E & E – What’s it all about?
We don’t think anyone nowadays really needs to have explained to them the importance of awareness on issues such as Global Climate Change, the Enhanced Greenhosue Effect and the rapid erosion of global resources and environmental degradation as a result.
However what can be said is that it takes very little effort to make a positive impact into reducing these problems. No-one is suggesting we all live in back in the Stone Age, but some conscientious living can make a significant difference in having a more environmentally sustainable and ethically conscious life at College, and then in the wider world.
As St John’s E&E Officers we’re trying to make little improvements throughout College, many of which on suggestions made by other students, in order to contribute to making College life more ‘E&E’. Utilities such as Water Hippos (water-saving devices for toilets) have been installed to maximum capacity and motion sensor lighting and handryers are being trialled all around College too. Seeing as College has already been here for 456 years, it makes sense that one step at a time it will become a more and more sustainable place to live.
On the ethical side of things the main initiatives have been the move towards ‘Fairtrade Status’, as awarded by the Fairtrade Foundation, by stocking the Bar, Hall, Buttery and College-held meetings with Fairtrade products, as well as JCR run events. The final step is compiling this into a tangible application for status that will hopefully be going out at the beginning of Michaelmas.
If any of these issues make you angry (in a positive way) or interest you, or if you have any suggestions about other measures that could be implemented throughout College get in touch at [email protected].
There will be an E&E event during Freshers’ Week (which promises to yield many free goodies as always) so come along and hear about what’s going on, discuss and suggest (see your Freshers’ Timetable).
Check out the E&E guide, How to eat interesting and ethical food even when you live in Tommy White and have no money.
Buying into Fairtrade
Shaahin Pishbin
The rumours are true: St John’s is becoming a Fairtrade college. The chocolate in the bar, the fruit juices at breakfast, the tea and coffee served in every meeting - it’s all going Fairtrade, and much more besides. That’s the plan at least, and with the JCR and MCR behind the idea, we see no reason why it shouldn’t become a reality.
Fairtrade has some history in Oxford; the city became Fairtrade in 2004 and Oxford Brookes was named the first Fairtrade university in the world in October 2003. Linacre, Wadham and Hertford are the only colleges to hold the status currently, with more looking to follow suit. These join over 500 Fairtrade towns and 120 Fairtrade universities already established in Britain. Fairtrade is booming, and has defied the recession with a 12% increase in sales during the last financial year, totalling sales of £799 million in 2009. So what exactly is the point of Fairtrade, and why should we care anyway?
As the name suggests, the Fairtrade movement aims to serve as an antidote to what many consider ‘unfair’ practices in the global trading system. Typically, poor and small scale farmers from the developing world struggle to compete in both international and local markets, being priced out by heavily subsidized mega-farms in the West, which can ship their goods to all parts of the world for less than what it costs poor farmers to produce their own. These huge subsidies Western governments, through schemes such as the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy, provide for their own farmers have helped create an unfair market, grossly stacked in their favour, and serve to perpetuate cycles of poverty and aid-dependency in developing countries. As it stands, every cow in Europe gets more money in EU subsidies per day than 20% of the world’s population earns in daily income.
(Fair)Trade not Aid
Fairtrade’s mission is to combat this problem, shifting power to the consumers and away from the corporations. This is done by providing farmers in LEDCs who have signed up to the scheme, often in the form of collectives, with a decent wage and a minimum price for their produce, safeguarding them against often low market prices which cannot sustain their business. As part of the arrangement, the farmers commit themselves to invest an added Fairtrade premium in social, environmental and economic development projects, decided upon democratically by a committee of producers within the organisation or of workers on a plantation. Producers must also meet certain standards and demonstrate progress made in said projects. This approach engenders sustainable development in an otherwise marginalised community - our investment in Fairtrade ensures commitment to this sustainability.
This bottom-up strategy is not the whole solution, but a partial response to a world trade system that has failed to protect the most vulnerable from exploitation, exclusion and poverty. Creating awareness of these injustices and urging systemic reform remain central to the goals of the Fairtrade Foundation, and now, central to the goals of St. John’s too.
Exciting Environment and Ethics News! (3/1/2012)
It is my absolute pleasure to announce that St Johns’ College is officially Fairtrade!
Following an application in Michaelmas 2011 SJC was ratified as a Fairtrade College in December last year.
After a collaboration of representatives of the College’s Academic Support Staff and the JCR and MCR student bodies, together we were able to fulfil the obligations required by the World Fairtrade Organisation.
This is a momentous achievement for a College the size of St John’s, an achievement which is matched by few other Oxford Colleges.
With Fairtrade Tea and Coffee everywhere in College where Tea and Coffee is drank, with Fairtrade chocolate bars, cookies and snacks in the Bar, Buttery and Cafe and Fairtrade wine in Hall, Fairtrade products are present in all elements of the student’s lives.
Most importantly, this is only the beginning. The campaign and events that allowed us to achieve the status are the start of a greater project to raise awareness of ethical trade and sustainable development to the student body.
Therefore huge congratulations and thanks must go out to all the College staff that helped us along our way and to my former Colleague, Shaahin.
Interested in getting involved in SJC’s Environment and Ethics debates & events, maybe even sitting on a working party or two?
Do get in touch at [email protected]
Ed Love