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Cornell Students Display Fair Trade Wit

11 May 2005

Fair Trade Carnival brings attention to the problems of agricultural subsidies and CAFTA.

Create a spectacle, and then answer people’s questions as to what it’s all about.  That was thinking behind the Fair Trade Carnival held at Cornell University during the Global Week of Action.

“We wanted to do something creative and artistic that was a lot of fun,” said Tina Lax, one of the founders of the Cornell Coalition for Trade Justice which put on the event.  “Our goal was to raise questions so we could educate people on the problems in our current system of trade.”

Staged in the student union over the lunch hour on April 12th, the Fair Trade Carnival featured creative games with a very serious message.  Students could play “Dump Your Friend,” where rice was poured on people’s heads to symbolize the negative impact agricultural subsidies have on farmers in poor nations.

Attendees could “Bowl for Subsidies,” pin the tail on the CAFTA, take a swing at the CAFTA piñata or buy fair trade craft items from World of Good.  An action station also gave students an opportunity to email their state representatives or sign up for the Big Noise.

“A campus admissions tour went through the area during the carnival,” said Lax.  “The guide was talking about Cornell, but we were talking to them about fair trade!”