After TM vote, Amherst'fair trade' cause accelerates
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AMHERST - Now that Yuri Friman has convinced Amherst Town Meeting to support his fair trade campaign, he plans to bring a Peruvian coffee bean farmer to town, urge supermarkets to diversify their offerings and promote fair trade Hanukkah chocolates.
On Nov. 8, Town Meeting agreed to encourage the purchasing of fair trade goods by town officials. Friman said he filed his article more to raise awareness than to influence policy.
But it did make Amherst the fourth community in the United States, and the first in Massachusetts, to meet the five criteria for designation by the Fair Trade Foundation. The others are Milwaukee, Brattleboro, Vt., and Media, Pa. There are more than 250 in Europe, chiefly in the United Kingdom, Friman said.
"It's a way of improving the lives of farmers in the southern hemisphere," he said. "I'm encouraging people not to shop more but to shop more consciously."
Fair trade usually means that merchants take into account farmers' costs of production and cost of living when deciding what price to pay for their products. There is a process for certification of fair trade goods, principally coffee and chocolate, but also tea, bananas and crafts.
It isn't difficult for patrons of Amherst's many coffee shops to support fair trade. Many serve only certified fair trade coffee, and those that offer "regular" as well usually don't have different prices.
<strong>Chocolate</strong>
Chocolate is another matter. A survey of Amherst stores that sell fair trade chocolate bars showed prices two to three times higher per ounce than a Hershey's bar sold at CVS.
Friman said the price differential is lower when comparing fair trade chocolate to gourmet brands. And he said hundreds of thousands of children are forced to work in unhealthy conditions on cocoa plantations in western Africa, chiefly Sierra Leone.
"Most people give money to charities that feed, clothe and provide medical care to people," Friman said. "By spending a little extra on chocolate, they are empowering people to feed and clothe themselves and provide their own medical facilities instead of taking charity."
There are 10 people on a fair trade steering committee that meets at Friman's house (the next meeting is Dec. 4). The group has proven adept at getting the message out, handing out fair trade coffee at the monthly "arts walk" in downtown Amherst on Oct. 4 and sponsoring "reverse trick-or-treating" on Halloween, in which children visiting their neighbors handed out fair trade chocolate.
The group now plans to encourage the Big Y supermarket to sell fair trade products, and the Blue Marble gift shop will sell fair trade Hanukkah gelt next month, said owner Cathie Walz. To "put a human face on fair trade," Friman wants to bring a Peruvian farmer to Amherst in May and arrange for college students to visit eco-villages in South America, he said.
He also wants to bring fair trade ideas to local classrooms and encourage schools to sell fair trade chocolate during fundraisers.
"It's crazy to sell slave chocolate to children," Friman said.
<strong>Global view</strong>
Noah Enelow, a doctoral student in economics at the University of Massachusetts, spent last year on a Fulbright fellowship in Peru, studying the impact of fair trade on coffee growers.
"I've seen the benefits that it brings to farmers," he said. "The higher incomes, export capacity and community development projects made possible through involvement in fair trade make a crucial difference in the lives of coffee farmers."
Fair trade is "neither a utopian fringe movement or another version of corporate doublespeak," Enelow said. It means that merchants and farmers "view the trading relationship as something more than a quantity and price, but a transaction meant to be mutually beneficial."
Involvement with fair trade has had a big impact on Peru's coffee farmers, he said.
"It has turned a stagnant life with a bleak future into a slow but steady upward climb toward improved living standards, political and social empowerment, and superior health and education for children," he said.
Nick Seamon, owner of Amherst's Black Sheep Deli, backed the cause early on by selling fair trade coffee 15 years ago. He serves locally roasted Peruvian coffee and has met the head of the cooperative that produces the beans, he said.
"Coffee tends to be produced by small farmers," Seamon said. "Before fair trade, their only avenue was to sell to huge brokers and they didn't get much for it. Food is too cheap, and shouldn't be produced on the backs of underpaid laborers."
David Henion of Henion's Bakery said that three years ago he adjusted the "house blend" coffee he sells to make it exclusively fair trade.
But not everyone is convinced of the benefits of fair trade certification.
Peter Sylvain, owner of the Cushman Market, sells fair trade chocolate and his coffee producer is "working on organic and fair trade certification." But he's worried that fair trade has the potential be become a voguish marketing ploy.
"It's a good movement, but it has the potential to be misused," he said.
Mukunda Feldman, co-owner of Amherst Coffee, said all the coffee he sells is fairly traded, even if it doesn't go through the paperwork of certification.
Fair trade "rules out the smaller farms, which is a high-quality portion of the market," he said. "Good farms produce excellent, interesting coffee, and we want to sell those, too."
<strong>Making a change</strong>
Friman, 59, has been an activist from the antiwar movement of the 1960s to moveon.org in the last two presidential elections. He likes the fair trade cause because it doesn't ask anyone to protest, write letters to Congress or send money, he said.
"Anybody can make a change in something they're already buying," he said. "It's something people can do every day of their lives. It's one of the most hopeful actions you can take, and you know the result right away."
