Center for Fair & Alternative Trade

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The Center for Fair and Alternative Trade Receives Charitable Gift from Edison Coffee

The Center for Fair and Alternative Trade, a University Center housed in the Department of Sociology, recently received the first installment of an annual charitable gift toward the sustainability of the Center from Edison Coffee, a Santa Barbara-based coffee import and roasting company.

Edison co-founder and business manager Christopher Matsch noted “This is just a down payment on our plans to provide ongoing support to the Center. Edison’s goal is to continue to innovate in the realm of ethical trade in order to provide our customers with not only the best quality coffee, but also the strongest assurances possible that we remain at the forefront of socially responsible and sustainable business practices. We see the great work coming out of the Center as a crucial resource for our pursuit of that goal.”

Trevor Welch, Edison co-founder and head of green coffee imports described the Center as a widely recognized leader in research into this rapidly growing sector. “For Edison to maintain responsible sourcing and ethical trading practices, we choose to rely on the unbiased cutting edge research that CFAT provides as a window into not only what is, but what might yet be possible in ethical practices… CFAT provides us with resources to pursue this goal that can’t be found anywhere else.”

According to Center Co-Director Douglas Murray, The Center is in the early stages of developing an Endowment that will allow the Center to continue providing state-of-the-art studies in ethical trade. At the same time, the Center is embarking on an ambitious initiative to turn scholarly insights to the needs of those companies and entrepreneurs seeking to embrace and advance our understanding of and commitment to ethical trade. “Our hope is that in a relatively short period of time we will be able to sustain the core programs of the Center, including research, graduate and undergraduate training, and outreach to practitioners and others, through this Endowment.”

Murray went on to observe that discussions are underway with other companies and entrepreneurs pursuing ethical trade, both in relation to the Endowment and to assure that these innovators have input into identifying future research questions in this field.