In 2021, the Equal Exchange team connected with groups around the country to give virtual presentations on a variety of topics related to the work that we do in the realms of food justice, environmental sustainability, ethical sourcing and more.
Presentations on issues related to Equal Exchange’s mission help educate and inspire groups to take meaningful actions that help build an alternative trade system that benefits small scale farmers, consumers and the environment . After attending presentations, we’ve found that people feel committed to drinking only fairly traded coffee, eating chocolate produced without exploitation or forced labor, and are motivated to hold fair trade sales or create neighborhood buying clubs.
If you’re group is interested in having someone from the Equal Exchange team visit your group virtually, please reach out.
The following groups had a team member from Equal Exchange visit them virtually in 2021:
| Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, Virginia |
| First Presbyterian Church, Lansing, MI |
| Centre Congregational Church, Lynnfield, MA |
| First Parish Unitarian Universalist, Medfield, MA |
| Congregation Beth Torah, Richardson, TX |
| Foundry United Methodist Church, Washington DC |
| All Saints Lutheran Church, Big Sky, MT |
| First Presbyterian Church, Knoxville, TN |
| Irvington Presbyterian Church, Indianapolis, IN |
| NJ Coalition Against Human Trafficking, New Jersey |
| Care for Creation Interfaith Group (Associated with Holy Name of Mary Parish, Croton on Hudson, NY) |
| Jewish Climate Action Network’s 3rd Conference: Everything is Connected |
| US Catholic Mission Association |
| Palo Alto UCC Youth Group, Palo Alto, CA |
| Elizabethtown Church of the Brethren, Elizabethtown, PA |
| University of Richmond Osher, VA |
| Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America’s Summer Workshop Series |
| Congregation Beth El Keser Israel, New Haven, CT |
| Practical Church Resources |
| Granite Peak UU Congregation, Prescott, Arizona |
| Plymouth UCC, Plymouth, WI |
| Presbyterian Hunger Program’s Matthew 25 Initiative |
| Primary Source – History and Social Studies educators |
| Lakeshore Baptist Church, Oakland, CA |
| Temple Rodef Shalom, Falls Church, VA |
Five years ago Equal Exchange started our Citizen-Consumer work to invite our supporters more deeply into our model, to build a community that is working toward a better food system, and to further develop our democratic brand. As organizers, when we think about who represents this community we have been building, someone who makes us proud to do this work, we think about Sue. She is not only one of the founding members but she hit the ground running from the start. She has been a meaningful participant in every campaign, event, and discussion and has gone above and beyond what we even imagined when we sent out that first letter inviting people to join this initiative. She is an incredibly strong woman and there is no one stopping her when she has her mind set on something. This is just one of the many stories that Sue could tell you about her life as an activist and how her heart came to be touched by the work of Equal Exchange.
It’s 1972 and I am living in Santiago, Chile. I am one of a small group of people from the United States (Estadosunidenses translates as United Statesians) who are here to witness and support the government of President Salvador Allende. We are a tiny contingent of 12 in an endless parade of supporters. Allende stands on the steps of the library and, like an automaton, waves his hand to and fro as thousands march before him over the course of hours. Occasionally, he sees someone he knows and points to them with a smile, then resumes his metronome-like wave.
Before us is the contingent from Ex-Yarur. This area of Chile is known for its four fabric manufacturers. Yarur, named after its owner, was one of those four. The Allende government paid Yarur for his factory and gave it to the workers, as they had done for many farms, factories, banks, and mines throughout the country in their short 2 years in office. The government sent an “interventor” to the factory, a person whose job it was to teach the workers how to manage their factory. Their parade contingent was thousands strong, including the workers of Ex-Yarur.
People were singing and chanting “El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido” (the people united will never be defeated, which rhymes in its original Spanish).
Then, we toured the entire country, 3,000 miles north to south from the Atacama Desert to the Straits of Magellan, 400 miles from the Chilean sliver of Antarctica. There, we visited a sheep farm, bought from its owner. As guests, we dined in the center of a very long table with all 100 worker-owners who shared the work and the bounty and were so proud of their farm.
Back in Santiago, we visited the Banco Central, bought from its owners, and visited the 5th floor where worker-owners’ children played during the day and lunched with their parents. On the 2nd floor, we saw the infant nursery where parents could spend time with their babies and mothers breastfed their children, with dispensation to leave their station at any time their babies were awake.
