Small Farmers. Big Change.

* * * Public Statement for Immediate Release * * * United Students for Fair Trade Withdraws Support from Fair Trade USA/Transfair – Calls for Reform to Fair Trade Standards 25 October 2011 As an independent and integral voice in the Fair Trade movement, United Students for Fair Trade has held many meetings to conclude [...]

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Equal Exchange, a worker-owned co-op with 100 members, wishes to express our strongest support for those moved to Occupy Wall Street and other cities in the pursuit of economic and social justice. We are inspired by your direct, non-violent challenge to those most responsible for the systematic dismantling of the social contract. Corporations and their [...]

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This is the third and final part of Rink Dickinson’s speech on the state of fair trade, delivered at the IRTF conference in Cleveland, Ohio on October 23rd. The Trojan horse for plantations was tea. After the initial success of the Max Havelaar fair trade certification scheme in Holland the fair trade certification idea spread. [...]

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Part II:  Building Fair Trade Coffee:  How and Why? Let’s start with coffee.  How did fair trade in coffee happen?  How was this supply chain built?  Who took the risk?  Who benefited?  What can we learn from this history? It’s not like just one day Starbucks or Green Mountain or Dunkin Donuts woke up and [...]

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The following is the first of three parts of a speech by Rink Dickinson, co-founder and co-president of Equal Exchange, given at a conference of the InterReligious Task Force on Central America, on October 22nd in Cleveland, Ohio about the current state of Fair Trade. I want to thank IRTF for the opportunity both for [...]

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Just a few weeks ago I accompanied Todd Caspersen, Director of Purchasing and Rob Everts, Co-Director of Equal Exchange to El Salvador to attend the First International Gathering of the Small Farmer Symbol.  We took advantage of the time in El Salvador to visit with our small coffee farmer coop partners and see how they’re [...]

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Occupy Wall Street. Occupy the Food System. Last week Sienna Chrisman posted a great piece on the Civil Eats blog describing recent happenings in the food system:  food speculation driving up food costs, land grabs, and the consolidation of the food industry throughout the entire food chain. In her piece, “Why the Food Movement Should [...]

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Thanks to Ryan Midden of Ben & Jerry’s Boston, Equal Exchange small farmer fair trade bananas are part of their delicious banana splits for fair trade month. Find them in all 4 Ben & Jerry’s Boston locations and eat to your heart’s content. I can’t help you with the calories but its good for your [...]

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From our friends at the Fair World Project FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 19, 2011 CONTACT: Ryan Zinn, Ph: 907-947-6046 Email: ryan@fairworldproject.org FairTrade USA Goes Rogue: New “Standards” Undermine Fair Trade Commitment toFarmers and Consumers Fair Trade Advocates Reject Certifier Scheme to Allow “Fair Trade” Chocolate Bars to Contain No Actual Fair Trade Cocoa, Among Other [...]

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By Virginia Berman, Fundraising Program Director THEN Twenty years ago I left my mountain village, Santiago de Puringla in Honduras, after two years of Peace Corps service. It was the two years that changed my life. When I arrived, I was a recent liberal arts college grad, but it was here in Puringla that I [...]

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