Edible ethics

Students savored Equal Exchange mini chocolate bars as they packed into an auditorium Monday to hear Rep. Eliot Engel discuss a 2001 agreement he helped broker between the chocolate industry, the U.S. Department of Labor and Western African governments to eradicate the worst forms of child labor in cocoa harvesting in Ghana and Ivory Coast.

College President Brennan O’Donnell welcomed Mr. Engel to the stage by remarking that the trade initiative outlined in the Harkin-Engel Protocol made him an appropriate guest lecturer.

“Congressman Engel is a fitting visitor for us here at this particular time of year as we observe the first anniversary of our being named a Fair Trade college,” Mr. O’Donnell said. “Thank you for raising your voice on behalf of those who otherwise would not be heard.”

Fair trade became a buzz word on the Manhattan College campus in 2007, when students returned from a service trip to Ecuador, where impoverished workers labor to export flowers and coffee to the United States. 

Soon the campus had a fair trade steering committee. Students researched ways to promote more equitable trade practices and effectively lobbied the college’s dining facilities to add fair trade products to their offerings, beginning with coffee, tea, chocolate, pineapples, bananas and blueberries. 

This semester, Gourmet Dining began serving up a fair trade dish every other Friday.

Manhattan College earned the Fair Trade University label by pledging to stock its vending facilities with two fair trade products; using fair trade items at meetings and events; developing a resolution outlining its commitment to the cause; and giving lessons on conscientious consumption.

Consumers help drive the fair trade movement by seeking out items produced by workers who earn a living wage. This ensures that incomes aren’t slashed when market prices drop. For example, fair trade companies such as Equal Exchange guarantee farmers at least 80 cents per pound of cocoa beans harvested, according to the human rights organization Global Exchange.