| After TM vote,
Amherst 'fair trade' cause accelerates |
Yuri Friman waves to a friend at the Black Sheep Deli in Amherst.
Friman is the coordinator for the Amherst fair trade partnership, which
includes such items as coffee, chocolate, tea, and bananas. |
By NICK GRABBE
Staff Writer AMHERST -- 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
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.
"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 now plans to encourage the Big Y supermarket to sell fair
trade products, and the Blue Marble gift shop will sell fair trade Hanukkah
gelt next month, said owner Cathie |
Chocolate bar comparison by establishment
COLLECTIVE COPIES, AMHERST CINEMA AND BLUE MARBLE DO
NOT SELL NON-FT CHOCOLATE, CUSHMAN MARKET SELLS BOTH; CVS DOES NOT SELL FT
CHOCOLATE
"I've seen the benefits that it brings to farmers.
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."
Noah Enelow, doctoral student at UMass speaking
about the impact of fair trade on coffee growers
|
Walz. 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-villages in South America, he said
He also wants to bring fair trade ideas to local classrooms and encourage
schools to sell fair trade chocolate during fundraisers.
"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.
"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.
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."
Making a change
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." |
Sean Pierce, of Pierce Brothers
Coffee of Greenfield, handles coffee beans harvested at a fair trade
growers' cooperative in Chiapas, Mexico. |
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