Buying a cup of coffee could affect a rural grower thousands of miles away. If that coffee was imported through fair trade, the benefits for that grower could have a more significant impact on the grower’s quality of life.

Approximately 30 members of the campus community were in attendance as John Taylor, a program and advocacy officer for the Catholic Relief Services, spoke about the global impact of free trade and the role the CRS plays in forwarding the movement Thursday at Lumpkin Hall.

The presentation, sponsored by the Committee for Fair Trade and Global Justice, which operates through the Newman Catholic Center, concluded a week of activities planned by the group.

Taylor borrowed a quote from the 1984 U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“‘The economy should serve the people and not the other way around,'” Taylor said. “That’s what fair trade is all about.”

Taylor said not everyone agrees.

“I say that so easily, but I know a lot of people don’t agree with that,” Taylor said. “I know that, from my experience of 64 years, even though we might like this sentiment, it’s not something that we take to really easily.”

In a nutshell, the fair-trade movement’s purpose is to help cultures, and communities, and farming villages to sustain their own livelihood. Those who participate in the movement import the products of individual foreign producers, usually those located within rural areas, and help them to sell these products in domestic markets.

“Fair-trade offers consumers a powerful way to reduce poverty through their everyday shopping,” according to the Fair-trade Labeling Organization’s international Web page.

Roy Lanham, director of the Newman Catholic Center, said we should consider how globalization should be shaped.

“Anytime we can raise awareness about a different economic system I think it’s a good thing,” Lanham said. “The reality is globalization is here to stay, we’re gonna’ get our products from China, We’re gonna’ get our products from Ghana. The question is, ‘how do we want globalization to work and to look?'”

Dan Rolando, a senior physics and economics major, introduced Taylor and also made the closing remarks.

“It something that you may not think about every day when you wake up and have a cup of coffee in the morning, but somebody grew it; it wasn’t you, it probably wasn’t the people that you bought it from,” Rolando said. “It was possibly someone who lives and works in poor conditions, and that’s their livelihood…so, just think about what we can do to help them live a better life.”

Jason Hardimon can be reached at 581-7942 or [email protected].