Secondary Contact: Joeseph McGill, jrm46@cornell.edu
May 2003
Way to go Cornell- pushing for both Fair Trade coffee and chocolate!!
Cornell Daily Sun
FRIDAY, MAY 02, 2003
Students for Fair Trade Lobby Cornell Dining
By ALIZA WASSERMAN
Students for Fair Trade at Cornell have several reasons to celebrate. During this semester, and over the past few weeks, members have come far in their fight to have Cornell Dining sell only fair trade coffee.
PRESSURE
The students, along with the newly formed national United Students for Fair Trade, have been putting student pressure on leaders in the coffee industry to increase demand for fair trade coffee, a type of coffee that ensures a fair wage to farmers.
The process sets the price of coffee beans at $1.26 per pound, according to the website of Transfair U.S.A., the third party organization which certifies the process.
Student pressure several years ago resulted in Cornell Dining adding one line, french roast, of fair trade coffee to its selection. Students have since stepped up their efforts in the past few months, producing substantial results.
TRAINING SESSION
Two members of Students for Fair Trade at Cornell, Jessica Brown '04 and Ben Mantle '04, along with 40 other student activists from around the country attended an Oxfam student training session at the University of Washington in February. At this meeting, two major announcements were made, according to Brown.
The United Students for Fair Trade began at the same time that Seattle's Best, a leader in the coffee industry and Cornell's supplier, announced that it was adding two new lines of fair trade coffee for colleges and universities, one that was decaffeinated and one that could be made into espresso.
According to Brown, the announcement cited student pressures as a main impetus for the addition. "I'd like to think we had a hand in tripling Seattle's Best's fair trade offerings in general. I feel pretty confident and positive about next semester," Mantle said.
In mid-April, several representatives from Seattle's Best's management, including the vice president, spoke at a Student Assembly meeting and met with some representatives of Students for Fair Trade at Cornell. Three of the company's representatives spoke to the S.A. about their commitment to sustainable development, according to Mantle.
FAIR TRADE
Although most of the company's coffee is not fair trade, they cited the company's commitment to fair labor practices and cited the size of the farms as why they are not eligible for fair trade status. However, Dan Fireside, grad, responded to the executives, noting that only a third-party organization like Transfair could accurately intervene to ensure the best conditions for farmers.
DISCUSSION
At the discussion following the S.A. meeting, Seattle's Best executives explained that their two new lines of Fair Trade coffee were already at the warehouse from which Cornell gets its coffee, according to Mantle.
Shortly after the meeting last week, two lines of fair trade coffee were added to Cornell's dining facilities. "This year's work has paid off. We've already tripled the amount of fair trade at Cornell and tripled the amount offered by Seattle's Best to the country," Brown said.
Another recent development involves the potential for fair trade coffee at Cornell's all-you-care-to-eat dining facilities.
Also last week, Pura Vida Coffee, a company which donates all of its net profit to charity, introduced the first-ever fair trade "liquid coffee," the type of coffee used in the all-you-care-to-eat coffee machines.
At a recent meeting of the S.A. Dining Committee, this new development was discussed, and students were told that there is a great potential for Cornell Dining to switch to Pura Vida's fair trade line in these facilities next semester.
On the national level several changes in the coffee industry have occurred as well. At a recent conference of the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA), Dunkin Donuts announced that all of its franchises would be serving fair trade espresso.
Representatives of United Students for Fair Trade also had a strong presence at this conference, according to Brown who was there as a representative of both Cornell and the national organization, of which she is a board member.
Also on the national level, on April 16, Starbucks announced that it would be taking over Seattle's Best, which is currently owned by AFT Enterprises. "Our sales rep from Seattle's Best said that this should not have any effect on the coffee we receive from them," Brown said.
Students for Fair Trade at Cornell are happy that their work has paid off in the form of these developments. However, "we would really like to get a commitment from Cornell that the their next contract will be for all fair trade coffee," Brown said.
Brown and Mantle stressed the importance of educating students about fair trade and garnering their support: "It's educating people about fair trade, and tying it in to other products; it's not just coffee that's important and can work for a lot of different foods," Mantle said.
Confident that Cornell would be all fair trade within the next few years, Brown said, "We've gotten over 1,000 signatures form students. [Fair trade coffee] should be everywhere, and if it's not people should ask. Cornell Dining is pretty flexible and the employees listen," Brown said.
A number of other ideas have also been discussed during meetings with the management of Cornell Dining, one of which is for Cornell to add an all fair trade coffee stand, according to Mantle. This plan is tentative, but the committee has been tossing around the idea of linking fair trade coffee with local fair trade chocolate, in a new Cornell Dining facility.
