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Fair Trade, Please |
Current rating: 0 |
by Eric Uskali via futrelle
Email: futrelle (nospam) shout.net (verified) |
06 May 2005
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When you go to Starbucks or any other coffee shop, ask the person at the counter for fair trade coffee. It might cost like a quarter more, but it's worth it |
The Daily Illini - Opinions
Issue: 5/6/05
Column: Fair trade please
By Eric Uskali
So today is the last time for the next three months that you, the all-important reader, get to experience the beauty of one of my columns. It is a sad time, but it is also a time of reflection, a time to look back and see what we have learned from the past few months of ranting to the University.
Probably the best thing that has happened because of this job is that now I am a bona fide celebrity. I get all the perks: free drinks at Kam's, no charge for guacamole at Qdoba and, of course, A's in all of my classes.
Despite what my stellar imagination would like to believe, the only actual celebrity status I have is getting recognized by people I already know: "Hey Eric, when did you start writing those horrible columns for the DI?" That kind of thing.
Another perk of writing for the DI is it's a good way to lower your self-esteem. No one ever writes letters to the editor saying, "Smashing column, I concur hardily." It's always something like "That Uskali idiot has no soul and should not be allowed near small children!"
But the insults don't really hurt that much. The redeeming factor is knowing that all you have to do is type a few words and people get really angry. It's a really sweet power trip.
But enough of talking about the past, let's talk about what's ahead: the summer! Though the summer is a sad time for all of us and you will all be bored - just waiting for the first Friday of the new semester to arrive so you can run down to the Union and pick up a fresh DI - there are important things to do.
Seriously, since you'll just be sitting around not doing much most of the time, why not try and do something to help the conditions of people all over the world? It's not even that hard. All you have to do is for the most part continue your suburban consumerist lifestyle, with just a slight difference.
Before your next all-nighter slumber party/Lord of the Rings marathon, when you go to Starbucks or any other coffee shop, ask the person at the counter for fair trade coffee. It might cost like a quarter more, but it's worth it.
Buying regular coffee, as opposed to buying fair trade coffee, is the equivalent of buying sweatshop clothes instead of union-made clothes. Farmers in South America get forced into selling their crops to businesses at very low prices, forcing them into dire poverty. And according to CNN, because of this poverty, many of these farmers have to start growing cocaine or other drugs to make up for their debt.
Fair trade coffee, on the other hand, buys directly from the farmers or cooperatives of farmers, giving them a fair living wage. These farmers then don't need to grow illicit drugs and can live at a fair wage.
As of now only about 5 percent of Starbucks coffee is fair trade, and it's brewed at most once a week. My guess is that coffee shops don't serve fair trade more often because they don't know that there is a demand for it. I don't know about you, but even as a poor college student, I'm willing to pay a few cents more for something so long as that money is going to the person who actually worked in the fields and made the product.
So go into your favorite coffee shop and ask them if they're serving fair trade coffee that day. Chances are they won't be, but if enough people are going into the stores and asking for it, they'll have to start brewing it and serving it more often eventually.
If you want to have a socially conscious summer, that's a good start. Though you could also help by sending me ten dollars, and you can get your very own opinions column. From there we can move on to other things, but hey, it's the summer, time to relax. Have a nice summer everyone, see you in three months! |
Copyright by the author. All rights reserved. |