We attended a meeting with hundreds of workers and government interventors where workers asked questions and worked to resolve issues transparently and collaboratively. We saw the pride and the empowerment workers experienced. That was my first introduction to worker-owned cooperatives.
Though Allende was only allowed to live for another year, due to a U.S.-backed military coup, his coalition of several political parties managed to uplift the workers of the nation for the 3 years of his tenure.
Fast forward 45 years and I attend a Summit of Equal Exchange, a worker-owned coop that sources goods from worker-owned farms throughout the third world and the United States. Engaging in authentic fair trade, Equal Exchange pays a higher price for goods to ensure the workers are paid appropriately for their farmwork. Then Equal Exchange sells the goods to consumers without going through major corporations in an attempt to democratize the growing of our food. The goal is to support worker-owned coops and small family farms to grow organic, healthy food and bring it to us in a way that supports workers throughout the world.
Equal Exchange has a three-pronged vision: supporting worker-owned and farmer-owned farms, supporting organic food, and supporting authentic fair trade.
A worker-owned cooperative is owned by the people who work there. Rather than focusing on profit, Equal Exchange focuses on transparency, equality in voting, free speech, and equitable distribution of income. Managers and entry-level employees own an identical share and receive an equal share of any profits or losses.
Learning from the Equal Exchange model, we converted our copyediting business into a worker-owned cooperative in 2019, with all 6 editors making the same salary per hour of work and all having an equal voice in the management of the business.
Across my lifetime, I have learned that worker coops are the best economic model for a society and that organic, fairly traded food is the best model for people and the planet.
Interested in joining our Citizen-Consumer community? Tell us why and join the fight to build a better food system.
Scott Williams of the Central Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Lebanon, Indiana, started learning about marginalized groups in Central America after 2001, when he visited Honduras with his son, Andy and friends on their first trip abroad. They were trying to determine possible mission plans for a large group church trip the next year. Supported by DOC Global Missions, they connected with a couple different development groups. During one of their visits Scott remembers this, “A community leader told us that the most important way that we could help them was to go back to the U.S. and tell people their story.” This idea stayed with Scott, who was an educator and elementary school principal; it has guided him through the journey of the last 15 years.
In 2006 Central Christian Church (DOC) decided to send a group of 23 high school students and adults to El Salvador through a project created by Global Missions and their lead missionary, Marco Gonzalez. Hurricane Mitch had devastated the country, and the group helped to rebuild houses for the small community of “Puente Azul” (Blue Bridge in Spanish). The ten-day trip made such a major impression on the students that when they returned, they convinced their parents and other church members to raise funds for scholarships so that middle school and high school students in Puente Azul could remain in school. At that time, the community had no high school graduates in its history; these stipends allowed seven students to stay in school that first year. This is when the Central Christian Church (DOC) leaders made a decision to sell Equal Exchange fairly traded chocolate to raise the funds for the stipends. Since then the congregation has been selling EE products and they’ve managed to raise funds for students even though they’re only 150 members strong. To date,18 students have graduated from high school in Puente Azul.
When Scott and a delegation visited again in 2009, they asked Puente Azul members what else they could do next to help improve their quality of life. The answer was immediate and unanimous: “la luz”–electric lights. Puente Azul was located far enough away from the main city, Sonsonate, so that power lines had to yet come to them–even though they had been promised those lines for 20 years. The result was the Central Christian Church’s solar panel project. With the support of Ricardo Barrera, an architect and activist in San Salvador, the group developed a plan to install residential solar panels–with storage batteries and light fixtures–in each of the homes of Puente Azul. This project kept a small army of Central Christian Church members and installation workers busy for the next eight years. By July 2019, there were 63 homes with solar panels, nearly serving the entire community of 82 homes. By December of 2019, the promise of the grid finally reached the community, which meant that all families finally had “la luz.” The solar panel installation cost averaged about $1,400 per home.
Central Christian Church (DOC) has also funded these ongoing projects at Puente Azul by holding a golf tournament every fall. And there’s always a basket of Equal Exchange products raffled off at the event. Other churches who have heard the story of Central Christian’s projects have also contributed to the programs. By 2019, the church had raised over $85,000 for the solar panel project along with enough money to fund the scholarship program for nine more students each year. Last year during COVID-19, Scott and his team did what they could to adapt to the situation. They expanded an area in the church parlor where people could purchase a range of Equal Exchange products: coffee, tea, chocolate, nuts, etc., along with a price list, EE posters, and a basket.
