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Small Farmers, One World |
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By Nicole Vitello, Natural Foods Sales Rep.
“Small Farmers. Big Change.” is a tagline that we are all familiar with here at Equal Exchange. We see it everywhere - on our materials, T-shirts, mugs and stickers. It is a tall order to ask four words to encapsulate the diversity of the work we do. But those four words are pithy, yet inclusive. Small Farmers could mean coffee producers in Chiapas, banana growers in Ecuador, cacao farmers in Peru, rooibos farmers in South Africa, or even pecan growers in Georgia. Big Change to me means addressing the inequities of global trade by envisioning structural change, by empowering producers as equal trading partners, by trading fairly with respect and sound business practices. Those are big words and sometimes vague concepts, but fortunately here at our offices in West Bridgewater, these concepts become humanized by the people that visit and help to put names, faces and realities into the work of Fair Trade.
I recently experienced this on a personal level when Athanasio Massenha, the commercial manager of the Kilimanjaro Native Co-operative Union (KNCU), one of the oldest coffee co-operatives in Tanzania, came to visit Equal Exchange in late April. His visit centered on the logistics of Equal Exchange procuring high-quality organic Arabica coffee from KNCU. 
During the week of his visit, there were opportunities to learn more about KNCU and coffee growing in East Africa during presentations, but I had the pleasure of spending a Sunday afternoon with Athanasio experiencing the tourism opportunities of Rhode Island in contrast to those of Mount Kilimanjaro. There might not seem to be many similarities, but as we sat eating fish and chips on the deck of a seafood restaurant in Newport, Athanasio remarked to me that this had given him another idea for a café at KNCU where a deck like this one would look out on the vista of the Kilimanjaro mountain. “Wouldn’t tourists enjoy the view more by drinking coffee that was produced on the mountain and roasted right there in the building?” he asked me. “They do here,” I responded, looking down at my fish and hoping that it was indeed fished from the nearby coast.
During a year I spent in Senegal after college, I came to the realization that no matter where you come from, we are all part of a similar human experience. Life in Senegal revolved around food, family and religion. Growing up in an Italian-American family, life also revolved around the same three things. Different food, different concepts of family and different religions, but the same basic concepts bound us together.
Spending time with Athanasio reminded me of this. Very smart and personable, he discussed his life in Moshi - his hometown - with his wife and new baby. Besides my day job at Equal Exchange, I am also a local organic farmer. I was able to tour him around a couple of local farms and discuss the challenges that we face in the United States as small farmers.  We visited Urban Edge, a 50-acre co-operative farming operation in Cranston, Rhode Island, where local growers each work a two-acre parcel, share farm equipment, greenhouse space, and responsibilities. It is a rare model of cooperation that I was proud to share with Athanasio, whose job requires coordination of 60,000 Tanzanian coffee producers organized into primary and secondary coffee co-operatives.
He asked many questions of the local producers and was particularly interested in the irrigation system. I could practically see the wheels turning in his head as he picked up ideas and technology that might be as appropriate for coffee producers in East Africa as they are to organic farmers here. While discussing these ideas, I learned that climate change, scarcity of water and resources, and implementation of organic methods are challenges the world over. Once again, I was struck by the similarities far more than the differences between us. Halfway across the world or in your own backyard, small farmers are increasingly facing the same challenges: scarcity of resources, access to the market, a fair price, volume sales, and most importantly, equitable trading practices that encourage engagement and respect.
As a salesperson here at Equal Exchange, I often talk to accounts about our small farmer mission and how Fair Trade is not just about price but about the relationship. Now, when I talk about it, I can see Athanasio’s face and his conviction in representing small farmers and I am even more proud to be a part of it.
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Our Co-op 
