Approximately 30 people debated the merits of Fair Trade coffee Monday night in the Shapiro Multipurpose Room at a forum sponsored by the student advocacy group, the Fair Trade Brigade. The event featured Brigade member Lauren Abramowitz '07, Prof. Rachel McCulloch (ECON) and Elisa Arond from the relief organization Oxfam America.The forum precedes a Brigade-backed Student Union referendum of the student body taking place Monday, Nov. 21. The group was able to put the fair trade issue to a vote after collecting 548 signatures of a petition that read "Are you in favor of converting all coffee sold on campus to Fair Trade coffee?"

Faculty members already voted by an overwhelming majority of 54-3-7 to support the exclusive sale of Fair Trade coffee on campus at a faculty meeting in September.

Fair Trade coffee is currently sold across campus at the same price as regular coffee, but it is always supplemented by non-Fair Trade options. If the referendum were adopted, the University would need to charge more for each cup of coffee to account for the higher price of Fair Trade coffee when it is initially purchased by Aramark.

Abramowitz, who represented the position of the Fair Trade Brigade, began the forum by defining fair trade as the "equitable exchange of goods between developed countries and less developed countries."

She said the current oversupply of coffee on the world market has driven small farmers, who produce more than half the world's supply of coffee, deeper into poverty. Due to the large number of middlemen involved in coffee trade, farmers only receive between two and four percent of the final retail coffee price.

Abramowitz said that Fair Trade standards guarantee certified producers a living wage above the cost of production, allowing them to invest in infrastructure projects in their communities and eventually, to exit the coffee market. Fair Trade standards also require the implementation of health and safety standards and bar sex discrimination and the use of child labor.

"We feel that the goals set forth by the Fair Trade Brigade are strengthened by the moral ideology of the University," Abramowitz said.

Prof. McCulloch, who teaches both international trade and environmental economics courses, expressed reservations about the Fair Trade coffee movement.

"As a market-oriented person, I have concerns about this particular way of improving the living standard of people who grow coffee," McCulloch said.

McCulloch said the coffee market is an example of monopsony power, an imbalanced market with few buyers and many sellers. Perfect competition is destroyed, and instead the buyers have the power to influence the world price of coffee with their purchasing decisions. This means that Fair Trade restrictions-which change buyers' behavior-could cause the price of coffee to initially rise, but to then become undesirably low. As more coffee producers enter the coffee market seeking higher profits, supply would exceed demand and the price would plummet, worsening the problem of poverty among coffee farmers.

McCulloch also said she was troubled by the expense of the fair trade certification process, which she said absorbs scarce resources that could be better utilized to help impoverished communities.

She added that the main cause of economic problems facing small farmers are "costly and inefficient agricultural policies" implemented by the United States and the European Union that push down the world price of agricultural products. McCulloch said these policies should be the main target of attempts to resolve the problems of poor farmers.

Elisa Arond presented the viewpoint of Oxfam America, the Boston-based branch of the international development and relief organization Oxfam International. She said Oxfam endorses fair trade as part of a solution to the problem of poverty facing coffee farmers.

"[There is an] exceptional opportunity that people have here in the U.S. to be able to effect social change just through their purchasing decisions," Arond said.

If passed, the Nov. 21 referendum will become the official opinion of the Union government and coffee vendors on campus will transition to selling only Fair Trade products.

The referendum will include a statement in favor of the proposal written by the Fair Trade Brigade and a statement in opposition. Union Secretary Aaron Braver '07 said at the forum that the Union normally creates opposition statements from a compilation of arguments submitted by community members, with each attributed to its author.

Any pro or con statements must be submitted at least 48 hours before the Union launches the poll.

According to Abramowitz, Assistant Vice President for University Services Mark Collins said the change will first take effect in Usdan and would then be implemented at Java City in Shapiro after a two-week evaluation period.