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The Daily OrangeFair, but does anybody care?: Both on-campus and around town fair trade products are available, but face limited demand
By Jessica Goldberg
Posted: 4/11/07, 10:14 PM EST Section: News
The Syracuse Real Food Co-op offers a wide variety of fair trade certified products in its store, located on the 600 block of Kensington Road in Syracuse. Bulk manager Marty Butts said a large number of students shop at the store.
"I don't know if shopping for fair trade brings students in as a specific reason," he said, "but their purchases of fair trade products are on par with non-students."
Real Food Co-op has been in business since 1986, and most of its fair trade products come from Transfair and Oxfam, which Butts said are two of the best-known and longest running fair trade companies.
Starting in early 2007, domestic fair trade products have become available and are now available at the co-op. The only three domestic products currently on the market are pecans, cranberries and tamari almonds.
Domestic fair trade is in part a response to an incident in Florida exposed in early 2003. Tomato farmers there were found to being using slave labor in the production of their goods, which they were, in turn, selling to the fast-food chain Taco Bell.
"The Florida incident was a really well-known one that people were able to rally against," Butts said. "Domestic fair trade is a way to fight back against that."
Maurine Mctyre-Watts, founder of Fair World Marketplace, opened her store in September 2004 on the 4400 block of East Genesee Street in Syracuse to sell products that were produced in good practice. Mctyre-Watts has lived and worked overseas for many years during the course of her life and has witnessed poverty in other countries in her travels.
"My visit to India in 2003 gave me the emphasis to decide to do something a little more about alleviating poverty," she said.
Her store almost exclusively sells fair trade products. It boasts a large variety of products, including sculptures, linens, chocolate, coffee, jewelry, handbags and musical instruments. These products come from all across the world - El Salvador, Ethiopia and Peru, to name a few.
"I don't know if shopping for fair trade brings students in as a specific reason," he said, "but their purchases of fair trade products are on par with non-students."
Real Food Co-op has been in business since 1986, and most of its fair trade products come from Transfair and Oxfam, which Butts said are two of the best-known and longest running fair trade companies.
Starting in early 2007, domestic fair trade products have become available and are now available at the co-op. The only three domestic products currently on the market are pecans, cranberries and tamari almonds.
Domestic fair trade is in part a response to an incident in Florida exposed in early 2003. Tomato farmers there were found to being using slave labor in the production of their goods, which they were, in turn, selling to the fast-food chain Taco Bell.
"The Florida incident was a really well-known one that people were able to rally against," Butts said. "Domestic fair trade is a way to fight back against that."
Maurine Mctyre-Watts, founder of Fair World Marketplace, opened her store in September 2004 on the 4400 block of East Genesee Street in Syracuse to sell products that were produced in good practice. Mctyre-Watts has lived and worked overseas for many years during the course of her life and has witnessed poverty in other countries in her travels.
"My visit to India in 2003 gave me the emphasis to decide to do something a little more about alleviating poverty," she said.
Her store almost exclusively sells fair trade products. It boasts a large variety of products, including sculptures, linens, chocolate, coffee, jewelry, handbags and musical instruments. These products come from all across the world - El Salvador, Ethiopia and Peru, to name a few.
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