New Faculty Spotlight: Daniel Jaffee

Contact: Jessica A. Knoblauch, News Writer for Environmental Science and Policy Program: (517) 432-3823 or knoblau7@msu.edu

Dr. Jaffee joined MSU in the fall of 2006 as an assistant professor in the sociology department and currently teaches classes at the undergraduate and graduate levels in the areas of environment, development, food and agriculture, and globalization.

Jaffee’s research examines the effects of economic globalization and free trade policies on environmental and social conditions for rural communities and small agricultural producers in the global South, particularly Latin America.

Before coming to Michigan State, Jaffee received his Ph.D. from the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He spent three years (2001-2004) conducting field research in southern Mexico examining the environmental effects of participation in certified fair trade markets for indigenous farmers producing organic, shade-grown coffee.

His research concluded that even though fair trade does make a difference to these communities, the promise of fair trade to deliver social and economic justice in the form of a fair price will not be fully realized until demand increases, the fair trade minimum price for coffee is adjusted for inflation and the fair trade system develops ways to manage the increasing participation of transnational agro-food corporations.

Jaffee’s research was the basis for his new book, Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability and Survival, which will be coming out from the University of California Press in Spring 2007.

Currently, Jaffee is pursuing several new research directions, including one that focuses on the privatization and commodification of commons resources, particularly drinking water supplies, both in the U.S. and the global South. “The issue of access to and control of fresh water is becoming increasingly critical,” explains Jaffee, “and it is an especially contentious subject in Michigan because of the Great Lakes.”

Jaffee is excited about teaching here at MSU. “There’s a lot of room for interdisciplinary research,” he says. “MSU seems to be a really welcoming place with down to earth people.”