Nicaragua that count coffee as a main export crop. Though the market price is up to 74 cents this year, that's only about 8 cents higher than the amount it costs to produce a pound of coffee in Nicaragua, according to the World Bank. And in most countries, the cost of production is even higher. The low prices have forced small-scale farmers to abandon their farms or work harder for less money and have forced many plantation owners to scale down or cease production, leaving thousands of rural workers unemployed. Meanwhile, retail prices have not reflected the drop; consumers haven't seen lower coffee prices in stores or caf?s. The continued low market prices, a crisis for the world's 25 million coffee workers, is anything but for large coffee importers and roasters. A rapidly growing sector of the coffee industry, Fair Trade guarantees small-scale farmers at least $1.26 per pound for their coffee and a chance to compete in a market dominated by large corporations. More and more coffee drinkers are willing to pay a few extra cents for a cup of Fair Trade, whose producers are given the chance focus on quality, not quantity. "The concept of Fair Trade coffee is quality," says F?tima Ismael, the general manager of Soppexcca, an organization of Fair Trade cooperatives in Nicaragua. "Quality as much in the cup as in the quality of life of those who produce it." One way Fair Trade enables farmers to make improvements affecting the quality of their coffee is by guaranteeing them access to low-interest credit. In Nicaragua, Fair Trade also gives farmers access to cupping laboratories. In the labs, professional cuppers, or coffee tasters, evaluate coffee samples based on aroma, acidity, body and flavor. Cupping labs let potential clients sample coffee before they buy it and allow farmers to see ?and taste ?the end results of their labor. "The producers know everything about picking, depulping and washing coffee. But we should also know what the coffee we export tastes like," said Talavera. Knowing how their coffee tastes gives farmers a chance to improve. Coffee beans have to be sent to the dry mill soon after they are processed on the farm, a challenge for many small-scale farmers. Private vehicles are hard to come by in rural areas, and the gasoline, chickens and other smelly cargo common on public buses can contaminate coffee. "Last year, we had a farmer whose coffee tasted bad because of inadequate transportation. You can taste that in the coffee. So this year we fixed the transportation problem, and his coffee is much better," said Ismael. Through the cooperatives, problems like this can be solved. And farmers don't have to rely on high-charging middlemen (called "coyotes" in Central America) to take their beans to the market. Removing the middlemen allows farmers to have closer connections to the people who buy and drink their product. And because the Fair Trade system promotes long-term relationships between producers and buyers, farmers have the chance and incentive to keep quality high.
Certification and organic farming ------------------------------------------------ According to Fairtrade Labelling Organization, the international Fair Trade umbrella organization that certifies producers, about 800,000 farmers in 45 countries are involved in Fair Trade. And in communities like Los Alpes, even families not in the cooperative benefit from projects like the elementary school. FLO's criteria for maintaining certification include environmental protection efforts and progress toward integrated crop management. On coffee farms, this means coffee is grown under the multi-level shade of banana or other native trees. The mix of crops provides natural protection against pests and disease, a home for migratory birds, and additional sources of food and income for farmers. On Talavera's farm, orange, banana, guava and avocado trees shade the coffee plants and provide a welcome supplement to the typical diet of beans, rice and tortillas. FLO also encourages farmers to use fewer chemicals and work toward organic certification, a benefit for the environment and for farmers, who get 15 cents more per pound for certified organic coffee. "Organic is more work, but it's worth it because there's enough demand that we always sell all of it," Talavera said. That's important because, due to demand, only about 25 percent of coffee produced by Fair Trade certified cooperatives worldwide is sold under Fair Trade terms. At Cecocafen, a group of cooperatives in Nicaragua, increased organic production and a focus on quality have enabled it to sell over half of its coffee within the Fair Trade system. Demand for Fair Trade in coffee-consuming countries is still lagging behind the supply, but even for the farmers hoping for the Fair Trade price for their coffee, money isn't the system's only benefit. "Of course the better price is important," Talavera said, after walking through his densely forested coffee farm to visit a fellow cooperative member. "But what is also important is to protect the environment. To protect the health of my children, of the people around me, and of the forest."
April 10, 2003
Hi! UCLA has just resumed its Spring Quarter. We have several plans for our coffee campaign this quarter.
