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Now that Yuri Friman has convinced Amherst Town
Meeting to support his fair trade campaign, he plans to bring a Peruvian
coffee bean farmer to town, urge supermarkets to diversify their offering
and promote fair trade Hanukkah chocolates.
On
Nov. 8k, Town Meeting agreed to encourage the purchasing of fair trade
goods by town officials. Friman said he filed his article more to
raise awareness than to influence policy.
But it did make Amherst the fourth
community in the United States, and the first in Massachusetts, to meet
the five criteria for designation by the Fair Trade Foundation. The
others are Milwaukee, Brattleboro, Vt., and Media, Pa. There are
more than 250 in Europe, chiefly in the United Kingdom, Friman
said.
"It's a way of improving the lives of farmers in the
southern hemisphere," he said. "I'm encouraging people not to shop
more but to shop more consciously."
Fair trade usually
means that merchants take into account farmers' costs of production and
cost of living when deciding what price to pay for their products.
There is a process for certification of fair trade goods, principally
coffee and chocolate, but also tea, bananas and crafts.
It
isn't difficult for patrons of Amherst's many coffee shops to support fair
trade. Many serve only certified fair trade coffee, and those that
offer "regular" as well usually don't have different
prices.
Chocolate is another matter. A survey of
Amherst stores that sell fair trade chocolate bars showed prices two to
three times higher per ounce than a Hershey's bar sold at
CVS.
Friman said the price differential is lower when
comparing fair trade chocolate to gourmet brands. And he said
hundreds of thousands of children are forced to work in unhealthy
conditions on cocoa plantations in western Africa, chiefly Sierra
Leone.
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"Most people give money to
charities that feed, clothe and provide medical care for people," Friman
said.
"By spending a little extra on chocolate, they are empowering
people to feed and clothe themselves and provide their own medical
facilities instead of taking charity."
There are 10 people
on a fair trade steering committee that meets at Friman's house (the next
meeting is Dec. 4). The group has proven adept at getting the
message out, handing out fair trade coffee at the monthly "arts walk" in
downtown Amherst on Oct. 4 and sponsoring "reverse trick-or-treating" on
Halloween, in which children visiting their neighbors handed out fair
trade chocolate.
The group has proven adept at getting the
message out, handling out fair trade coffee at the monthly "arts walk" in
downtown Amherst on Oct. 4 and sponsoring "reverse trick-or-treating" on
Halloween, in which children visting their neighbors handed out fair trade
chocolate.
The group now plans to
encourage the Big Y supermarkets to sell fair trade products, and the Blue
Marble gift shop will sell fair trade Hanukkah gelt next month, said owner
Cathie Waltz.
To "put a human face on fair trade," Friman wants
to bring a Peruvian farmer to Amherst in May and arrange for college
students to visit eco-villiages in South America, he said.
He also wants
to bring fair trade ideas to local classrooms and encourage that schoo
fund-raisers sell fair trade chocolate.
"It's crazy to sell slave chocolate to
children," Friman said.
Global
view
Noah Enelow, a doctoral student
in economics at the University of Massachusetts, spent last year on a
Fulbright fellowship in Peru, studying the impact of fair trade on coffee
growers.
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Sean Pierce of Pierce Bros. Coffee inspects beans at a
cooperative in Guatemala.
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"I've
seen the benefits that it brings to farmers," he said. "The
higher incomes, export capacity and community development projects
made possible through involvement in fair trade make a crucial
difference in the lives of coffee farmers."
Fair trade is
"neither a utopian fringe movement or another version of corporate
doublespeak," Enelow said. It means that merchants and farmers
"view the trading relationship as something more than a
quantity and price, but a transaction meant to be mutually beneficial."
Involvement with fair
trade has had a big impact on Peru's coffee farmer's, he said. |
"It has turned a stagnant life with a bleak future into a slow but
steady upward climb toward improved living standards, politic al and
social empowerment, and superior health and education for children,"
he said.
Nick Seamon, owner of Amherst's Black Sheep
Deli, backed the cause early on by selling fair trade coffee 15
years ago. He serves locally roasted Peruvian coffee and has
met the head of the cooperative that produces the beans, he
said.
"Coffee
tends to be produced by small farmers," Seamon said "Before fair
trade, their only avenue was to sell to huge brokers and they didn't
get much for it. Food is too cheap, and |
shouldn't be produced on the backs of underpaid
laborers."
David Henion of Henion's Bakery said that
three years ago he adjusted the "house blend" coffee he sells to
make it exclusively fair trade.
But not everyone is convinced of
the benefits of fair trade certification.
Peter Sylvain,
owner of the Cushman Market, sells fair trade chocolate and his
coffee producer is "working on organic and fair trade
certification." But he's worried that fair trade haws the
potential be become a voguish marketing ploy.
"It's
a good movement, but it has the potential to be misused," he
said.
Mukunda Feldman, co-owner of
Amherst Coffee, said all the coffee he sells is fairly traded, even
if it doesn't go though the paperwork for certification.
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Making a
change
Fair trade "rules out the smaller
farms, which is a high-quality portion of the market," he
said. "Good farms produce excellent, interesting coffee, and
we want to sell those, too."
Friman, 59, has been an
activist from the antiwar movement of the 1960's to moveon.org in
the last two presidential elections. He likes the fair trade
cause because it doesn't ask anyone to protest, write letters to
Congress or send money, he said.
"Anybody can make a
change in something they're already buying," he said. "It's
something people can do every day of their lives. It's one of
the most hopeful actions you can take, and you know the result right
away." |
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