Scott Williams, with his team of congregants at the Central Christian Church (DOC) are truly extraordinary. They keep raising funds for Puente Azul and telling and retelling their story to others as often as they can. They are now helping the community to build composting latrines. Over the last decade and a half, they congregation has helped to transform Puente Azul into a more vibrant place, enriching and transforming the members of both communities. Equal Exchange is proud to have played a small part in these projects. We honor Scott and his congregation and pass their story along to you as an inspiration.
Get more inspiration to help you engage your own faith based group around fair trade and social justice here.
Potong Tea Garden, Darjeeling, India
Did you know that tea is the second most popular drink in the world—second only to water?
Here’s another question: do you know that, even today, it is likely that the tea products lining your grocery store’s shelves—even those sold as Fair Trade—were sourced from plantations established under colonialism?
Tea cultivation and consumption originated in China. Global trade for much of the 1700s and 1800s was defined by foreign companies trying to gain a foothold in the profitable tea market.
The top four tea producing countries today are China, India, Kenya, and Sri Lanka respectively—and it is no coincidence that after China, the top tea producing nations are all former British colonies.
After the British East India Company lost a long-standing trade monopoly with China, British colonists introduced tea production elsewhere, beginning in India in the mid-1800s. Kolkata was established as the imperial capital at the heart of the tea trade. This period is referred to as company rule because the region was quite literally ruled by the foreign company.
As with so many plantation systems throughout history, cheap labor was essential to the scheme. British planters recruited labor from the most vulnerable populations through indentured contracts. Families were central to the recruitment strategy as they were less likely to leave the plantation; after all, it was where they both worked and lived. Employing entire families in such remote circumstances created an oversupply of labor giving owners an incredible amount of power over workers.
Despite more modern reforms, the colonial plantation system created a vast monoculture tea infrastructure so deeply rooted that it remains largely unchanged.
About 70 years ago, shortly after independence, the Indian government enacted the Plantation Labor Act (PLA), providing a host of protections to plantation workers which continues to have varying degrees of impact on the ground. While the PLA has been a very important advancement for tea workers, the majority of whom are women, there is still no opportunity for workers to have real power or control over the land or their livelihoods.
Tea workers remain deeply dependent on the plantations for all of their basic human needs. When tea prices fall below the cost of production, it is far too common an occurrence that plantations will be abandoned by the owners, leaving the workers and their families in dire circumstances.
Cara Ross, a Sales Director at Equal Exchange, recalls hearing from tea farmers who experienced this at the Potong Tea Garden in Darjeeling, a prominent tea growing region in India. “Overnight, workers lost not only income, but housing, food, healthcare and education,” Ross says. “The Potong Tea Garden’s history stands out to me as a clear example of the injustices of the colonial plantation model, which at its core is built upon the indentured servitude and dependency of workers.”
Equal Exchange is working to forge a different path for small farmers everywhere. As an alternative trade organization (ATO) we partner with small farmer organizations around the world to change existing power structures and build economic solidarity between farmers and consumers.
We’ve traded tea with democratically organized small farmer organizations for decades. While our tea program is still relatively small, we have leveraged our limited volume to support and strengthen a number of small farmer organizations in India and Sri Lanka in an effort to help them gain crucial market access and develop their democratic organizations.
Most of Equal Exchange’s tea partners are small farmers: they own just a few hectares of land and cultivate a mix of tea and other commercial crops like spices for export, as well as crops for their own kitchen. Through their democratic organizations, farmers can pool their resources and their harvests to trade at a viable scale.
All of this is made possible by two mission-driven organizations; Tea Promoters of India (TPI) and Biofoods in Sri Lanka. TPI and Biofoods assist the farmers with processing and export logistics as well as organizational development – because they believe the future of tea must be led by farmers.
Our partners at the Potong Tea Garden represent yet another alternative. After the previous owners of the plantation abandoned the business when prices dropped too low, the workers from the garden organized together. Potong’s 343 members now collectively run the tea garden. Potong’s members are revitalizing the land, introducing native plants and regenerating the soil and local ecosystem while running the garden democratically.
With so much tea still cultivated on plantations, Potong shows us that another path is possible: one that puts power in the hands of farmers through democratic control. This model could have profound implications for the wider industry in the years to come.
