Once again, I’d like to thank all of you for your thought-provoking comments to Nick’s post, “Co-operatives: The Democracies of our Economy?” Many interesting issues were raised relating to the current financial meltdown and the roles and responsibilities of corporations and governments. Another common theme that many of you discussed was the question of the size [...]
Archive for September, 2008
If Big is Bad, and Small is Better, What’s the Right Scale Needed to Foment Democracy and Increase Impact?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged co-operatives, economic democracy, Fair Trade, small farmers on September 28, 2008 | 1 Comment »
From Oromia to Minnesota, With Love and Coffee
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged coffee, Ethiopia, Fair Trade, OCFCU, Oromia, small farmer co-operatives on September 26, 2008 | 1 Comment »
In July, the Twin Cities Daily Planet published an article by Doug McGill about the exciting work our Minnesota office is doing to educate consumers about our small farmer co-operative partners. They’re also strengthening existing relationships and building new ones among local food co-operatives, consumers and the Oromian community in the Twin Cities area. I [...]
The Corporatization of Fair Trade, Small Farmers, Alienated Consumers, and Social Movements
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Add new tag, coffee, Fair Trade, Fair Trade certification, Fair Trade movement on September 22, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Twenty-two years ago, Rink Dickinson, Jonathan Rosenthal, and Michael Rozyne founded the first Fair Trade coffee and tea organization in the United States. Soon thereafter, their first Fair Trade coffee line, Café Nica, was launched. At that time, the Sandinistas were governing Nicaragua and there was an embargo preventing Nicaraguan products from being exported to [...]
Fair Trade Minimum Prices for Small Farmers Criticized: And a $500 Billion* Bailout for the Financial Industry?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Domestic Fair Trade, Fair Trade, Farm Aid, Federation of Southern Co-operatives, food crisis, small farmers on September 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I’m dashing off to the Farm Aid Concert in Mansfield, where Equal Exchange is the official coffee sponsor, so I’ll have to be brief. But I wanted to thank everyone who responded to Nick’s posting, “Co-operatives: The Democracies of our Economy“, with all of those thoughtful comments. I just wanted to add one more voice [...]
Conventional or Organic Almonds: Which would you choose?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Big Tree Co-operative, Domestic Fair Trade, organic almonds, small farmer co-operatives on September 17, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Big Tree Almonds, located in the Central San Joaquin Valley, is the only organic almond co-operative in the state of California—the only state in the U.S. where the nuts are grown. The co-operative is Equal Exchange’s first trading partner for organic almonds. From the Equal Exchange website: The farmers who would one [...]
Co-operatives: The Democracies of our Economy?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged co-operatives, economic democracy, economic prosperity, political democracy, trade agreements on September 16, 2008 | 8 Comments »
Most of us can agree that political democracies, based on equality and individual freedoms, are the best systems of government in the world today. We know that democratic countries are the least likely to go to war with each other; they suffer from the fewest internal conflicts, the lowest counts of terrorism, and the lowest [...]
Join our Reverse Trick-or-Treating Campaign
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged cacao, child labor, chocolate, Reverse Trick-or-Treating, slave labor, small farmer co-operatives on September 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
“When I am there [on the farm] I like to feel the fresh air, and when we are harvesting and cutting open the cacao, it’s a very beautiful thing … When I am in the cacao trees I feel very happy. With all it has given us, it’s a very beautiful thing.” -Abel Quezada de [...]
Listening to the Birds
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged climate change, Fair Trade coffee, farmer livelihoods, migratory song birds, organic coffee, small-scale co-operatives on September 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
By now, many of us are well aware that Fair Trade products provide small-scale farmers with higher prices, access to credit, technical assistance, global markets, and solidarity networks. Most of us here at Equal Exchange enjoy a daily cup (or more) of fine coffee. And knowing how incredibly labor intensive coffee cultivation is, we deeply [...]
Growing Pains: Keeping Fair Trade Fair
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Chiapas, CIRSA, coffee, Fair Trade, Fair Trade certification, FLO, Mexico, small farmer co-operatives, small farmers on September 4, 2008 | 4 Comments »
The following article, written by Patty Kupfer, was printed in the September/October 2008 issue of Sojourner’s Magazine. Patty used to work for Witness for Peace and co-organized some of Equal Exchange’s Interfaith Department’s delegation visits to Chiapas. During these trips, we visited our coffee farmer partners, CIRSA, an amazing organization of Tzotzil and Tzeltal -speaking [...]
-
-
Twitter Updates
- Only @cafe_southside on Sunday, with an espresso drink, while supplies last! #SWSF! twitpic.com/9h8ip3 via @TwitPic 1 week ago
Archives
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- February 2008
Tags
-
Top Posts
- Equal Exchange at the White House
- The True Cost of Bananas
- Equal Exchange At the Presidential Palace - Lima, Peru
- Dilemmas of a Fair Trade Banana Enthusiast
- 1685_ElGuabo_Transport
- Food Security, Organic Farming, and Environmental Preservation in Colombia
- The Theft of Fair Trade: A Producer's Perspective
- Small-Scale Rooibos Farmers Adapt to Climate Change through Sustainable Farming Practices
- What’s for Breakfast?
The Exchange- A Lively Cupping Experience in Ethiopia April 3, 2012
- Forthcoming Documentary to Showcase Employee Ownership April 3, 2012
- Ask the Dietitian: Getting the Most Out of Spring April 3, 2012
