A student organization is making a collaborative effort with several campus groups to try and push ARAMARK, UNM's exclusive food service provider, toward changing to a more socially responsible brand of coffee.
Talks have begun between ARAMARK and the Fair Trade Initiative, a student organization lobbying for ARMARK to replace its wholesale coffee with the more socially responsible Fair Trade Federation coffee.
Although the talks are in their preliminary stages, it seems like all parties are on board, said Brandt Milstein, the group's president and a graduate student studying law and Latin American studies.
"Nothing is set in stone yet," Milstein said. "The first reaction is that they'll get Fair Trade."
The Fair Trade Federation is an association of wholesalers, retailers and producers who provide fair wages and employment opportunities to the world's economically disadvantaged farmers. Fair Trade coffee is an alternative brand of the popular bean that works to empower rather than exploit small farmers through high quality and price assurance.
"Usually farmers are exploited for their coffee," Milstein said. "When a customer buys [Fair Trade] coffee, the money goes more directly to farmers."
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Milstein and Patrick Staib, an anthropology doctoral student, started the Fair Trade Initiative last semester for two reasons.
"It's the right thing to do," Milstein said. "And there are 200 other campuses who carry Fair Trade."
The chartered student group has two goals: To get ARAMARK to carry Fair Trade coffee and to raise awareness about the Fair Trade Federation.
The group has between 10 and 15 core members.
The organization has started petitioning and talking to classes and groups across campus. Milstein said the Fair Trade Initiative has received as many as 100 signatures in one day of petitioning.
"We talk to anyone who will listen to us," Milstein said.
The group's members are also planning a spring concert to rally people around the concept of Fair Trade.
So far there have been several campus groups who have signed letters supporting the Fair Trade coffee initiative. Those groups include the Department of Political Science, the Latin American and Iberian Institute, the Latin American Data Base, the Student Organization for Latin American Studies, Women's Studies, the Women's Resource Center, the Department of Community and Regional Planning and the Graduate and Professional Student Association.
Nathan Dodge, retail manager for ARAMARK, said that the campus Starbucks will be carrying Fair Trade coffee.
"We're just working with the vendor to bring in Fair Trade," Dodge said.
He estimates that ARAMARK purchases between 500 and 700 pounds of coffee each week.
One issue surrounding the shift is that Fair Trade will cause coffee prices to rise, but Milstein estimates that students will have to pay about a penny or two more for each cup of coffee.
"It's something simple that campuses can do that can have an impact on third world farmers," Milstein said. "And it doesn't cost us all that much."
Between 2000 and 2001, U.S. Fair Trade coffee imports grew by more than 50 percent from 4.3 to 6.7 million pounds.
Between 2000 and 2001, domestic employment by Fair Trade companies jumped 27 percent.
In the United States and Canada, gross sales among Fair Trade companies, combined with sales of Fair Trade coffee neared $100 million in 2000.
Source: Free Trade Federation