March 6, 2003
Sorry that we didn't get onboard with the national awareness day sooner. I spoke in a class of 100 or so people today about fair trade, and we're doing lots of things within our campaign to promote fair trade also: - info in cafes - collecting petitions through tabling and talking to people while they wait in line for coffee - going to dining committee meetings, talking with our district's Seattle's Best sales rep., have scheduled a meeting with university administration - planning a tasting/coffee stand as a new tabling strategy (give aways always draw a crowd, especially with coffee in the morning) - the latin american relations group (CUSLAR) is organizing an event for downtown Ithaca in mid-May - resolution through student government and some media attention along with that.
So our campaign seems to be getting stronger by the day; we're increasing awareness on campus so that by the 18th, we should have a great turnout to hear Tadesse speak!
(previous contact: Joseph McGill)
FEBRUARY 28, 2003
S.A. Addresses New Campaign Tactics
http://www.cornellsun.com/articles/7858/
printed in The Cornell Daily Sun
By ELIZABETH DONALD In a change of pace from its frequent debates over Slope Day, the Student Assembly (S.A.) passed resolutions regarding financial aid cuts, minority summer programs and coffee consumption at their meeting last night.
Student-Elected Trustee and Head of Elections Leslie Barkemeyer '03 also announced her committee's findings on candidates accused of illegal early campaigning.
"The committee met in executive session and we found that the accused parties were not guilty of early campaigning," she said.
Undesignated Representative Steven Blake '05 and candidates Nick Linder '05 and Jason Jendrewski '05 accused candidates including Tim Lim '06 of early campaigning.
In response to Governor George Pataki's proposed 16.6 percent budget cut to the State University of New York's operating budget and cuts to the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) and other sources of funding, the S.A. passed a resolution calling on the Governor to "amend his Executive Budget to allow students to receive their full TAP award during the semester they are eligible."
"It's terrible for an additional pressure to be placed on students receiving financial aid," said Stuti Mandala '04, S.A. vice president of finance.
The Governor's proposal concerning TAP would prevent students from receiving a third of their TAP allotment until after graduation. This amounts to an average loss of $720.42 per student according to the resolution.
The S.A. also voiced its concern over the status of minority summer programs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Princeton University by passing a resolution "strongly [reaffirming the S.A.'s] support of all of Cornell's minority student enrichment programs [and expressing] its strong dismay with Princeton's change in its summer minority enrichment programs.
"If MIT and Princeton can do this, what's to stop other schools? It's disturbing that Princeton would withdraw support just for fear of legal entanglement," said Executive Vice President Sai Pidatala '04, expressing his fears for the future of Cornell's minority enrichment programs. Several members of the S.A. expressed worry that the resolution would have no impact.
"The resolution is great, but there's no real implication to this. It seems to be all rhetoric [with] no impact on the student body," said Transfer Representative Brandon Ashley '05.
James Lamb '03 concurred with Ashley's view that the resolution does not take enough action. "This resolution is just giving lip service to an issue," he said. Despite concerns from both the S.A. and the community, the resolution passed.
Taking on another global issue, the S.A. passed a resolution "[urging] the administration to make as much coffee in dining facilities Fair Trade as possible while under the current contract."
In response to the cycle of poverty and debt encountered by many small coffee producers when market payments do not cover costs of production, suppliers of Fair Trade coffee are guaranteed a minimum price. "Even though [coffee] is a small part of a student's purchases, it's a life or death matter for many people," said Dan Fireside grad.
In a statement read by Undesignated Representative Jackie Koppell '05, Jessica Brown '04 agreed. "We should consider the thousands upon thousands of people this resolution will affect," she stated.
Though Fireside maintained that Cornell's usage of Fair Trade coffee would not have a negative impact on quality or price, Ashley raised concerns about the effectiveness of the resolution. "I don't believe it will have much effect. You talk about fairness? Well life isn't fair, nor should coffee be," he said. The resolution passed.
Copyright © 2003 by The Cornell Daily Sun, Inc.
November 2002 (Andres Blanco)
Cornell University has started up a campaign to get more Fair Trade coffee on campus. Cornell is in the first year of a three year contract with Seattle's Best; so we have all Seattle's Best coffee on campus.
Unfortunately, SB offers only one flavor of Fair Trade coffee; French roast. We feel that this is unacceptable and hence the campaign. Our long term goal is to have Cornell serve only Fair Trade coffee. While this is a lofty goal, hopefully we can eventually achieve it. We also just had Alexa Colindras, a coffee farmer from Nicaragua, speak on our campus. Here's our immediate strategy: We want to get Seattle's Best to pick up more lines of Fair Trade coffee and we want Cornell to serve these lines. Of course, we thought of trying to pressure Cornell to drop Seattle's Best, but that would mean breaking their contract - something that I think would be tough to get them to do. Also, if we get a big company like SB to serve more Fair Trade coffee, then tons of other buyers who use SB will hopefully start getting more Fair Trade coffee. At the moment, we're networking with other schools across the nation who have SB coffee and we're seeing if they'll start up similar campaigns, so that we (as a group of many schools) have more leverage with SB. We're meeting with a SB representative on campus this Monday and we figure the best thing to do is to try and present this as a smart business move to them (that is, getting more lines of Fair Trade coffee) by explaining that they will become the company of choice for places that would be otherwise trying to choose between them and a company like Starbucks because of their Fair Trade options.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2002
http://www.cornellsun.com/articles/6469/ Ivy Environmentalists Meet at C.U. By SHANNON BRESCHER
About 100 students from Cornell, Brown, Columbia, and Princeton Universities, Dartmouth College and University of Pennsylvania met at Cornell this weekend for the fifth annual Greening of the Ivies conference. Organized by the Cornell Greens with help from other University groups, the conference brought together environmental leaders from each school to discuss issues and coordinate action.