“I had the great privilege of visiting Darjeeling, India, in 2012 on an Equal Exchange delegation. The Potong Tea Garden’s history stands out to me as a clear example of the injustices of the colonial plantation model, which at its core is built upon the indentured servitude and dependency of workers. I will not forget the stories told by Potong workers of the period when they were abandoned by plantation owners when the garden was no longer profitable. Overnight workers lost not only income, but housing, food, healthcare and education. Today, Potong is now collectively run by the garden’s workers and their families, and even more importantly is serving as an exciting alternative small farmer tea model that is desperately needed to help transform the tea industry.”
– Cara Ross, Sales Director, Equal Exchange
On the market side, Equal Exchange has proven that alternative supply chains in tea are difficult—but they can work. With your support, Equal Exchange has been able to support our tea partners with incrementally growing purchases—representing a slowly but steadily increasing presence of small farmer tea in grocery stores.
In addition to buying more tea from our current partners, this year we are pleased to introduce a new partner: the Karbi-Anglong Small Farmers in Assam, India. The Assam region was the epicenter of the colonial tea trade and it is still fraught with labor injustices; many plantation workers still live and work in terrible conditions. We are proud to work with TPI in support of a fledgling effort to build a new small farmer tea project in the plantation-dominated region.
While Equal Exchange’s purchases of tea are important to our partners, our relationships with them goes far beyond commercial trade. Over the years, Equal Exchange has contributed funding to help Potong Tea Garden in their tea bush replanting efforts, replacing many of the bushes originally planted in the 1800s. And in 2017, Equal Exchange, together with our supporters, raised funds to help Potong through a challenging time. That year, Potong lost about 70% of their annual harvest during a 104-day shutdown stemming from political unrest in the region. Equal Exchange’s support helped farmers make ends meet despite the lost income.
Through good times and bad times, our futures as consumers are intertwined with the futures of small farmers. We are proud to celebrate 35 years of changing trade and more than 20 years of solidarity with tea farmers in India and Sri Lanka.
To build true alternative trade in tea, we need to do two things—and we need your help to do them. First, we need to continue to build a marketplace for small tea farmers. Secondly, we need to build awareness about the problems in the industry.
As an alternative trader, Equal Exchange is deeply committed to both of these efforts: we’re continuing to expand our tea program, and creating spaces for consumers to learn about where tea comes from and the people who grow it.
You can help by shopping for small-farmer grown Equal Exchange tea at your local co-op. And if you’ve learned anything from this article, share it with your friends, family, and neighbors—and encourage them to ask for Equal Exchange tea where they shop!
Thank you for your support as we continue to build a market for small farmers and work for positive change in the tea industry, together.
To stay connected with Equal Exchange and learn more about our tea partners, consider joining our community at: equalexchange.coop/getinvolved
The Mujeres Emprendedoras Delicias Tengueleñas share recipes created from bananas at different stages of ripeness.
Over the past year, we have had to adjust our lives to unexpected changes, and adapt to new ways of socializing, shopping, and eating. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us may have experienced shortages at local grocery stores, while others may have embraced meal kits and delivery services. We saw bulk products fade away as stores shifted to having nuts, grains, and even produce in individual boxes and bags. Shoppers wanted to feel protected, and single-use plastics were there to help them to do so. These changes to the way we shop had a major impact on what items stores carried – and on how those items looked.
Amidst the myriad changes to our lives during the pandemic, you may have noticed more bruised bananas. You may have seen these bruises in a grocery delivery bag in the early days of the pandemic. You may have visited a grocery store and steered away from bananas that looked grey, or examined a bunch of bananas with darkening tips and, careful not to be seen, snuck them back onto the shelf. You may even have stocked up on greener bananas and, after observing that they became a mottled mix of colors in your fruit bowl, attempted to return them to the grocery store.
You are not alone. Shoppers gravitate toward perfect-looking produce, for various reasons. Humans often seek out the best-looking foods instinctively: avoiding moldy produce has helped humans throughout their evolution. However, this sensitivity can also lead shoppers to avoid bruised, scratched, or misshapen produce, due to a perception that skin-level imperfections may compromise the quality of the fruit. A recent behavioral study found that “merely imagining the consumption of unattractive produce…negatively affects how consumers view themselves” and causes them to avoid cosmetically imperfect food. Some researchers point to marketing campaigns of fruit companies, such as Chiquita in the 1950s, which discouraged consumers from freezing bananas in an effort to sell more fruit as shoppers inevitably wasted fruit that they did not know how to preserve. Another consumer research study suggests that this aversion to uglier produce may be a result of cultural stigmas around aging. But beyond these analyses lies another factor: that we as shoppers have limited budgets, and are trying to make the best choices we can with the money we have.
