A student environmental group presented a panel about fair trade Wednesday night in Cudahy Hall. Students for an Environmentally Active Campus hosted three key speakers from the Milwaukee area.
During a discussion of "Our Economy and Sustainable Choices for the Future," panelists addressed pressing environmental and economic issues and discussed their impacts from an individual to a global level.
Panelist Mike Howden, a volunteer with Milwaukee-based fair trade shop Four Corners of the World, defined fair trade as something that occurs when the people who make products for consumers earn "a fair pay" and have decent working conditions.
Speakers said American companies sell products that are made by workers in sweatshops. They said many individuals work long shifts, are not permitted to unionize, and are paid far below the equivalent of minimum wage in America.
"We don't realize that what we are buying can affect thousands of people around the world who aren't making a fair wage," said SEAC President Victor Soto, a junior in the College of Engineering.
Wisconsin Fair Trade Coalition Director Sachin Chheda used Mr. Coffee as an example in his presentation. When Mr. Coffee was based in Milwaukee, the company paid its employees $21 an hour. When it relocated to Mexico, workers were paid $2.36 an hour. When it moved to China, workers got 47 cents an hour, he said.
"These are all conscious choices," Chheda said.
Chheda said "unjust" trade practices can and must be stopped. He also said action is necessary to alter policies on fair trade, and elected officials who promise change must be held accountable in order to make an impact.
"These policy decisions will be at the hands of whomever we choose to elect on November 4th," said Becky Goossen, a SEAC member and senior in the College of Arts & Sciences. "So it would be wise for us to vote with these matters in mind."
Panelist Margaret Swedish, author of "Living Beyond The 'End of the World': A Spirituality of Hope," said policies need to change not only economically, but environmentally. Humans are living beyond the means that the earth has to support them, she said.
"We need to change how we live and do it very quickly," Swedish said, "because the earth is under a lot of stress."
Swedish said Americans are the largest group of consumers and waste producers. If everyone in the world had the ability to consume the way Americans do, then five or six planets would be necessary to sustain the earth's population, she said.
"It was very eye-opening to listen to the speakers," said Kait Sanford, a SEAC member and sophomore in the College of Engineering. "Our world is a finite resource, and if we don't live in a sustainable manner, our earth will continue to deteriorate."