| Our Co-op
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
|
|
|
|
|
Fair Trade |
|
Agriculture is big business. But for the majority of farmers – especially small-scale, family farmers – the benefits are small. In developing countries, most farmers work modest plots of land, isolated from markets. The path from their farm to your table is long, with many middlemen along the way. That means little of the money you spend on food actually reaches the people growing it.
At Equal Exchange, we’ve created a different path to the market – one that brings farmers closer to you, and delivers more of your dollars to their communities. We do this by partnering with small-scale farmer co-ops that are democratically organized, which means they make decisions on their terms.
Through this model, we believe food can become a delicious and powerful tool for creating Big Change for small farmers, their families and communities.
Fair Trade includes:
- Direct purchasing from those who are poorly served by conventional markets, specifically small farmers and their co-operatives.
- Agreed upon commodity floor prices that provide for a dignified livelihood.
- A promise by importers to make affordable credit available to the farmer co-operatives.
- A worldwide network of non-profit certifying organizations.
- A fee paid by the importers and wholesalers to cover the cost of certification.
- A seal that assures consumers that a product was fairly traded.
Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (FLO) in Bonn, Germany, handles the certification of Fair Trade commodity production and exports. They may be contacted at: www.fairtrade.net, Phone (dialing from the US): 011-49-228-949230, coordination@fairtrade.net. FLO has member organizations in each importing country that handle the certification of Fair Trade imports and use of the Fair Trade seal on packaging. In the United States that group is TransFair USA, based in Oakland, Calif., www.transfairusa.org.
Domestic Fair Trade
As our food system has become ever more globalized and its control more concentrated among a shrinking list of large corporations, family farmers in North America face problems that are similar in many ways to our farmer partners in the developing world. Farmers and farm workers around the globe are caught between declining prices for their products, the consolidation of markets and distribution, and tightening control over inputs such as seed.
As a result, the people who grow our food receive an ever-shrinking share of the money consumers spend on their food. Between 1935 and 1997, the total number of farms in the U.S. fell from 6.5 million to just 2.05 million. By 2003, there were just 1.9 million working farmers in the U.S. Meanwhile, over 50% of the revenue generated globally by food retailing is accounted for by just 10 corporations.
Equal Exchange is extending our vision by "Bringing Fair Trade Home" - partnering with small farmer co-ops, workers, consumers and retailers here in North America to build a vision for a more socially just, participatory and sustainable economic system that includes the global, domestic and local levels. We’re proud to bring you fairly traded cranberries, pecans and almonds from farmers in the United States.
See our Domestic Fair Trade page for more details on this innovative program.
History of Fair Trade
 Fair Trade started with individual companies called Alternative Trade Organizations (ATOs), who made a commitment to work directly with indigenous peoples and to market their products directly to consumers. By cutting out middlemen, ATOs have been able to pay farmers substantially more while offering a competitive product.
Later, organizations like the World Fair Trade Organization were formed to communicate ideas about Fair Trade. With the introduction of Fair Trade certification organizations like TransFair USA, products from around the world started to be certified as fairly traded.  In an endeavor to place a world standard on what is fair, these labeling organizations came together and formed the Fairtrade Labelling Organization (FLO).
Under the FLO system, each labeling organization is given votes based on the volume of fairly traded products they certify. FLO takes knowledge about an industry, and with input from producers, determines a minimum price that should be paid in order to give a fair share to farmers. In the coffee industry, this minimum price is currently $1.21 per pound, plus a $0.10 per pound social premium and and additional $0.20 per pound payment for organic. When the market rate for coffee exceeds the minimum Fair Trade price, a premium is paid above the market rate.
How Fair Trade Benefits Small Farmers
Fair Trade is not a charity or handout; it is simply a process of giving a fair exchange.
Equal Exchange provides high-quality foods at a fair price to you. By cutting out the middlemen, Equal Exchange pays the farmers more and gives you a better value.
Help Support Fair Trade
The easiest way to support Fair Trade is to purchase fairly traded products. Your actions as a consumer support or discourage actions by businesses. By making the choice to buy fairly traded products, you help provide health care, education and technical trainings for farmers, workers, and artisans around the world. By supporting Equal Exchange, you join a movement to reclaim the food system – to make it better for farmers, consumers and the earth.
Look for products produced by Equal Exchange and join millions of other socially-conscious consumers across the United States in becoming a "fair trader."
- Ask for Equal Exchange products at your local supermarket, food co-op or café.
- Serve Equal Exchange coffee, tea or hot cocoa at your place of worship through our Interfaith Program.
- Raise money for your school or organization with the Equal Exchange fundraising program.
- Encourage your town to become a Fair Trade Town! A Fair Trade Town is a town, city, village, county, zone, island or neighborhood that has made a commitment to supporting Fair Trade. Any area can work toward Fair Trade status. In 2007, Media, Pennsylvania anointed itself the first “Fair Trade town” in the United States. There are over 300 Fair Trade towns in Europe.
- Read about our campaign at www.SmallFarmersBigChange.coop
|
|
|
Our Co-op 