One of the easiest ways to reduce our food waste, save money and cut carbon emissions is to choose older, less-perfect produce when we shop, and to find ways to save and eat foods in our homes that we might be tempted to throw away. Doing so has the potential to cut up to 250 lbs of food waste per person annually, or up to 83 billion lbs annually in the US alone! And how much money might we save if we embraced imperfections in our fruits?
One way to reduce food waste is to try to use bananas at every stage of ripeness. Bananas that are getting brown and spotted can be used for a range of recipes! The Green Festival recipe below was created by the Mujeres Emprendedoras Delicias Tengueleñas (Women Entrepreneurs of Delights from Tenguel), an organization supported in part by AsoGuabo co-op farmers in Ecuador.
The perfect recipe for your overripe bananas!
Recipe adapted from the Mujeres Emprendedoras Delicias Tengueleñas (Women Entrepreneurs of Delights from Tenguel), an organization supported in part by AsoGuabo farmers in Ecuador.
Freeze the bananas, then blend all ingredients until you have a delicious smoothie
Sources
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) 2011. Global Food Losses and Food Waste: Extent, Causes, and Prevention, Rome: FAO.
Grewel, L., J. Hmurovic, C. Lamberton, and R. W. Reczek. The Self-Perception Connection: Why Consumers Devalue Unattractive Produce. Journal of Marketing Vol 83(1)
Koeppel, D., 2008. Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World. New York: Hudson St Press. Print.
Koo, M., H. Oh, V. M. Patrick. 2019. From Oldie to Goldie: Humanizing Old Produce Enhances Its Appeal. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research Vol 4(4). https://doi.org/10.1086/705032
The 2021 board of directors for AVACH posing in front of the warehouse in Querecotillo, Piura, Peru
Equal Exchange Produce strives to maintain long-term, stable partnerships with banana producer organizations. Our baseline requirements are specific: the fruit we import is Fairtrade-certified, organic, and exported directly by cooperative small producer organizations (SPOs). But there is more to developing a commercial partnership than requesting up-to-date certifications. The fundamentally social – and logistically complex – nature of food trade requires developing trusting relationships with people at every level of production. In the world as we once knew it, that meant a trip to origin including farm tours, face-to-face meetings, maybe even a toast to celebrate a new partnership.
So when the time came to complete an onboarding process in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, it took more intentionality from all parties to communicate exclusively online. Asociación Valle del Chira (AVACH), a 412-member SPO based in Querecotillo, Piura, Peru, set out with a remarkable level of integrity to create space for Equal Exchange to meet with diverse stakeholders and encourage transparency from all entities. Now, six months after the first U.S.-bound AVACH container embarked, Equal Exchange has had the chance to deepen these foundational relationships and meet some additional players whose work is crucial to get bananas from the farm to the ship. Equal Exchange Supply Chain Coordinator Johanna Contreras Manito recently spoke with a logistics manager, a pack crew leader, and a farmer-member who each represent integral pieces of the supply chain. Read on to meet them and learn about their experiences this year.
Santos Miguel Rojas Burgos, AVACH Export Logistics
There are many people working in different capacities to make an organization like AVACH run. In addition to 412 farmers and 200+ packing crew members, AVACH employs over 30 office staff members, who manage logistics, accounting, quality control, and business operations. Santos Miguel Rojas, who has been with AVACH for over 15 years, is one of those office employees. Miguel coordinates export logistics, which is no small job for a banana cooperative: once bananas are packed at AVACH’s warehouse, they are loaded into a shipping container and sent to the port to be loaded onto a steamship. That’s where Miguel’s expertise comes in: he receives orders, makes shipping reservations, and manages customs processes, among other responsibilities. On the side, he is an accountant, and also a banana farmer himself, owning 1.8 acres. The remainder of his time is spent with family.
The pandemic affected Miguel’s work, as restrictions and logistical challenges upended the stability of food supply chains and demand. It also took a personal toll for many at the co-op. Reflecting on the last year, Miguel said, “It completely changed our plans in every possible way… every member – farmers, packing crew, employees and board members – were all afraid of going to work.” AVACH, the community and neighboring organizations had to navigate ever-evolving limitations (curfews, police checkpoints and resource shortages) to continue business over the past year. Despite these challenges, they never stopped exporting, a testament to Miguel’s ability to adapt to unanticipated obstacles.