I. Westwood coffee shop campaign--where could i get materials to put together in a packet for mom's and pop's coffee houses and mainstream coffee shops as well to provide them with info on fair trade coffee. II. Nickel Days--we are planning to get signatures while doing this for our 100 % Fair Trade campus campaign.
III. Educational and awareness campaigns in front of our coffee houses (weekly) IV. Fair Trade Chocolate--we will try to get fair trade chocolate sold at our mini marts all over campus.
V. Presentation to the ASUCLA Board of Directors--After two years, we would like to remind the Board of our long term goals of 100 % certification. They initially agreed to try some fair trade coffee items on coffee shop menus on campus then based on the sales they would determine which direction fair trade would go. We are pushing for the 100% fair trade on campus. For the presentation, I would need to know which universities have converted a 100% and would like to get in touch with them. If you have any other info that would strenghthen the presentation let me know.
As of now, all of the coffeeshops on the UCLA campus serve Fair Trade espressos, french roast and lattes. It has been two years since Fair Trade coffee has been an option in our cafe menus.
We are now attempting to step up the campaign towards a total conversion of all the coffee offered on campus to fair trade. This means that fair trade coffee will not only be a menu line item option but will be only coffee served on campus. We are pushing for this campaign towards the realization of the overall vision for a fair trade world.
March 12, 2003
Our fair trade day last week went well, we had flowing fresh fair trade coffee all day thanks to donations as well as coffee beans in packets. Our sales of fair trade chocolates did very well. ASUCLA rolled out the fair trade espressos and lattes with their own advertisements in our coffee shops. Thank you for all the information and campaign materials sent!
As for next quarter we have plans to recruit new and younger members as well as to actively pursue a weekly educational campaign about fair trade coffee on campus. We will also work on getting fair trade chocolate sold in our mini marts all over campus. (Marge)
March 3, 2003
In honor of the National Day of Action, we're tabling for fair trade, and selling chocolate bars, at the National student strike, and we're handing out fliers and free FTC on the main drag of campus for the 6th, when our coffeehouses come out with Fair Trade Espresso!!! It's going to be awesome. We have 2 new people who are really excited about the campaign, and though we have little left to do on campus, we're keeping on them, as well as thinking about branching out to the local Coffee Bean cafes.
I was in Oaxaca and Chiapas with SIT, mostly touring around, but I interviewed Ryan Zinn in the GX Chiapas office for my research paper, which was about the organizations in San Cristobal working against the FTAA and PPP. Is GX going to be working on organizing for the FTAA in Miami this summer? If so let me know if there's any way I can plug into that effort! Take care and let me know if there's anything I can do for GX down here! (Sarah Church)
February 11, 2003
Here is an update of what we discussed at our meeting, and our targeted campaign areas. So far there are three committed people to the campaign; we will be recruiting more in the next Environmental Coalition meeting and through classroom announcements.
I. March 6th National Action--campus wide, the nature of which will be determined after our meeting with ASUCLA on the status of the fair trade espresso. They've been lagging on this and we can definitely combine action to pressure ASUCLA. More details on this later, I will be meeting one-on-one with Eric Blocher who will help me on this campaign.
II. Westwood Coffee Shops--we are planning on doing a door-to-door coffee shop campaign in our college town. We will be talking to managers and providing information on fair trade coffee. We would like to put together a packet to distribute specifically for college town coffee shops.
III. Lastly, we were wondering by any chance if GX had any Fair Trade Coffee t-shirts that our committee could purchase and wear during our action week. If not we were planning our getting our t-shirts made.
--Marge
February 2003
Here is an update of our campaign and of what was discussed at our last meeting:
I. March 6th Action -Recruitment of more volunteers, as of now we have 5 people working on the campaign -We will be running an ad in our school newspaper on that day -Flyering in front of all our coffee houses on campus -Giving out our donated Fair Trade coffee on Bruin Walk -Selling Fair Trade chocolates on Bruin Walk -Wearing our Fair Trade t-shirts!
