October is Fair Trade Month

During the month of October, people around the world will eat Fair Trade chocolate and drink Fair Trade coffee while keeping in mind the farmers and small producers who grew the coffee and cocoa beans. People will purchase Fair Trade handcrafts and urge their supermarkets to carry more Fair Trade products, such as tea, sugar, olive oil, pecans, cranberries and more.

Here at Manhattan College, Fair Trade month will be observed in several ways including:

• Sodexo will continue to serve Fair Trade coffee through their Aspretto program, as well as serve the occasional Fair Trade dessert throughout the month.

• Campus Ministry & Social Action will host a handcrafts sale on Wednesday, Oct. 27 in the Thomas Hall lounge outside Dante’s Den.

• There will be screenings of The Dark Side of Chocolate, a 45-minute documentary, which chronicles the story of violence and virtual slavery surrounding conventional (not Fair Trade) chocolate grown in West Africa.

So just what is Fair Trade? Fair Trade is a system of buying and selling that takes into account the welfare of the actual producers of products – the farmers and artisans who grow coffee and chocolate, and who create beautiful – often traditional – crafts, textiles and jewelry.

Fair Traders seek to assure that working conditions on farms and in workshops are safe and free of coercive labor practices. With Fair Trade, credit with just and reasonable terms is made available to producers. Payment for goods is prompt and based justly on the time and labor involved. In the Fair Trade system, funds called social premiums are provided to improve roads, schools, health and other facilities in the local communities where the products originate.

All in all, Fair Trade is about relationships. It’s about consumers knowing more about where products come from: knowing who produced your coffee or chocolate and being sure that the producers’ time and labor is respected in a fair exchange in the marketplace. Fair Trade means “every purchase matters” – the motto of Fair Trade Month 2010.

To learn more about Fair Trade, visit www.crsfairtrade.org or www.equalexchange.coop or check out Fair Trade at MC on Facebook.