The fair showcases a diverse range of vendors selling fair and sustainable products, including arts and crafts, clothing, coffee and chocolate. The event also serves as a forum for faculty, staff and students who are interested in learning more about fair trade. 聽

What is fair trade?

On its website, describes fair trade as a 鈥渨ay for all of us to identify products that meet our values so we can make choices that have a positive impact on the world.鈥�

Over the years,聽the University has pursued a number of fair trade endeavours. 聽聽

91亚色's own Las Nubes coffee (fair trade, organic and shade grown) is served at聽nine locations on both campuses. To know more about the Las Nubes project, visit the 飞别产蝉颈迟别.听

Right:聽91亚色's Las Nubes coffee is聽shade grown in Costa Rica

Fair trade coffee and Rainforest Alliance tea is served at most coffee shops at 91亚色 and can be ordered for catering. A number of campus locations serve fair trade coffee. The locations are:聽the Central Square Cafeteria, TEL Building Caf茅, Winters Cafeteria, Stong Cafeteria, Freshii, the Osgoode Bistro, Glendon Caf茅, Glendon Eurobaguette, and the Graduate Student Lounge.

The 91亚色 Bookstore now sells fair trade 91亚色 t-shirts (which is a first for Canadian universities).聽The bookstore will be selling t-shirts at the fair.聽To learn more about the Bookstore's fair trade t-shirt initiative,聽see YFile, Oct. 11, 2011.

Left: The 91亚色 Bookstore sells fair trade t-shirts

91亚色 students have also demonstrated leadership in fair trade. The 91亚色 Federation of Students Is committed to the Canadian Federation of Students Students for Sustainability campaign and is an active participant in many social justice and sustainability events and campaigns. As well, the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) is a co-sponsor of聽Thursday's Fair Trade Fair and can be contacted by sending an e-mail to opirg@yorku.ca.

Coming in early 2012, 91亚色聽 University will also be launching its聽new Sustainability Ambassadors program. To learn more, visit the President's Sustainability Council website or e-mail sustainability@yorku.ca.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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鈥淏oth at the provincial level, and even at the national level, you have dozens of species of songbirds that are in serious decline,鈥� says Bridget Stutchbury, author of Silence of the Songbirds and : Investigating the Secret Lives of Birds.

Stutchbury, in 91亚色鈥檚 , was scheduled to be in Fredericton on Thursday to deliver a public lecture on the severity and the impact of the province鈥檚 songbird decline.

Stutchbury said the causes for the decline are plentiful. Pesticide use and deforestation are two. Coffee is one of the biggest culprits in the case of migratory birds, she said, because forests are cleared to make way for the coffee plantations, pushing the birds out of their refuges. 鈥淭he sun-grown coffee is grown the way we would grow corn, completely out in the open in these massive fields. Row after row after row of coffee plants and not a tree in sight,鈥� Stutchbury said.

Switching from sun-grown coffee to shade-grown coffee that鈥檚 grown in the forest would be a step in the right direction, she said. Reducing pesticide use and encouraging sustainable logging practices are other ways to stop the decline.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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Figuring out bird habits are all in a day's work for Stutchbury. Montreal-born, Toronto-raised, she is an internationally renowned researcher and author. Her previous book, , was a finalist for the . Among her achievements, she and colleagues were the first to figure out how to track songbirds as they migrate, by fitting them with tiny backpacks containing sensors weighing less than a dime.

With her husband, fellow ornithologist Gene Morton, Stutchbury adventures around the world tracking birds. She's hacked her way through a tropical forest with a machete. Attacks by killer bees are part of her job description.

"There are many events in my life that, I have to confess, are a bit unusual," she says.

We tracked her down at her university office in Toronto to find out more about life as a bird detective.

Her Daily Routine

She wakes up at dawn, a childhood habit and a very good trait in an ornithologist. During the winter, she teaches at the university and keeps a routine typical of many working mothers. But the summer is anything but typical. The family relocates to their farm/laboratory in Pennsylvania where she spends her days stalking birds through the forest for hours at a time, carrying a long net and wearing a radio attached to her belt.

Her Kids' Reaction To Her Work

"They've been hearing (about birds' sex lives) since they were born. Even before they could walk, they've been dragged along on various expeditions. . . . As they become teenagers, they are probably a little embarrassed about it, but they understand the tongue-in-cheek aspects. My kids know from hearing me talk to my husband that when we get talking in scientific terms, it can be deadly dull."

Advice For Would-Be Ornithologists

Invite birds into your yard, small as it may be. The key? Pay attention to the little things.

"I'm always looking and listening," she says.

Her Thoughts On Climate Change

Climate change, overuse of pesticides and increasing urbanization are hurting birds and they are changing their habits to survive. For instance, warmer temperatures are throwing migration patterns out of whack, threatening the survival of some species.

She cites one study that found a 2.8 C increase in surface temperature would result in 500 land bird extinctions by 2100, with two thousand species at risk of extinction.

But she takes an optimistic view about the future:

"I do believe that a green revolution is underway and that the tide has turned in the last five to 10 years," she says. "I think we've hit and passed the tipping point when it comes to people's attitudes on environmental sustainability."

Her Conservation Tips

"Reduce, reuse, recycle. Use paper products from post-consumer recycled material. Ensure that your papers and wood products have FSC certification (a labelling system that indicates products come from responsibly managed forests and verified recycled sources). I'm a big fan of consumers taking action because you can see the results of your efforts right away."

On Coffee

She recommends buying organic, fair-trade coffee from traditional small coffee farms. These farms refrain from pesticides and support preservation of tropical trees. In future, as researchers learn more about bird migration, we might be able to buy our coffee from South American farms that are known to be the winter homes of Canadian songbirds.

The complete article is available on the .

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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McDonald's is giving away free coffee, while Tim Hortons' Roll Up The Rim To Win campaign is in full throttle. Which company is winning the coffee war? What does it bring to the bottom line? And, which brand tastes better?

The on BNN's Web site.

Robert Latham, associate professor of Political Science and director of 91亚色鈥檚 Centre for International & Security Studies, and Qasim Farah, a 91亚色 graduate student in the Faculty of Environmental Studies, spoke about the possible recruiting of young Canadian Somalis by Al Shahab, an organization that has been added to the government鈥檚 list of terrorist organizations, on CBC Radio鈥檚 鈥溾�� March 10. The audio clip is available on .

Barbo Ciakudia, an international studies student at Glendon College and an organizer of 91亚色's How Much Do You Know About the D. R. Congo? conference, was interviewed on Metro Morning about the relationship between coltan, a metallic ore used to manufacture electronics, such as cell phones and computers, and the Congo's decades-long conflict. Both the interview and the conference took place on March 11. The segment runs over seven minutes and is available on CBC's "" Web site.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile 鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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