II. ASUCLA Fair Trade Coffee updates -We spoke to the ASUCLA food services manager to follow up on the Fair Trade espresso. He was able to get a rebate from Sara Lee, a dollar off per pound allowing ASUCLA to keep the price differential low. -Fair Trade espresso and lattes will be released March 6th!!! -ASUCLA Marketing has designed posters to announce the espresso and lattes and the National Fair Trade Coffee Day. -Coffee cups on March 6th will all have stickers celebrating the campaign
III. Speaker Tour -The Environmental Coalition decided to not book the cocoa speaker because we felt that at this point in time we do not have a chocolate campaign and we also felt that our campaign needs to focus on the coffee on campus. -UCLA alumni Heather Putnam who has been working for a Fair Trade coffee cooperative in Nicaragua will be speaking in March when she visits LA.
November 2002
Fair Trade certified coffee is now the only non-decaf drip variety carried in the UCLA dorms and at the coffee shop in the UCLA medical center. Last week I met with the purchasing director for ASUCLA restaurants, Roy Champawat, and heard that Fair Trade has held steady at between 8.5 and 10% of all coffee sales at the on-campus coffee shops. That has been greatly encouraging to them given that the bulk of sales are driven by price and Fair Trade coffee is three to eight cents more expensive than normal coffees, and up to fifteen or twenty cents above what folks pay for the house special. At that meeting Roy also offered to put out the table tents that they have made to inform the community about what Fair Trade Coffee is and that it is served at UCLA.
We had been hoping to launch fair trade espresso at the coffee shops in May, but the manager who was involved in prepping the shops for the new product quit, leaving the project incomplete. We are told that ASUCLA is currently working on signage for the espresso drinks, which will be available beginning November 18th.
We are continuing in our outreach efforts to the community, especially those students and coffeeshop employees who weren't around for the coverage that was granted to the campaign when it began in 2000. Other recent outreach efforts have included presentations to classes and organizations at UCLA and across Los Angeles. We have presented on the coffee market, Fair Trade, and how to start campaigns.
April 19, 2002
We are coordinating a speaking event with TransFair involving farmers from Guatemala and Colombia. The event will be held on May 3rd at 4 pm. We are hoping that this event will help build interest in other campus and community groups who work on related issues such as labor, environment, social justice, are human rights.
We are also working and art group from UCLA. They are doing four murals depicting the coffee crisis.
I will be going to Oaxaca and another UCLA undergraduate student studying international development has visited a coffee cooperative in Nicaragua. We are working to develop a solidarity relationship with the cooperative.
February 4, 2002 (Sarah Church)
UCLA is now a FAIR TRADE COFFEE CAMPUS!!!
Our Dining Halls have now switched - they offer a fair trade Rainforest Blend from Superior Coffee. In addition, our on-campus Coffeehouses - all 4 of them - carry a fair trade coffee (the same Rainforest Blend) and a fair trade Cafe Au Lait. The UCLA Medical Center, adjacent to the campus, switched their entire line of Starbucks Coffee to fair trade last year. Every major coffee outlet on campus has a fair trade option!
This is a major victory for the Fair Trade Coffee movement, a result of our collective effort as students working towards a better future. UCLA has, I believe, one of the largest student bodies in the country, and Fair Trade is not only a great campaign but an opportunity to remind all students of our power as consumers and the influence of our actions on the world as a whole.
If you have any questions about our campaign, feel free to contact us.
Also, if anyone is working with Superior Coffee, Starbucks, or Seattles' Best, we can help you! Contact us!
January 14, 2002 (Sarah Church)
Right now, we're focusing on two aspects of the Fair Trade Coffee campaign. One, our Dorm campaign, is targeting the Director of Dining Services for UCLA Dorms, with a goal of a fair trade blend in all of the Dining Halls. This step would make us, officially, a "Fair Trade Campus"! Our second goal for this quarter is to improve sales and awareness of the fair trade blend currently being offered at ASUCLA coffeehouses. Last we heard, the blend was at a respectable 11.9% of sales, but we'd like to see that rise to 20 - 25% to encourage ASUCLA to offer "perks" such as making Fair Trade the "Coffee of the Month."
December 4 2001 (Sarah Church)
We cannot do the Folgers Day of Action but we are interested in hearing about more coordinated efforts! We are actually planning a Free FTC day at our dorms for this Thursday (the 6th), encouraging students to try a free cup of FTC and sign a petition to get it served in the dorms.
