The results are in! Johan and I are CoGreen Officers of the MCR for Trinity Hall this academic year. We are both quite pleased and keen to act on our platform straight away.

My first action as Officer involved signing off on our college's application for Fairtrade Status. The process of applying for Fairtrade Status began in 2007. Two years ago, a group of students and staff in Trinity Hall formed to complete the requirements necessary for application. The Fairtrade Steering Group held meetings once per term; last week's meeting was the fourth meeting.

Whilst these logistics are not exciting to chat about, they must remain central to the conversation of sustainable development. Sustainable change doesn't happen overnight. Taking a stand on an issue with ethical underpinnings is burdensome, though necessary. Business as usual is easier in the short-term, especially when the impacts of our actions are felt remotely, or never felt by us at all.

In the case of fairly traded food goods, the latter is quite often a limiting factor towards progress. Drinking tea, eating chocolates, and snacking on biscuits is a seemingly trivial example of innocent consumerism in Cambridge that can actually be part of a larger, global system of corruption and social injustice. The tea leaves, cocoa beans, and cereals that make our high tea dates possible are commonly grown outside of the UK, beyond the walls of our understanding, under conditions we may never fully understand. It is from this position, knowing without seeing or experiencing first hand what went into our drinks and sweets, that our group at Trinity Hall fought valiantly for change.

I hope the Fairtrade Foundation will ultimately accept our application. We already have plans to promote fairly traded consumerism in college this term, and more heavily next term during Fairtrade Fortnight.

My goal as a member of the Fairtrade Steering Group at Trinity Hall is to understand how Fairtrade Certification compliments and/or conflicts with sustainability. Might there be differences? Similarities? Compromise? Trade-offs? Labeling issues?

For anyone keen to discuss the relationship between fairtrade practices and sustainable agricultural practices, as well as other related topics, including consumerism, modifying supply chains, and regulating global networks of information and resources, I welcome you to join me for a fairtrade high tea date in the Trinity Hall MCR.

All my best,
Trinity Hall CoGreen Officer
A.K.A.
AK, Allison Kindig
allison.kindig@gmail.com