The Observer, October 14, 2005
Volume XXXVIII, Issue 7
Net Impact celebrates Fair Trade Month
Last Thursday, Oct. 6, students, faculty, and local professionals gathered in the Peter B. Lewis Building to learn about Fair Trade – a strategy that works to remove the middleman from international trade by giving crop growers a larger share of their products' profit.
Hosted by Case's chapter of Net Impact, the event featured Jovanny Coronel, an Ecuadorian banana farmer and president of the Association of Artisan Farmers of Pasaje. Also present were members from Fair Trade-promoting organizations in Cleveland, including Equal Exchange, Ten Thousand Villages, and the Inter-Religious Task Force.
Net Impact is an international network of MBA's and businesspeople who are "committed to using the power of business to improve the world," according to their mission statement.
In recognition of Fair Trade Month, the organization hosted Thursday's presentation in cooperation with TransFair USA, a non-profit organization that functions as the only third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States.
TransFair representative Lauren Friedman was the first speaker, providing an overview of Fair Trade's founding in 1988 and its goals to empower small-scale farmers. She then translated Jovanny Coronel's presentation from Spanish as he spoke about his experience as a farmer and founding member of El Guabo.
In 1997, Jovanny was one of 14 banana farmers from the provinces of Azuay, El Oro, and Guayas who formed El Guabo – a collaborative group that has established its own export department, as well as a credit fund for farmers, scholarships for children, a farm recycling program, health insurance for employees, and many other infrastructural improvements. "Without Fair Trade, we were sometimes getting less than one cent per banana … and could have been bankrupt by now," Coronel said.
He described how the strategy has helped the farmers in El Guabo, but also spoke of the difficulties they still face in the form of large export taxes and licensing costs. Jovanny asked all those present to support fair trade, so prices can be fair for all producers, not just those who are members of Fair Trade associations.
Many producers have expressed interest in joining groups like El Guabo, but membership is limited by the amount each group can export. "There's a lot of potential, but also a lot of poverty under many current fair trade programs worldwide," Coronel said.
Fair Trade products are certified by the Fair Trade Labeling Organization (FLO), which sets environmental and hired labor standards and then ensures that products sold under the FT label comply with these standards by close monitoring and routine inspections. FLO sets minimum prices for products like coffee, fruit, cocoa, and tea, which attempt to cover production cost and to provide farmers with a decent standard of living.
At Case, all coffee served by Bon Appetit (Case's food caterer) is now Fair Trade, due to the efforts of a 2002-2003 Sierra Club campaign inspired and led by student Loretta Neal. The campaign, which involved forums and guest speakers, was also supported by other social justice groups on campus, including Catalyst and the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance (FMLA).
Sierra Club member Remy Olson recalls that establishing Fair Trade product availability on campus was a collaborative effort, with help from many USG members during the drafting of a Fair Trade resolution. "The resolution itself served as evidence to food services that there was a demand for Fair Trade products," Olsen said.
In Cleveland, a growing number of groups and vendors support Fair Trade products. Kroger, Buehler's, and Heinen's supermarkets all stock Fair Trade items, as well as several other food stores and coffee shops throughout the city area.
"Cleveland is now one of the hottest areas for Fair Trade in the country," speaker Rich Aronson said. This is primarily due to the efforts of Cleveland's Inter-Religious Task Force (IRTF). The IRTF is a Cleveland-based interfaith group that promotes human rights in Central America and Colombia through campaigns and by selling Fair Trade goods in Cleveland.
For more information, go to http://www.transfairusa.org/.