October 2001 (Sarah Church)
We've already switched our coffee houses (With Superior Coffee as distributor) to offering a Fair Trade brew when requested, and our Medical Center is completely switched - that is, all of their ocffee is Fair Trade (their distributor is Starbucks). We're currently working very closely with Seattle's Best to get Fair Trade in the dorms and are working with Transfair to get the business-partnership angle. We have plenty of information for students at other campuses and we can send anyone who requests one a copy of the materials we used to present to the ASUCLA Board (to get coffeehouses to switch).
June 2001 (Christine Riordan)
The school year has come to an end! The Environmental Coalition continued its work on Fair Trade through Spring Quarter. Our work included helping with outreach and publicity for the FTC in the UCLA Med Center and ASUCLA cafes. We also continued our work with the Dining Services. Since the time that we started our work with them, Seattle'e Best actually became certified due to pressure from other schools. So our main distributor has it - now the job is to get Dining Services to buy it! The Dining Services have proven to be more difficult because of one main obstacle - the dining and catering services are not retail outlets. The prices they pay for coffee are set in the prices they charge per meal, so an increase in coffee prices can't be reflected in the price they charge residents for coffee - it is reflected in the price they charge for the entire meal. This sets up a different dynamic than the ones we encountered with ASUCLA and the Med Center, and is a challenge we could always use suggestions for! We've started doing dorm-targeted flyering and petitioning, which we will continue working on next year.
The group is excited to continue the Fair Trade campaign in the Fall Quarter. We will be working on the Dining Services still, and there was interest in stating to work on some LA coffee houses and chains.
Just a note - We have put all of our material together in a packet (including a power point presentation and report - see below) that we have available if people want them! Contact the Environmental Coalition (theec@ucla.edu) if you would like one.
March 28, 2001 UCLA Environmental Coalition Fair Trade Coffee Campaign ?Chronology
The UCLA Environmental Coalition began its Fair Trade Coffee Campaign in April of 2000. The first step in our campaign included researching who our vendors and distributors were. We found that we actually had four different vendors on our campus: ASUCLA (the Associated Students of UCLA ?a separate entity within UCLA that consists of a body of administrators, along with some students. It should be noted, though, that ASUCLA is not the student government), the UCLA Medical Center, the UCLA Dining Services, and Espresso Roma, located in the Anderson Business School.
In shaping the beginning of the campaign, the Environmental Coalition decided to focus on ASUCLA. ASUCLA runs the four main coffee houses on our campus: Kerckhoff, Northern Lights, Caf? Synapse, and Jimmy?. These four coffee houses are accessible to the entire student body, unlike the dining services, which are more focused in the dormitory dining services and catering, or the Medical School. The ASUCLA coffee houses are supplied by Superior Coffee Company, which is owned by Sara Lee, the third largest coffee company in the United States. We then focused on the Medical School and the Dining Services after the bulk of the work for the ASUCLA campaign was completed and after we had been successful in bringing Fair Trade Coffee to the ASUCLA coffee houses.
The following is a chronology of the various stages of the UCLA campaign. Included are meetings, presentations, events, and projects that were part of the campaign, as well as the people we worked with and the different publicity techniques that were used at various stages.
April-June 2000
During the first months of the campaign, we met with the general caf? manager of the ASUCLA coffee houses. In these meetings, we introduced the idea of Fair trade and began to find out what we could about the ASUCLA operations. For instance, we wanted to know more about volume, prices, etc., but this information is hard to come by - since buyers are under contract with a distributor, many times they cannot reveal this information, although they may be able to give a general idea of sales.
The initial meetings with the manager occurred at the end of our Spring Quarter; the campaign resumed during the Fall Quarter when classes began again.
Fall Quarter 2000
During the first Environmental Coalition/Coffee meetings of the quarter, we began to brainstorm about events and other programming we wanted to do to promote FTC on our campus. We also delegated tasks and meetings; the work we did during our Fall Quarter is below:
October 2000
During the month of October, we met again with the caf? manager that we had been in touch with the previous April. We were referred to the ASUCLA Operations Manager and the Director of Food Operations (the buyers for ASUCLA), and had a meeting set up with them for the beginning of November.
We also had many events and publicity planned for the first month we were back. We wanted to be sure that the student body knew what Fair Trade was, and wanted to demonstrate to the ASUCLA administrators that there was student support behind the movement. We immediately began generating petitions and fliers, as well as articles in the Daily Bruin, our campus paper. We were able to use the opinion section of the newspaper to compose our own article, comparing the free trade/fair trade systems, and bringing to light the importance in having UCLA become a vendor of FTC.
