Knowing Your Coffee

The franchise Second Cup is considering offering a fair trade option both on and off campus

Image By: Laura Tomkins

By Rebecca Vasluianu
Cord Weekly
(http://www.cordweekly.com/)

Jan 16, 2008

Scrutiny into Second Cup’s lack of fair trade options has become a local concern here at Laurier, as some students are beginning to realize that their beliefs concerning the coffee they drink are false.

Groups like Fair Trade Toronto have released statements and issued protests criticizing Second Cup’s lack of fair trade certified coffee, and recently the issue has become a question at WLU.

Wilfrid Laurier University Students’ Union (WLUSU) VP: University Affairs Lauren McNiven, for example, has become alarmed by the fact that many students and faculty have no idea that Second Cup is not fair trade certified.

“I’ve talked to a lot of people who all cite Second Cup as being fair trade and that led me to go look on their website and read about it,” explains McNiven.

“Usually, organizations will have a very public statement that they’re fair trade, but Second Cup is pretty non-descriptive. They talk a lot about happy farmers in happy countries, but nowhere do they say that they are fair trade.”

In fact, Pat Russell, manager of learning and development at Second Cup, openly speaks out about their contributions to the coffee producers they work with.

Among their work, Russell boasts of the services they provide to their farmers, including labour organizations, free health care, free housing and free education.

In addition, Second Cup has had a Foster Parents campaign, an initiative of selling bottled water to contribute to clean drinking water in the areas where their producers live, as well as purchasing coffee from Rwandan co-ops of survivors.

“We focus not only on the quality of the coffee they’re producing but the quality of the social infrastructure that supports quality coffee production,” states Russell.

“We’re really proud of our relationship with some really leading farms, in particular in Latin America, that are producing some great coffee and our efforts to improve the quality of life of the people that grow them.”

Yet the real question people like McNiven are asking is, if Second Cup truly gives so much back to their producers, why are they not fair trade certified?

“Fair trade coffee is becoming so much more fashionable,” says McNiven. “It has really worked its way up the ladder so now it’s becoming if you don’t offer fair trade coffee, you’ll probably be publicly ridiculed for that. So I don’t know why someone wouldn’t advertise their coffee as fair trade if it met the requirements.”

However, Russell explains that while Second Cup currently has no connection to fair trade coffee, they are in the process of becoming certified.

“Right now, we’re not in direct relationship with TransFair, the company that does fair trade certification,” says Russell.

“That being said, we believe that our coffee is fairly traded. Nothing is stopping us from being fair trade certified; in fact, we’re currently looking at our bean portfolios and trying to incorporate a fair trade option.”

Russell adds that the premium price Second Cup pays for coffee is also, for the most part, in line with the fair trade standards.

“We’re paying above the standards that TransFair requires for a company to become certified,” explains Russell. “Over the past six weeks, we’ve fluctuated between $1.15 to $1.35 per pound.”

TransFair requires that coffee be purchased at $1.25 per pound.

Russell states that coffee drinkers can expect to see a fair trade option at Second Cup in the near future.

Until then, coffee drinkers at Laurier wishing to drink fair trade coffee can look for the Fair Trade Certification symbol at coffee shops and enjoy the certified coffee options currently available on campus at the Fresh Food Co. (the dining hall), Expresso’s Library Café, Waterloo College Hall Café, Yogen Fruz and the C-Spot.