The purpose of the convention, according to the Cornell Greens' website, was "to collaborate as the students of the Ivy League, and unite our efforts in specific campaigns in order to make our voices louder."
The conference kicked off on Friday afternoon with a promotional event with Ben and Jerry's One Sweet Whirled campus tour. Handing out free ice cream samples and brochures, members of Cornell environmental organizations hoped the event would create buzz about the conference.
"Ben and Jerry's, One Sweet World, they're all big names, attention getters," said Odette Mucha '05, a conference organizer and member of the Cornell Greens.
Later that night, about 30 conference participants from Cornell met in the Kaufman Auditorium in Goldwin Smith to listen to Prof. Don Barr, city and regional planning, speak on coalition building.
Among other experiences, Barr described his memories of participating in the divestment activist movement against apartheid at Cornell. He described how both the students and faculty worked together during the protests.
"If you can get the faculty involved with the students, you've got a powerful coalition there. But I've found it's hard as hell to get the faculty out there," he said. "I believe on a college campus, building a movement is one of the hardest things you can do. This is a transient community."
Conference participants seemed to appreciate the speech.
"It was really motivating ... to know faculty at Cornell are along the same line as students," said Joe Sambataro '05, treasurer for the Society of Natural Resources Conservation.
On Saturday morning, conference organizers officially welcomed all of the participating schools, with help from Susan H. Murphy '73, vice president for student and academic services. After participants introduced themselves, Bria Morgan '04, conference organizer and Cornell Greens member, described the purpose of the conference.
"We can accomplish a lot just by being who we are and where we go to school," she said.
Later, Murphy explained the University's support of the environmental movements.
"I applaud you for your advocacy work. We don't always agree [on] how you do it ... [but] at the heart [of it], you're doing the right thing," she said.
She then described a joint statement agreed upon by President Hunter R. Rawlings, the Cornell Greens and the Student Assembly, which pledged to improve the campus environment through a variety of actions. People from other environmental organizations agreed with Murphy's support of the conference.
"Greening of the Ivies is a really terrific opportunity for student environmental leaders to harness the power and prestige of the Ivy League schools to work in collaboration for environmental victories," said Frankie Lind '01, the East Coast Field Organizer for Ecopledge.
The day continued with a series of nine workshops put together by various environmental organizations. They ranged from "Challenging Corporate Crime" by Casey Harrell of Greenpeace, to "Politics, Government and Environmentalism," presented by Dan Lamb, executive aide to Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY).
Cornell students ran three of these workshops; the first, "Why Should You Go Tree-Free?" was a coordinated effort between Rainforest Action Network and Cornell Society for Natural Resources Conservation. Members of Kyoto Now! presented "Kyoto and Beyond: Tactics for Climate Change Activism," while Dan Fireside grad and the Eco House organized a workshop on "Globalization and Fair Trade Coffee."
"The workshops were excellent," said Sarah Hackney, a freshman at Dartmouth. "It was very informal, and that way we really learned a lot."
On Saturday evening, the keynote panel discussion on sustainability featured Prof. Robert Young, city and regional planning, Prof. Kathleen Whitlock, molecular biology and genetics, Lanny Joyce, manager of engineering planning and energy, Lind and current Cornell students.
Highlights included a speech made by Young and audience participation in the discussion, according to Morgan.
"[There were] lots of passionate questions," she said.
The conference ended with a closing meeting yesterday morning where participants discussed the proposed Ivy League Environmental Coalition.
Organizers and attendees agreed that, overall, the conference went well.
"The conference rocked!" Morgan said.
Copyright © 2002 by The Cornell Daily Sun, Inc. All rights reserved.
October 18, 2001
I am planning on setting up meetings with our dining advisor. I am also re-evaluating their position since they have already introduced Fair Trade in two locations on campus. As it stands now, we get our coffee through a big distributor. However the dining department is independent and can operate as such. People from Equal Exchange met with the head of dining services last April and it seems as though they are willing to at least to begin to move towards Fair Trade coffe. I will let you know more when I can.
September 27, 2001
After the NYC tragedy and a rocky start of a new semester, i am hoping to get fair trade coffee stuff underway again. We have Equal Exchange in two of the campus dining facilities but of course, the more the better.
