By Kelsi Peace, Features Editor

Tucked away on the bottom floor of the Hardin Administration Building, just underneath the stairs, a small room bids students to come inside for a cup of social justice. A new sign, typed, recently replaced the handwritten sign that once read:

“Suggested donation: 25 cents (to cover part of the cost of the coffee)” and every day students walk in and ask, “Is this the coffee place?”

While this humble room is where Fair Trade coffee was first introduced to some, today it is merely one venue that offers Fair Trade coffee on campus.

In fall 2006, Fair Trade coffee spread across campus when the Social Work Practice II class, taught by Dr. Paul Ammons, director of the School of Social Work, decided to lobby for Fair Trade coffee across campus as part of the final project. With support from Emily Hardegree, administrative assistant in the Office of Social Work, the class approached the director of retail and purchasing, Anthony Williams, with their plan.

Williams stole their thunder, opting to use Fair Trade coffee in all venues on campus before the students could begin lobbying.

Instead, the students transformed their project into a campaign to educate the student body that continued into the spring semester, when members of the class presented the Fair Trade label in Chapel.

As of spring 2007, all venues on campus offer Fair Trade, and Williams said feedback has been nothing but positive after the first four weeks of classes. However, he said, the evaluation period is not over.

“We made a pretty radical shift,” Williams said.

The shift was no small ordeal – dining services’ annual coffee sales neared an estimated total of 4,000 pounds this year. And at a guaranteed minimum price of $1.26 per pound, that’s a pretty staggering hill of beans.

Not a passing fad

TransFair USA, a nonprofit organization, is the only organization that certifies the Fair Trade label in the United States. The organization authorizes products to bear the Fair Trade label only after determining the production and sale of the product meet strict criteria, including:

• A guaranteed premium for the producer
• Fair labor conditions
• A democratic decision-making process and freedom of association for farmers
• Regulated use of agrochemicals and compliance with other environmental standards
• Pre-harvest lines of credit available for cooperatives

The label also brings better health care, education and economics for small farmers.

Fair Trade’s formula for offering “fair” wages and social benefits to the community, but only slightly raising the cost of the coffee, is a simple one: remove the middleman. Normally, after production costs and cuts from the wholesaler are taken from profit, small-scale farmers often are left with 2-4 percent of the retail price.

“It’s kind of like living in the old South with slavery,” said Dr. Monty Lynn, professor of management. “We are buying [small farmers’] products at prices that are substantially less than ours because that system allows that to happen. And so it’s kind of like living in the old South with slavery – it’s just that our slaves live in another country.”

Lynn said he thinks cries from impoverished people in developing countries are being heard across the nation, and increasing concern with social justice on campuses and in businesses seem to support his theory.

In 2004, United Students for Fair Trade formed to educate students and bring Fair Trade to college campuses. Today, TransFair USA estimates more than 400 colleges and universities in the U.S. serve Fair Trade coffee, including Harvard, Georgetown, University of Texas and University of California at Los Angeles.

Jean Walsh in the TransFair USA outreach office was surprised to learn ACU offers the brand.

“I’m always happy when I hear about Fair Trade reaching communities in traditionally red states,” Walsh said in e-mail. “[It] just proves that Fair Trade is a model everyone can embrace.”

Universities aren’t the only institutions embracing Fair Trade. Big retail names like Starbucks and Peet’s Coffee have been offering Fair Trade coffee since 2000, and more businesses offer the brand as consumer interest increases.

Lynn said he applauds widespread use of Fair Trade, but cautions that the socially conscious run the risk of growing legalistic, and the unaware may turn it into a trend.

“It’s not a question of judging people on whether they’re drinking Fair Trade or wearing non-sweatshop clothing,” Lynn said.

Battling self-interest

In April 2006, the 100-millionth pound of Fair Trade coffee was purchased in the U.S., hitting the $1 billion total sale mark and providing coffee farmers with an estimated $75 million total, according to the TransFair Web site.

Lynn made the statistics more personal and explained what a coffee addict’s daily cup of coffee accomplishes.

“It takes environmental protection, it takes fair wages, it takes gender equity, it takes protection against child labor into those countries where either those laws don’t exist or aren’t enforced. It makes a dramatic change in the work and lifestyle of individual farmers and producers. It’s not small, and it’s certainly not meaningless. It’s sort of an integrity of consumption,” Lynn said.

And it’s the “integrity of consumption” that inspires consumers to pay the extra 5 or 10 cents per cup for Fair Trade coffee, said Dr. Ian Sheppard, assistant professor of management sciences. Generally, Sheppard said, pricing is based on self-interest, with the dollar representing the consumer’s “vote.”

“We vote for what we enjoy,” Sheppard said. “And typically, we want to maximize our joy. To maximize our joy, we’ve got to have lots more of those dollars.”

In the name of self-interest, consumers seek the lowest price – except when the higher price may buy good social decisions, Sheppard said, noting a trend among corporations to make good social decisions.

But it may only work well for so long. The burden on a company like Fair Trade is to stay fair and honest and to continuously remind the public why the extra few cents are worth the cost, Sheppard said.

At ACU, consumers don’t have to pay the extra price. Instead of raising the cost per cup by the planned 5-10 cents, Williams said dining services absorbed the price increase, leaving consumers’ pocketbooks unaffected. Prices may be adjusted later, however.

Fair Trade has also moved to the purchasing warehouses, where departments on campus buy its coffee, which satisfies another goal Hardegree set for Fair Trade on campus.

According to Hardegree, the battle for social justice doesn’t end with getting the coffee on campus. The next step may be promoting the label in Abilene, where Hardegree said the brand is difficult to find.

“I think ACU has a very prominent voice in our community,” Hardegree said. “If ACU pushed it … I think that would have a big impact.”

She ought to know – after all, she watched Fair Trade coffee grow from her small office and a few sparse locations to all venues on campus. Who knows where that handwritten sign will pop up next.

The Fair Trade Label Organization certifies many other products. According to www.fairtrade.org, products include:

• Bananas
• Chocolate
• Cocoa
• Cotton
• Dried fruit
• Fresh fruit and vegetables
• Honey
• Juices
• Nuts, oil seeds and purees
• Quinoa
• Rice
• Spices
• Sugar
• Tea
• Wine