“Buenas noches damas y caballeros. Soy un Nicaraguense de la regiCB3n de cafCB),” said Cesar Zeledon, standing in front of an audience that filled about two-thirds of Lindsay Auditorium Wednesday evening. Translated, Zeledon said, “Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I am a Nicaraguan from the coffee region.”
Zeledon, a small-scale coffee producer from Metagalpa, Nicaragua, discussed “Fair Trade Through the Eyes of a Coffee Farmer” as part of Students for Positive Social Change initiative to bring fair trade products to campus. To date, the group of students, headed by Joe Campe, have been successful in changing DU’s coffee provider from Starbucks to Seattle’s Best. Currently, the students are looking to expand their efforts.
“The first step is to get fair trade grapes, bananas and mangos in the residence hall cafeterias,” said Campe, Wednesday night before Zeledon spoke.
The group’s next initiative, said Campe, is to bring fair trade soccer balls to DU.
Bringing speakers such as Zeledon to educate the DU community is a continuing process. In addition to being a coffee farmer, Zeledon is a member of the board of directors of the Organization of Northern Coffee Cooperatives (CECOCAFEN, a movement to help ensure rights for the small-scale producer in Nicaragua. He has been a member in the struggle for these rights since the Sandinista Revolution in 1979.
“For us, it [fair trade] is more than just a good price. It has to do with the recognition of the work of small producers,” explained Zeledon. “We advocate a better standard of living and respect for the environment. We consider it a part of human rights.”
The mission of the fair trade movement, as explained by Zeledon, is to create an intercultural dialogue between U.S. and European cultures and the Nicaraguan culture. If all goes well, this will support education among the farmers and their families, and advocate women’s rights, a cause that is held in deep regard by his community.
“Using culture as a medium, we’re delivering education to producers and their families,” said Zeledon.
Low prices that farmers were receiving for their products coupled with their vulnerability to big businesses and governmental support of monopolies served as a catalyst to the “coffee crisis.” Internal community factors such as poverty, illiteracy and marginalization trap farming communities in a situation from which they are not able to extricate themselves.
In reaction, farmers and their families have formed cooperatives and staged protests, which have happened on a large scale since 2001.
The current and future mission of CECOCAFEN, which was formed in 1997 to help commercialize fair trade coffee and now represent 1,941 small producers in Nicaragua, is to “develop a holistic strategy for economic, social and environmental development.”
The objectives of the fair trade movement, as explained by Zeledon, are to increase consciousness among consumers, all of whom have the power to change the current climate that supports big business coffee producers.
“We think that the growth of fair trade will have a lot to do with the level of consciousness that the people here have,” said Zeledon. “We’re hoping with your efforts and our efforts, the market will continue to grow.
“We look at the future and say, ‘Yeah, it’s going to happen,'” he said.