Junior Mena Rugel, AVACH Pack Crew Leader
When the fruit is ready on members’ farms, a packing crew comes to harvest, clean, and box it. AVACH employs 7 packing crews, each made up of 20 members. Each member has a specific role: harvesting from the plants, cutting the gigantic bunches into smaller clusters, selection, washing, labelling, treating the crowns with an organic solution,drying,and packing the fruit into 40lb boxes.
Most crew members live outside of Querecotillo, a mid-size city in the banana growing region of Peru. They meet in the morning and travel to that day’s destination in the countryside. Junior Mena Rugel is a pack crew leader, and has been working with AVACH for 10 years. He has been in a leadership position for the past two years, supervising quality and food safety. Since the start of the pandemic, he also now ensures that all measures are in place to guard workers’ health, a huge responsibility: “Before we start the work day, we meet to check in on how we are feeling – that each person feels healthy and well in order to work. If anyone feels ill…Valle del Chira [AVACH] has a doctor they can visit to screen for COVID. I make sure that every worker is protected and uses the PPE that is provided.”
Because the amount of work varies by the season, Junior also spends time working in his father’s rice plot along with farming his own 0.6 acres of bananas and a collection of livestock. When he’s not working with the pack crew he says he goes to work on his plot, spending Sundays with his wife and children. While spending weekdays with the packing crew and weekends with family offer some opportunity to socialize, Junior looks forward to the days when he can once again play sports with friends like he did pre-pandemic.
Efraín Seminario Valdiviezo, AVACH Farmer-Member
Efraín is 43 years old and lives in Santa Sofía, Peru, with his wife and three children. Farming has been his life’s work. “I would have liked to study a technical degree when I was younger, but now I am happy as a farmer, especially with bananas.” In the past, Efraín farmed cotton, rice, corn and pigeon peas, like most farmers in the region, but says prices were low and very volatile. In 2011, he joined AVACH where he makes a stable, annually-negotiated price for his bananas and has a voice in the organization. In recent years, he has become more involved in co-op leadership and taken a seat on the board.
A typical day in Efraín’s life starts at 5am with household chores, such as caring for his animals, while his wife prepares breakfast. After breakfast, the crew, consisting of Efraín, Jhan (his adult son) and two farm workers head out into the field. “We are childhood friends,” says Efraín of the workers, who are also his neighbors. Work lasts from 7am – 12pm, Efraín details, “Jhan and one of the workers focus on fruit care: placing covers, removing the flower, tracking the age and calibrating for harvest. I only do the deshije – that is when you select the banana plant pup that will grow and cut the rest. The fourth person cleans the field of old leaves to avoid pests. We all join him sometimes too.” At noon they break for lunch, and only the family returns to the field through the evening.
As a board member, Efraín was a part of the many meetings with Equal Exchange to learn about each other’s organizations.Reflecting on his work and the challenges of the pandemic, Efraín concluded, “Hopefully we get medicine soon, but it also leaves us with a good lesson to be close to family, to value the little that one has – just one life – and appreciate it as much as possible.”
For the Equal Exchange banana team, who has been working from home for a full year now, sitting behind a computer screen can sometimes mean feeling disconnected from the work we share. But even after a year of keeping our distance, there are grounding reminders that none of us exists in a vacuum. The opportunity to create a new partnership with AVACH, even virtually, is one such reminder. Speaking with our new partners for this blog was a chance to recognize that we share the same feelings of loss and isolation, but also of pride in our work. The next time you pick up an Equal Exchange banana, remember that it connects you to the many people whose labor produced it, harvested it, transported it, and so on, and like Efraín reminds us, don’t take it for granted.
Written by the Equal Exchange Banana Team, Johanna Contreras Manito, Angelica Hicks & Monica Foss
Sara Anderson, a member of the UU Church of Arlington, VA shared the story of how her church community got involved with fair trade and how they use the profits from their Equal Exchange sales in a tremendously giving way. Sara is also an active member of Equal Exchange’s Citizen Consumer community.
