09/21/07 Caffeine with a conscience - Madison East Students for Freedom and Peace
WNPJ member group Madison East Students for Freedom and Peace is featured in this editorial
Caffeine with a conscience
Madison Capital Times
An editorial — 9/21/2007 11:38 am
When it comes to international trade policy, students at Madison's East High School know a lot more about how to do things right than President Bush and his advisers.
The Bush White House is promoting a stack of new free trade agreements that are guaranteed to tip the scales even further against workers, farmers and the environment in the U.S. and abroad. Members of Congress would be well advised to oppose them all, as the history of trade as it has been written by this administration is a dark one, indeed.
But it is important to remember that trade, itself, is not the problem. The problem is that the president and his allies want trade policies that are "free" only in the sense that they allow multinational corporations to exploit producers and consumers. The alternative is fair trade, as the members of Madison East Students for Freedom and Peace will illustrate Saturday, when they show a documentary on coffee production, "Black Gold," at noon and again at 8 p.m. at the Escape Java Joint, 916 Williamson St.
The group is showing the documentary as part of a push to promote sales of Just Coffee, which is produced at the Santa Anita Grower Cooperative in El Salvador according to principles that provide fair compensation for growers and their families while ensuring that coffee is produced and processed in a healthy, environmentally sensitive manner. The events are free -- as will be the samples of Just Coffee. But the students will be selling "caffeine with a conscience" -- in hopes of raising enough money to purchase a school bus for the cooperative.
Caffeine with a conscience
Madison Capital Times
An editorial — 9/21/2007 11:38 am
When it comes to international trade policy, students at Madison's East High School know a lot more about how to do things right than President Bush and his advisers.
The Bush White House is promoting a stack of new free trade agreements that are guaranteed to tip the scales even further against workers, farmers and the environment in the U.S. and abroad. Members of Congress would be well advised to oppose them all, as the history of trade as it has been written by this administration is a dark one, indeed.
But it is important to remember that trade, itself, is not the problem. The problem is that the president and his allies want trade policies that are "free" only in the sense that they allow multinational corporations to exploit producers and consumers. The alternative is fair trade, as the members of Madison East Students for Freedom and Peace will illustrate Saturday, when they show a documentary on coffee production, "Black Gold," at noon and again at 8 p.m. at the Escape Java Joint, 916 Williamson St.
The group is showing the documentary as part of a push to promote sales of Just Coffee, which is produced at the Santa Anita Grower Cooperative in El Salvador according to principles that provide fair compensation for growers and their families while ensuring that coffee is produced and processed in a healthy, environmentally sensitive manner. The events are free -- as will be the samples of Just Coffee. But the students will be selling "caffeine with a conscience" -- in hopes of raising enough money to purchase a school bus for the cooperative.
Submitted by wnpj on Mon, 09/24/2007 - 1:15pm.