One of our most successful events was a Free Fair Trade Coffee! table set up on the most trafficked area of our campus. We were able to receive donations of FTC from a nearby Starbucks, and brewed it at one of the cafes (with their permission!). We had the booth set up for two days, gave our free coffee, and got hundreds of signatures on our petitions, eventually finishing with almost 1000 signatures. We had made some buttons that we gave out, and also distributed numerous fliers with general information about FTC. We also got the Daily Bruin to cover the event, and an article ran in the paper that week.
During this time we were also arranging for a FTC speaker, touring through Global Exchange, to come to our campus, which was also going to take place in the beginning of November. We were also contacting various FTC distributors in search of price estimates and the types of coffee that they carried.
November 2000
We met with the ASUCLA buyers (the Operations Manager and the Director of Food Operations) onNovember 2nd. Before our meeting, we listed various items that we wanted to get out of the meeting (things we wanted to know) ?these included things such as distributor information (volume, price, if their current contract was ending soon), conditions needed for switching (was it possible?), etc. We were also prepared with some information on other schools that had already made the switch (such as UC Davis and UC Berkeley). At the meeting, we found that they ASUCLA buyers had already done some research, mostly on the Starbucks Campaign. As a result, they had also come across prices that were simply too high for the volume of coffee that they buy. We were able to name some other companies that sold FTC at lower prices, and were able to learn more about how ASUCLA runs their coffee houses. Two options were discussed: a full switch-over or a partial switch. From here, we were referred to the ASUCLA President, and arranged a meeting for November 13th.
On November 8th, we hosted a speaking event, run through Global Exchange and Equal Exchange. It was difficult in terms of publicity to reach a large portion of the student body, but the advertising we did was through fliers, word of mouth, and classroom announcements. The Daily Bruin also covered the event.
On November 13th, we met with the ASUCLA President. The meeting did not go as we had expected. We were told at this point that pricing and success stories of other schools were not as important as the economic aspects of FTC ?why it cost more, where the money went and how it was distributed, more information about the certification process, who differentdistributors were, etc. We were requested to create a report explaining FTC in detail, and were also told that we should make a presentation to the Services Committee. The Services Committee is basically a sub-group of the Board of Directors of ASULCA that decides on issues such as spending for social issues. The Services Committee could make a recommendation about FTC and send it to the entire Board, at whose meeting we would have to make another presentation.
The rest of November was spent compiling information for the report. In order to do so, we began contacting Global Exchange, TransFair USA, and Equal Exchange. The report eventually consisted of a brief history of the Fair Trade System; the economic, social, and environmental benefits of FTC; a detailed look at the certification process and organizations which are involved in this process (Fair Trade Labeling Organization and, more specifically, TransFair USA); and a model company (Equal Exchange), in which we wrote about their business, impact on coffee cooperatives, and financial status as a company.
We also continued petitioning, and began to send out student group letters, in which student groups and faculty could sign on in support of FTC at UCLA. In addition, we were contacting other student groups at different campuses that were involved in FTC in order to get more information and pointers
On November 26th, we were also able to meet with a TransFair representative who happened to be in the LA area. This greatly helped in answering some of our questions and getting advice about how to take our campaign to the next step.
December 2000
We were in school for the first two weeks of December ?this time was basically spent finishing up our report. The report was finished up over our Winter Break. Over break, we were also able to have a meeting with various Environmental Coalition members and some members of TransFair at their office in Oakland. This was extremely helpful in setting campaign tactics, getting new information and resources, and establishing connections.
January 2001
After Winter Break, we prepared for our Services Committee meeting. We had another brief meeting with the ASUCLA President to make sure that we had included all of the information she wanted in the report. We also posted fliers and tied ribbons on our campus, and got more signatures on our petitions. We were able to create a presentation outline and ideas for a PowerPoint presentation, and did a lot of work at an all-day work party after we returned from break.