“In the early 1990’s two members of UUCAVA, Jane and Wayne McKeel began a group called “Globalization Watch” to inform congregants about the ways in which so-called ‘free trade’ was not good for anyone but the large corporations. One of our speakers was from a UU Church who sponsored an ‘accompanier’ for Mayans in Guatemala seeking redress for harm to tribal farmers by mining corporations. The UU Service Committee had a program which bought coffee, tea and chocolate from farmers’ cooperatives in Guatemala and elsewhere–the ‘coffee project.’ Our group decided to take action by supporting them, which meant buying from Equal Exchange, the partner of UUSC in this endeavor.
Since then, we’ve held monthly sales of EE products, at least until the covid-19 pandemic ended in-person church services. We’ve encouraged our customers to continue buying EE products individually through the coffee project so UUSC benefits.
We made a slight profit from these sales, which we directed the church to give to Alianzsas, a UUCAVA group that supports the accompanier program and also provides scholarships to Mayan students. Alianzsas members began to help out with our sales. We have encouraged donations to Alianzsas to make up for the loss of income during the pandemic.”
A huge thank you goes out to Sara and the longtime UUSC Fair Trade Project participants at UUCAVA who are living the UU values through their work promoting economic justice for small scale farmers and environmental sustainability through organic farming practices.
Sometimes there is a faith-based advocate for Equal Exchange who works outside of the direct church or synagogue environment. This is the case of Scott G. who sells products to assist small farmers out of his office. Scott is a scientist who has worked at a tech company for 35 years and offers Equal Exchange coffee and chocolate to other employees. We interviewed him about his special project.
As a Mennonite, Scott got involved with offering Equal Exchange products because he saw that there were very few ways to get money to poor people in underdeveloped countries. He read about how Catholic Charities was doing good work with cooperatives in Guatemala and turned to Equal Exchange because it worked with small farmer cooperatives. “Most people know that I got into it because of my affiliation with the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)” he said. Scott says that he’s in it “for the right reasons.” He’s into the mission of supporting small farmers.
He doesn’t take a cut or make any money. In fact if anything he loses money because he gives away free samples. Colleagues have learned about his ministry through word of mouth. “It’s special because it’s person to person; there’s a relational part to the coffee purchase.” People leave checks for Scott as they help themselves to coffee or chocolate that’s available in his office. He sometimes delivers products to other locations.
One person Scott knows is receiving cancer treatments. “I keep him in chocolate,” he said. Over time, Scott has expanded sales of coffee and chocolate to his community. He sells to a friend who works at a nonprofit for low-income housing. And there’s a woman who supervises a crew which cuts trees and fix lines for Verizon, she brews coffee for the workers which is available in thermoses and bakes for her crew. She buys 30-40 lbs. of coffee at a time. During COVID Scott kept a stack of products at home. He delivers coffee and chocolate to people’s homes. During COVID it’s been important to give things to folks, he says. “People are stressed, ” he said. “I’m glad that it makes people happy.”
He and his wife, Sharon, also bought a couple of cases of the EE organic Palestinian olive oil over the holidays to give as Christmas gifts. Sharon went over to the West Bank several years ago with Christian groups through the Mennonite Church USA. They both love the taste of the olive oil. Scott has really enjoyed sharing EE products with others and spreading the word about the mission. Eventually he will retire, but he’s hoping that someone at work will take it on. We appreciate Scott’s commitment to small farmers. He is truly an Equal Exchange Advocate Extraordinaire.
If you’d like to share your story with the Equal Exchange community please submit your details here.
This is the story of the Fair Trade Corner at Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Vero Beach as related by Pam Pelliccia. It’s the history of the UUSC Fair Trade Project at the Fellowship and highlights Gale Parmentier, who is retiring, and played a key role in the growth and success of their program.
“It all started with a cup of coffee. In 2002 Social Justice Committee members Irwin Sadetsky and Susan Winters started putting UU principles into action during the weekly coffee hour. If UU’s drank coffee, they thought let it be fairly traded coffee to support small farmers and the concept of decent wages. Susan and Irwin, as part of the Social Justice Committee began purchasing organic coffee from Equal Exchange fair trade cooperative to serve during coffee hour. The coffee was so enjoyed by our congregants that it was decided to offer it for sale to help cover the cost of serving not just a cup of coffee but a “just” coffee. A small card table was set up in the back corner of the 43rd Avenue multipurpose room and thus the Fair Trade Corner name evolved. Soon decaf, whole bean coffee, tea, hot chocolate and chocolate bars were added.
When we moved in 2005 and our church expanded, it included the current Fair Trade Corner. Our inventory grew to include many additional items like olive oil, chocolate chips, and baking cocoa.
