Small Farmers. Big Change.

I thought this article in the July 18th issue of the Wall Street Journal about the impact high coffee prices are having on small farmer coffee co-operatives was really important to share. Battle Brewing over Coffee Purchasing–Wall Street Journal Let us know what you think.

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The following is an abridged version of the original article that was posted on the blog June 7th. “We were willing to continue selling our bananas to Dole. We just also wanted to develop our own markets and sell to them directly. We wanted to be independent and be treated fairly. Dole wouldn’t do it. [...]

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By Tom Hanlon-Wilde, Equal Exchange West Coast Sales Manager Back in May, Tom Hanlon-Wilde wrote a post about a trip to Peru he was taking with the General Managers of West Coast natural foods stores to visit a community they had first gone to visit ten years ago.  Since that time, Tom and the store [...]

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An Equal Exchange Sales Representative humorously describes what it’s like trying to sell coffee in a buy-local market.  Click here.

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The Equal Exchange Bananas show off their mad licks and cool tricks on a hot banana ripening day in Madison, WI www.equalexchange.coop www.p6.coop www.willystreet.coop Artist:  Albatross

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Part II: Reflections from the South, by Santiago Paz, Co-Manager, Cepicafe The following is an English translation of a video interview with Santiago Paz which first appeared on Progreso Network on June 21, 2011 I was hoping to initiate a discussion, a reflection on what is happening with coffee—and not just with coffee; but with [...]

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Part I: Reflections from the North: In September 2010, Santiago Paz, co-director of CEPICAFE, a small farmer co-operative in northern Peru, stood up at the Fair Trade Futures Conference in Boston and uttered “the shot heard around the fair trade world.” As a speaker on a panel discussing the future of fair trade, Santiago’s words [...]

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By Becca Koganer, Sales Representative, Equal Exchange As I prepared my bags for what would be my first sales retreat, my first time in the Midwest, and my first time in the same room with so many other worker owners at Equal Exchange from different regions- I was overwhelmed by the onset of ‘firsts’. Only [...]

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By Manju Gupta, Equal Exchange Sales Representative Equal Exchangers recently attended a glorious festival in Brattleboro, Vermont. Strolling of the Heifers is a community-based solution to what is a sad truth in New England: the decline of family farms and the rich culture that is lost as this trend continues. The event was created as [...]

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