For the first time on campus, products sponsored by Fair Trade will be available for purchase.
Free Trade is a certified label, much like “organic,” which guarantees the product has met certain requirements. When you see a Fair Trade label on a product, it means the retailer selling the product has agreed to pay producers the floor price or income received by the store for that product, according to its Web site. Other Free Trade criteria require the label to work with producers that operate under fair labor conditions, environmental standards and co-ops with pre-harvest lines of credit.
Two students, Eric Johnson and Kate Curnow, worked with SMU Dining Services Director Barry Wells to bring Free Trade products to campus.
While interning abroad in Dubai this summer, Johnson, a marketing major and international studies minor, learned more about Free Trade products in his leisure time. By the end of the summer he was inspired to share what he learned by bringing the products to campus.
“We are not accustomed to thinking about how something got before us,” Johnson said. One aspect goal he and Free Trade share is the desire to inform consumers about the process, he added.
“There are a lot of folks out there working really hard to make the ends meet and provide for their family. And sometimes they aren’t able to make as much money as they had hoped.
“It’s not that they’re not hardworking or creative, but that some people [organizations] that don’t play fair,” Johnson said.
The selling of commodities, such as produce, is a highly competitive market. Businesses in this industry can endure many x-factors such as poor weather, which can either make or break a company. Fair Trade sponsors products to level that playing field and guarantees a “fair” price from the get-go.
“Martin Luther King said it best,” Johnson said. “‘By the time you’ve had breakfast, you’ve already relied on half the world.'”
Today Johnson and Curnow will be available to answer questions and show and sell coffee and tea Free Trade products at a table adjacent to Java City Cyber Cafe in Hughes-Trigg. The pair will also hand out Campaign One white bands for the organizationÃ’s national awareness day. Part of their initial plan includes displaying a tally of Free Trade products sold on campus.
A mission group of Wesley Ministry, a student Christian group on campus, is the main sponsoring campus group promoting Free Trade products. Campus organizations allied with the effort include Students Promoting Awareness Responsibility and Citizenship and Students for a Better Society.
Other American universities that currently carry Free Trade products include Harvard, Yale, UCLA, Brown, UC Santa Cruz and Northwestern.
