Students trying to keep fair trade coffee going

Each day, 108 million people in the United States drink coffee.

Less than a dozen of those… Each day, 108 million people in the United States drink coffee.

Less than a dozen of those people buy the fair trade variety available at the Starbucks in Litchfield Towers lobby.

Angel Hopkins, who works mornings in the Towers Starbucks, said she generally gets orders for fair trade coffee from the same six or seven people every day. She said she tried to offer it to all her customers when it first premiered a couple of months ago, but she serves it only when a customer requests it.

To receive fair trade certification, coffee must be bought at a fair, set price regardless of market fluctuations and also be produced without sweatshops or forced or child labor, according to Pitt student Neil Straub.

Straub, a member of Pitt’s chapter of the national student environmental movement Free the Planet, began working last fall to persuade Pitt’s campus food provider, Sodexho, to offer a fair trade coffee blend at some of Pitt’s on-campus coffee shops. Both Straub and Free the Planet Vice President and Secretary Lindsey Witthaus praised Sodexho for being receptive to their request.

The fair trade coffee option runs the same price as the Starbucks standard blends, though Straub did not know whether Sodexho paid more for the fair trade variety. Pitt Sodexho representative Jodi Ludovici did not respond to a request for comments.

Free the Planet members set up an information table and handed out samples of fair trade coffee when the option premiered in Towers, Straub said. But despite the group’s efforts to teach about and encourage fair trade coffee consumption, he said there hasn’t been much reaction from students.

“A lot of people will be pretty apathetic about it,” he said.

The novelty of the product might increase the appeal, he added.

“If it’s new to them, they’re pretty interested in it and they’re willing to go out and buy it,” he said.

A number of students ordering coffee in Towers said they didn’t know about fair trade coffee or weren’t aware that the Starbucks there sells it.

“Everything blends in really well when you’re looking for food. You don’t really look for that stuff,” Straub said, speaking of the small, orange fair trade sign on the far right side of the Towers Starbucks counter. The fair trade option does not appear on the main hanging menu behind the counter.

“People seem pretty supportive, but most people don’t know what I’m talking about,” Straub said of his education efforts.

Other students in Towers lobby noticed when it became available. Freshman Alison Sikorsky said she tried the fair trade blend a few times out of curiosity, but that she doesn’t usually request it.

“It doesn’t make a difference [to me],” Sikorsky said, adding that the fair trade variety tastes the same as Starbucks’ non-fair trade “Coffee of the Day” blend.

Pitt has joined more than 300 other colleges, including Yale, Harvard and Oklahoma State, in offering fair trade coffee on campus, according to the Web site of Transfair, a U.S. fair trade certifying organization.

Fair trade is becoming increasingly popular in other commercial markets, too. Last October, McDonald’s announced that it would begin selling an organic, fair trade certified coffee at 650 of its New England restaurants.

In the United States, 85 percent of all fair trade coffee is also certified organic.

Straub said many students believe they automatically get fair trade coffee when they order at the Towers Starbucks, and he thinks that misconception might be hurting sales.

Freshman Siena Tanlin said she learned about fair trade coffee before coming to Pitt and was aware that the Towers Starbucks sells it. She does not, however, request it when she orders coffee.

“They usually just give it to you, don’t they?” Tanlin said.

Witthaus said she advocated offering fair trade coffee because it allows Americans to help workers in foreign countries.

“We have a lot of power with our dollars, as consumers,” Witthaus said, noting that although Americans can’t control foreign market practices through laws, they can affect labor through the purchasing choices they make.

Importers pay fair trade coffee cooperatives a predetermined price, currently set at $1.26 per pound for non-organic and $1.41 per pound for organic coffee. The market price for non-fair trade coffee is usually around $1 per pound, with coffee growers receiving about half of that, according to the Fair Trade Federation’s Web site.

“It’s silly that all coffee isn’t fair trade, because essentially you’re just cutting out the middleman in the process,” Witthaus said.

Straub added that there are fair trade options for almost any product.

“Wherever there’s people being taken advantage of, we can find a fair trade alternative,” he said.

While he hopes Pitt will eventually offer other fair trade products, Straub said he’s “focusing on coffee right now, because it’s barely off the ground.” Sodexho will stop offering fair trade coffee at Pitt if it fails to gain popularity, he added. On the other hand, the campus food provider will offer fair trade coffee at more on-campus locations if sales improve.

“Once I can be sure that fair trade coffee is going to be here, that it’s going to stay, then I’ll work on other things,” Straub explained.

Straub hopes to organize a competition among student organizations to see which can rack up the most fair trade coffee purchases among its members. Although he’s already checked with Sodexho about the feasibility of such a contest, Straub needs to determine a prize and secure funding for it.

Witthaus, who also serves as chair of Student Government Board’s environmental committee, encouraged students to contact her about other environmental issues they’d like to tackle on Pitt’s campus.

“We’re working on the environmental vibe on campus – increasing it,” she said.

Witthaus can be reached at lmw20@pitt.edu.