Our sales increased to cover the cost of serving organic, fair trade coffee, tea & hot chocolate at coffee hour and at other UU social activities and to also provide funding for environmentally sustainable improvements to our UU building. Now you might be wondering how in the world did the Fair Trade Corner evolve from a small card table to the 330 sq ft space it currently occupies. Susan Winters was the founder, and many have helped, but another has been the heart, the soul, and the driving force. This other is Gale Parmentier. Member Jennifer Hadel shared, ‘I have to say that I worked in Fair Trade with Gale for a good number of years and have the greatest respect for her. She is amazing. Her commitment to Fair Trade and her energy, dedication and enthusiasm can’t be equaled.’
And former member Cindi Jorgensen shared these thoughts about Gale: ‘Anyone who knows Gale knows her meticulous nature. Price tags are painstakingly placed straight! Items are arranged artistically! When I first came to UUFVB, she was the person who welcomed me and allowed me to become part of the FTC group. She gave me purpose and a way to become part of the cool kids. Our community owes her a mountain of thanks.’”
In nearly 20 years of support of the UUSC Fair Trade project at Equal Exchange, UUFVB has consistently been among our top faith-based customers in the US thanks to Susan, Irwin, Gale, Pam and others in the congregation. While many programs shut down during the pandemic last year UUFVB kept the flame burning and purchased over $3,000 worth of Equal Exchange products due to their energy in adapting their fair trade program. We are sincerely grateful for their commitment and enthusiasm for justice.
If you’d like to share your story with the Equal Exchange community please submit your details here.
The largest protest in human history has coalesced in India around the passing of three new agrarian bills that farmers fear will devastate their livelihoods. The new bills passed in September 2020 aim to deregulate the agricultural market and open the sector to increased corporate control. In protest, hundreds of thousands of farmers arrived at the border of the capital, Delhi, in November 2020 in trailers and tractors, accompanied by provisions to remain in place for months to come, demanding that the government repeal these laws.
Over half of India’s 1.3 billion people are involved in agriculture, with a majority of those classified as small farmers.1
Collectively, the three agricultural bills aim to alter the landscape of the Indian agriculture sector by deregulating the agricultural market. The bills loosen regulation around the purchase, sale, and storage of crops, thereby eliminating essential protections for farmers.
Currently, most farmers sell their crops to government controlled wholesale markets, or mandis, at assured floor prices. Under the new bills, farmers can sell directly to private players, without any guarantee of minimum prices. While initially the private sector could offer competitive prices, farmers fear this will eventually open the door to exploitation at the hands of the private sector. The new bills also remove restrictions on stockpiling commodities and limit litigation avenues in the case of contract breaches by the private sector.
While the government claims that these reforms will modernize the agricultural sector by increasing private sector investment, farmers fear this will come at the cost of their livelihoods.
Three months later, farmers are still camped at the outskirts of Delhi, battling the bitter winter of Northern India. Negotiations between the farmer unions and the national government have yielded no results thus far.
The situation escalated further after a large march on January 26th, India’s Republic Day, resulted in violent clashes with the police. The Indian government has since responded with egregious human rights violations, imprisoning journalists and blocking internet access. The recent escalation has brought this issue to the attention of international groups such as the Human Rights Watch and the United Nation Human Rights Council. The democratic right to peaceful protest is now under threat in India.
Equal Exchange was founded in 1986 to give small farmers a platform in the global marketplace. 35 years later today, small farmers continue to be exploited at the hand of intermediaries and corporate behemoths. The protest in India is about small farmers exercising democracy against corporate control of the food system, an issue that lies at the core of Equal Exchange.
According to Tomy Mathew from the Fair Trade Alliance Kerala, Equal Exchange’s organic cashews partner in India, the current protests are “a uniquely Fair Trade movement.” As Tomy writes on the Fair World Project blog, “Minimum Support Price is near akin to the Fair Trade Minimum Price in trade justice parlance.” While Fair Trade offers certain protections to farmers, the inequities in the global food landscape are still set up to marginalize small farmers.
The fight for small farmers is a global one, with protests, such as the one in India, having ripple effects across the global food economy. Equal Exchange has always advocated for small farmers having a greater platform within the global food system. This is no different. Equal Exchange stands in solidarity with Indian farmers protesting for democratic control of the food system.
1Agriculture Census Indian Experience, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