On January 12th, the Environmental Coalition made a presentation to the ASUCLA Services Committee. An article ran in the Daily Bruin prior to the meeting. At the meeting, a group of Environmental Coalition members gave an oral presentation about Fair Trade Coffee, and we had a PowerPoint presentation that corresponded with our speeches. We also handed out copies of various newspaper articles discussing fair trade (from sources such as the Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, or the San Francisco Chronicle) and photocopies of all of the petitions we had collected. A member of TransFair was at our meeting, which helped a lot in the questions we received from the Committee. We also made sure that a reporter from the Daily Bruin was at the meeting; a photographer came as well. The Committee made a recommendation of one Fair-Trade brew to be sold at the coffee houses for six months,with the cost passed on to the consumer. The next step was to take our presentation and the recommendation to the entire Board of Directors.
On January 26th, we met with the Board of Directors. We essentially gave the same presentation that we had given at the Services Committee meeting. After extremely brief questioning, the Board approved the recommendation of the Services Committee 9-0-1!! The Daily Bruin responded with a front-page article the following week!
February 2001
We met again with the ASUCLA Buyers on February 6th to discuss the details of FTC at UCLA. We were able to work out things such as marketing and methods of advertising, and also set a timeline for the rest of February. The coffee was scheduled to appear on February 20th.
Superior, the distributor for ASUCLA, had been discussing becoming certified as a Fair Trade distributor as a result of student campaigns and interest within the company. This became another part of our campaign as we tried to find other schools that had Superior as a distributor in the hopes of pressuring them to become certified.
The coffee (which is certified fair trade, organic and shade-grown) appeared on schedule. To get ready the Environmental Coalition had another work party, where we made fliers, buttons, and signboards to publicize its arrival. One member also made a t-shirt stencil, and so we had FTC t-shirts to wear! We made fliers with nickels taped to them to pass out (as a way of promoting it, we thought we? cover the few extra cents it cost for the first day!) The Daily Bruin also ran another article, as well as another one that an Environmental Coalition member had written. ASUCLA also ran a full-page ad in the Daily Bruin, and created signboards and pamphlets for all of the coffee houses.
On February 17th, some Environmental Coalition members also helped with a Fair Trade Coffee Workshop at a California Students Against Sweatshop Conference in Davis. Here, we were able to network with other schools and share ideas about our campaigns, as well as answer some questions from school that were just starting their campaigns. During February, we also began to work on the Dining Service and Medical Center campaigns. We met with the UCLA Medical Center initially in the beginning of February; we gave them copies of our report, articles, and other related information, and arranged for a follow-up meeting in the beginning of March. Since the Medical Center is supplied by Starbucks, we anticipated that the switch would be easier since Starbucks already carries fair-trade.
We also met with the Dining Services on February 21st. We found out who their distributors were (Seattle? Best and Nescafe). The Dining representatives also requested a list of other schools that had FTC, particularly other dining services, and so we began collecting that information. We also arranged for a follow-up meeting, and began planning petitions and fliers for the dorms. We are also working on a program (a Coffee Night) sponsored by a faculty member for the dormitories.
March 2001
On March 2, the Environmental Coalition had a meeting with the UCLA Medical Center. The Med Center announced that it wished to make a full switch-over to FTC while absorbing the cost!! Its buyers were arranging meetings with Starbucks to negotiate the switch over, and the Environmental Coalition is planning fliers, samples, and marketing for the beginning of April. The Daily Bruin has also agreed to cover the Med Center switch.
Around mid-March, the Sara Lee Corporation, which owns Superior, ASUCLA? distributor, announced that it was going to certify five percent of its gourmet line! Superior had been sub-contracting through Organic Coffee Company, JBR, and now anticipated that Superior Fair Trade Coffee would be in the ASUCLA shops relatively soon.
On March 20th, we had one last meeting with the Dining Services before the Spring Quarter ended. Dining representatives had contacted TransFair, and part of the focus of the Dining campaign will now focus on pressuring Seattle's Best to become certified, as Sara Lee had done. We are arranging for another meeting with the Dining Services next quarter, and will start petitioning and passing out flyers on a larger scale when we return!
April 13, 2000 The fair-trade campaign started officially on April 13 at our school. We began an educational campaign on campus by doing street theatre at 3 of our campus coffee shops. We have dropped those postcards off with the coffee buyer from UCLA, and are set to have a meeting with him very soon. I'd like to express solidarity with all of those working on this campaign.
