MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2002
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 5A
KIMBERLY THOMPSON/KANSAN
Kristy Klein, Chicago sophomore, and Kandace Creel, Albuquerque, N.M., sophomore, sip coffee at the Fair Trade Coffee Expo Sunday in the Kansas Union.
By Melissa Shuman Kansan staff writer
Yesterday, student coffee-drinkers learned how their food dollar could help coffee growers.
The KU Greens and the Lawrence Fair Trade Coffee Commission held a Fair Trade Coffee Expo at the Kansas Union Ballroom. PT's Caffe & Roasterie, The Roasterie Inc. and The Community Mercantile Co-op set up tables to explain Fair Trade coffee and offer samples.
TransFair USA developed the Fair Trade designation in 1999. Certification as Fair Trade coffee guarantees that the coffee is grown using ecologically safe growing practices by a cooperative in which the workers share profits. In exchange, sellers are guaranteed $1.26 per pound.
"Importer in the conventional market often pay $ .45-$.50 per pound for coffee, and that money goes to the export farmer, not the actual workers," said Nina Luttinger, communications manager for Fair Trade Labeling Organization, "A small farmer who gets paid $ .25-$.50 per pound doesn't even make production costs."
Luttinger said that the fair price was important to the Third World countries that grew coffee.
Students drink up info at Fair Trade Coffee Expo
"Your food dollar has more power and affects more people in foreign countries than any other dollar you can spend," Luttinger said. "The fair trade program cuts out the middle man and gives money to the farmer."
Jeff Taylor, co-owner of PT's Caffe & Roasterie in Topeka offers five different blends of Fair Trade coffee.
"Fair Trade coffee sells better when people know about it — it's about educating the consumer," Taylor said.
Phil Thomas, marketing manager of The Roasterie Inc., said the Kansas City, Mo.-based company offered four blends of fair trade coffee.
"We wouldn't buy fair trade if it wasn't good coffee," Thomas said. "Fortunately, the fair trade philosophy ends up translating into good quality."
Taylor said he thought that while organic coffees didn't taste good five to seven years ago, some now taste better than regular coffee. Fair Trade coffee at PT's is also certified as shade grown and organic.
Julia Hanson works as the Bulk Department manager of The Merc, 901 Iowa St. The Merc sells fair trade coffee in about 25 different flavors.
"When we have a sale on fair trade coffee, I can't keep it on the shelf," Hanson said. "I might sell as much as 15 pounds of coffee in a day."
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Jessica Cook, Topeka freshman, helped organize the event.
"It's such a great idea because it's an alternative to sweat-shop farming," Cook said.
Contact Shuman at mshuman@kansan.com. This story was edited by Sarah Warren.
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The Associated Press
Kansas legislature debates anti-terrorism legislation
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TOPEKA — Legislators are finding it relatively easy to erect barricades and post additional guards in the name of state security.
Giving authorities more tools to detect, investigate and prosecute terrorists is proving tougher. Critics of a far-ranging bill pending in a House committee warn that equipping police with expanded powers may trample on citizens' constitutional rights.
Other provisions were drawn from a report on an 18-month review — begun in 2000 — on all aspects of the state's emergency preparedness, including its ability to investigate and prosecute terrorism. The report was produced by the Kansas Division of Emergency Management, National Emergency Managers Association and the federal Office of Justice Programs.
Critics of the legislation have taken aim largely at its provisions on wiretaps, modeled on federal law.
Parts of the bill were proposed by Attorney General Carla Stovall to give prosecutors and law enforcement greater latitude to fight terrorism as well as drug trafficking.
"It is easier to restrict freedoms now than to restore them when the threat has passed," said attorney Jim Bush of Hiawatha, president of the Kansas Bar Association.
But supporters, including House Judiciary Chairman Mike O'Neal, say the legislation would let Kansas be proactive in detecting and prosecuting terrorism. The bill mirrors some aspects of a federal law enacted after the Sept. 11 attacks.
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While the state's finances are tight, "Preparedness is more cost-effective than crisis management," he said.
Among other things, it would let district court judges issue warrants for wiretaps anywhere in the state and would make a tap specific to a person, not a telephone or location, said Rep. Joe Shriver (D-Arkansas City).
Shriver, who served on a six-legislator interim committee on security appointed after Sept. 11, said that in the hands of an overzealous attorney general, the broader wiretap powers raise the threat of authorities monitoring citizens with "Gestapo" tactics.
Sen. David Adkins (R-Leawood), a candidate for attorney general, drafted similar proposals before the current legislative session. While his are not contained in a specific bill, he supports the changes proposed in the House measure and is dismayed that colleagues are moving on it slowly.
nsan.com
Similar anti-terrorism legislation has become law elsewhere. South Dakota Gov. Bill Janklow recently signed a bill creating a new crime of terrorism punishable by death or life in prison without parole. Other sections address responses to bioterrorism and the emergency powers of the governor.
Lisa Nathanson, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri, noted the Kansas bill's resemblance to the new USA Patriot Act, which she called a package of "ambiguously defined, over-encouraging laws."
O'Neal said the bill would likely be sent to a special committee for study this summer and fall, with recommendations to the 2003 Legislature.
Applications are available now at the SUA Office! 864-SHOW • Kansas Union, Level 4 • www.ku.edu/~sua