Lucy Gellman Photo
Betsy Kim has a question. It’s about her coffee, and its importance goes far beyond her needed daily intake of caffeine.
“Here’s something that’s always confused me,” she confessed her WNHH radio program, “Law, Life and Culture.”
“In the grocery store where I shop, there is a brand of coffee that sells several varieties. One of these varieties is more expensive by a couple of dollars and labeled ‘fair trade’ coffee. The label explains that with this ‘fair trade’ coffee, farmers and workers are paid fair wages for their labor. But what does that mean for the other coffee of this same brand that isn’t marked ‘fair trade,’ and is priced $2 less? Are those workers being exploited?”
The answer was more complicated than she — or anyone buying coffee in the Elm City — might think. Because it is an absolute yes. And a less-committed, but still certain, no.
When an item is “fair trade,” actually, it’s not always clear how far the “fair” goes. Or how much it’s helping.
In the WNHH studio to explain why was C. Patrick Heidkamp, head of the geography department at Southern Connecticut State University and a wine and coffee expert in the nascent field of ethical consumption. His goal on Kim’s latest episode of “Law, Life & Culture”? To “open up the conversation about economic sustainability, environment, and justice.”
It’s one that, by his and Kim’s accounts, the nation needs to have. This past July, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a law that states do not have to demand commercial labels for non-GMO products. That prompted a firestorm in an increasingly globalized food market, where the items stacked neatly in one’s grocery cart may come from not only different farms, but also different countries, with different growing standards and ethical practices. The labels wouldn’t fix that, Heidkamp explained, but they could help to get the agrarian ball rolling towards greater government regulation around how we grow, package, circulate and consume our food.
“Eco labeling … is just a band aid approach in just a neoliberal capitalist society,” he explained. “What we’re doing is shifting the responsibility over to the consumer from the government. It’s about changing an entire economic structure and saying we need more government regulation than saying we need to help people right now. But helping people right now is pretty important and crucial too. It’s all about educating oneself about the product that one wants to consume.”
To listen to the full show, which also includes a detailed look at the meaning of non GMOs, click on the audio above or find it in iTunes or any podcast app under “WNHH Community Radio.”
