WHEN Cesar Chavez, the leader of the United Farm Workers, spoke at Lowell and Adams House last week, he asked students to join a nationwide ban of California grapes and called on the dining halls to boycott them as well.

Grapes may not seem like something worth arguing about, but they are: California grapes are treated with pesticides harmful to the health of farm workers. Not to mention what they do to consumers.

The boycott is intended to convince grape growers that their workers are as important as their produce--convince them, in other words, to negotiate with the union about pesticides.

Unfortunately, the growers have not yet been persuaded. And only a dramatic drop in profit is likely to change their minds. As Chavez says, "It is at the marketplace where we make legislation."

Harvard's dining halls should stop serving these grapes in any manner. And they should no longer buy them for special events, as a dining hall spokesperson says they do.

ALREADY, supermarkets and food distributors across the country have joined the boycott. So have other universities, such as Mount Holyoke and the University of Massachusetts.

Harvard should do the same.