Tuesday, September 8, 2009

A Fair Choice

The coffee carts at Lasell College have made a transition to serving Peet's Coffee this year. I'm pretty excited about this change. This morning I went for my first cup at the Laser Beans Café. After paying for my coffee I went to the station to dispense my coffee into my reusable mug. There I noticed I had a choice of House Blend or Fair Trade. I wondered why would anyone choose the House Blend over Fair Trade? Choosing the option that provides a livable wage to growers in Central America certainly seemed like the obvious choice to me.

I went to Peet's web site to do a little research. Maybe the two coffees really do taste significantly different and that drives consumers to make a less sustainable choice? House Blend is described as having a medium body and between a balanced and bright liveliness and is from Latin American beans. Fair Trade is between a medium and full balance and has a balanced liveliness. I drink a lot of coffee and I have no idea what this means.

There are a lot of cups of coffee consumed in a day at Lasell. Just look at all the paper cups in the trash (see previous blog posts about this one). It is great to have a Fair Trade option and I hope the community recognizes the significance of making this choice. Peet's coffee is new to our campus. Get in the habit of choosing Fair Trade from the start. If you don't see Fair Trade on the cart, send a note to Dining Services and respectfully ask that there always be a Fair Trade option. Collectively we can have an impact in helping farmers earn a livable wage.

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