By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
On a steamy summer day in July, a group of leaders of Korea University's student council sat down with restaurant owners operating around the university. The two sides discussed ways to make sure that owners do not re-serve leftover side dishes.
They agreed that the student body would offer a ``stop reserving leftover dishes'' label to restaurants that comply with the non-binding guideline.
The student-led campaign to end re-serving leftover dishes marked the first consumer-driven labeling campaign at a local university.
``I was told that some restaurants reused leftover side dishes which were previously offered to customers having meals there. Students freaked out after knowing that, and some of them expressed worries over a possible effects of unsanitary food on their health through the university's Intranet,'' Oh Seung-min, a third-year student at Korea University, told The Korea Times.
Oh brought the issue to the student representatives' meeting and the leaders decided to sit down with restaurant owners to ask them to correct the bad practice.
The students came up with the idea of offering the certificate at the meeting.
``Some owners said it was hard for them to run businesses without reusing leftover side dishes due to rising prices. As time went by, however, many eateries joined the campaign. So far, 95 businesses have signed up for the initiative,'' he said.
Steve Charnovitz, an associate professor of law at the George Washington University Law School, told The Korea Times that labeling campaigns ``help make a market work better by providing information and transparency.''
Charnovitz said labeling campaigns are an almost 200-year-old idea.
``They are typically spearheaded by non-profit organizations or non-governmental organizations. Their aim is to explain to people the social and ecological footprints of their consumption,'' he said.
The professor said people on the planet live in what he called a global ecolonomy, the term coined to demonstrate that economy and ecology were interlinked, and that the consumption and production in one nation affects others.
``Within a country like Korea, it is totally appropriate for consumers to be concerned about the externalities of production and consumption,'' said Charnovitz.
Certified Starbucks coffee offers a look into how labels work in the highly integrated global economy.
Simply put, buying a cup of Starbucks Cafe Estima coffee, a Fair Trade certified coffee, in a nearby store can help improve labor conditions of African coffee workers.
Global coffee chain Starbucks has purchased and sold Fair Trade certified coffee since 2000 after it formed what it called an innovative alliance with third-part certifier TransFair USA.
Under the partnership, Starbucks purchased from certified importers who have paid coffee farmers a fair price in accordance with internationally accepted Fair Trade standards for coffee.
According to Joseph A. Michelli, author of ``The Starbucks Experience,'' the global coffee chain pays $1.26 more per 450g of certified coffee to coffee growers in underdeveloped world under the motto of fair trade.
To be chosen as Starbucks business partners, coffee suppliers should pledge that they will comply with a list of requirements.
They are required to disclose their financial statements so that Starbucks management can see that local farmers treat their workers fairly and the coffee is produced under decent labor conditions.
Coffee farmers also pledge to grow and produce coffee in an eco-friendly manner with specific rules set by Starbucks.
Starbucks purchased 10 million pounds of certified coffee from the underdeveloped world in 2005, up from one million pounds in 2001.
If the sales performance of the certified coffee goes smoothly, all parties are better off.
Starbucks will benefit from the fair trade campaign, as it will be perceived as a benign business.
Korean consumers of the coffee contribute to better lives for African coffee farmers and their employees, whether they are aware of the campaign or not.
In the West, the labeling and certification campaign has been used as a vehicle to help resolve social and ecological problems such as child labor and environmental degradation.
Effective labeling campaigns launched so far include child-labor-free certification offered by the Rugmark Foundation and several eco-labels.
Like Starbucks' Fair Trade certified coffee, labeling campaigns led by non-profit organizations are based on a voluntary commitment by businesses.
Businesses join the campaign by pledging to comply with a set of guidelines made by the non-profit groups, and by doing so they play a role in making a difference.
In the United States, the Clinton administration had backed labeling campaigns by installing a multi-party task force team in the White House.
In 1996, then U.S. President Bill Clinton met with apparel industry leaders, unions and NGO leaders to form a task force on sweatshops.
Clinton urged them ``to ensure that the products they make and sell are manufactured under decent and humane working conditions and to develop options to inform consumers that the products they buy are not produced under those exploitative conditions.''
Linda F. Golodner, president of the National Consumers League, said in a speech to Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Religious Values in Business in 1997 that the task force reviewed strengthening codes of business conduct and strengthened monitoring activities including evaluations of compliance.
Nina Smith, executive director of RugMark Foundation, told The Korea Times that public awareness, participation, monitoring and binding rules are the key factors leading to its successful child-labor-free labeling campaign.
`` Part of what has made us successful is our focus on informing consumers about what has been a hidden crime on carpet looms and then offering a positive alternative,'' she said.
Smith also said, ``Not only does the certification offer the best assurance that a rug is child labor free, but it guarantees that a percentage of the purchase price is sent back to weaving communities to educate kids.''
Since its establishment in 1994, RugMark Foundation has launched a campaign to end child labor, targeting industries where child labor was prevalent and documented such as the carpet industry in India.
The child-labor-free campaign has become one of the most effective labeling initiatives. More than four million carpets bearing the RugMark label have been sold in Europe and North America since 1994.
The number of countries promoting the campaign has grown and only licensed Rugmark importers are legally permitted to sell carpets carrying the label in the U.S.
Smith stressed that monitoring and binding rules are an essential part of the RugMark licensing program, saying companies who are found in violation of the standard set by the RugMark are de-licensed and may not receive labels for their rugs.
``Both the importer and exporter become licensees of RugMark. Exporters agree to random, surprise inspections at their loom sites and factories.
``Companies that meet the child-labor-free standard on an ongoing basis receive the right to adhere RugMark labels to their rugs. The labels are individually numbered and relate to specific rugs that can be traced back to the production site,'' she said.
Oh of Korea University said the student body would continue the campaign against reserving leftover dishes campaign in the future so as to end the bad practice.
``Many students said they are happy about the certificate offered by the student body as they felt they are better served than before in certified restaurants,'' he said.
Despite the moderate success as Oh claimed, the student-led consumer pressure reveals shortcomings.
Students have no forceful means or an instrument to deal with a situation where businesses that join the campaign don't play by the rules.
``As of now, we have no instrument to require them to correct unethical practices. We are also not monitoring their business,'' Oh said.
In addition to a lack of external and internal monitoring, a poor level of awareness building of labels and their claims is another barrier that leads to skepticism about the effectiveness of consumer pressure here.
Starbucks Korea sells Fair Trade Certified coffee called Cafe Estima in local stores, of which price (15,000 won per bag) is almost the same as other regular coffees.
Asked what the sales performance of the Fair Trade coffee was, a Starbucks staff member working with a store located in a city near Seoul said sales were as good as other non-label coffees, although it was not a big hit.
The staff member was unfamiliar with what the Fair Trade label is for.
The Korea Times contacted Starbucks Korea head office to figure out how many of its customers know about the label and if their understanding of the claim affects their purchasing.
One of the staff members said he would find the right person in Starbucks to give the answer but he did not get back to the reporter.
The rationale behind labeling campaigns in the West is that all involved parties are better off, once the initiatives turn out successful.
Monitoring and awareness building among the public are two core tasks that local consumer activists should consider to achieve that goal that everyone is going to be happier with the consumer pressure campaign.