A lesson in Black Gold

Youth for Fairtrade had a successful evening dedicated to informing students at Coventry University about the global trading of the coffee industry.
The event, which took place on the 10th March in aid of Fairtrade Fortnight, invited students to the student union to watch a film and indulge in some free Fairtrade products. The evening began a little later than the expected time of 5 o’clock but according to Stephanie Bristow who attended the event it was “worth it”. She found the film, which was a documentary entitled ‘Black Gold’, “interesting and made me realise that I should buy food that doesn’t just benefit me”. The eye-opening documentary exposes the multi-billion pound industry through showing one mans fight for Fairtrade.
Stephanie said “ I attended the event because even though I knew about Fairtrade I wanted to find out more”. The documentary provided lots of facts such as the average kilo of coffee can make $230 but the average Ethiopian coffee farmer is lucky to even make half a dollar.
The film was shortly followed by a brief presentation from the events organisers who talked about a free Fairtrade training programme in a youth hostel which students could become involved in. Ben Bilverstone, one of the organisers, said that the training was “a lot of fun”. Ben, who is a UK ambassador, first became part of Youth for Fairtrade after attending a conference and being influenced by a man who was very passionate about Fairtrade. He said that if students wish to help out then they should “buy what Fairtrade products you can even though Fairtrade is slightly more expensive, the extra pennies make all the difference”.
After the presentation, those who watched the film were able to try some Fairtrade products such as wine and chocolate which everyone appeared to be trying. This event was followed by a previous Fairtrade event which took place the week before called ‘Go Bananas’ where free Fairtrade bananas were given out. If you would like to become involved in Fairtrade and their events go to the Fairtrade website at www.fairtrade.org for more information.