Small Farmers. Big Change.

Tomorrow, March 1st marks the beginning of Banana Month at Equal Exchange! All month the blog will be full of videos, reports, and photos from our various trips visiting our banana partners in Peru. Everyone here is excited to share these beautiful, informative, and fun stories that we’ve been preparing and collecting. It’s our way [...]

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By Co-Executive Director Rob Everts and Community Sales Manager Susan Sklar In early November 2011, Equal Exchange traveled to the West Bank to meet with the members of the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee (PARC) from whom we are now buying organic, fairly traded olive oil. Equal Exchange and PARC are both grounded in the most fundamental industry on [...]

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By Todd Caspersen, Director of Purchasing Photos by Joe Driscoll, Equipment Guru The Sierra Madre of Chiapas, Mexico, stretches South all the way to Honduras. Equal Exchange buys coffee from several co-operatives along this vast and dramatic mountain range. One super dynamic place is the area commonly known as “Jaltenango,” but officially known as Albino [...]

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At last week’s BioFach Conference in Nurenburg, Germany, there was a strong show of support for small farmers and Authentic Fair Trade. Watch the video now! Have you signed your name yet?  Click here to learn more.

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By Todd Caspersen, Director of Purchasing Photos by Joe Driscoll, Equipment Guru It’s our first morning up in the mountains. We roll out of our bunkhouse just as the sun crowns the surrounding peaks, making the river and mist glow. It’s going to be a beautiful day in the forest. I run up to the [...]

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By Todd Caspersen, Director of Purchasing Photos by Joe Driscoll, Equipment Guru El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve protects cloud forests on the upper slopes of the Sierra Madre, as well as the wet tropical rainforests of the Soconusco on the Mexican Pacific. It is also home to 15,000-18,000 people who grow coffee, much of which is [...]

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The countries are different. The specific challenges vary. But the key message we’re getting from small farmers across the globe is consistent: climate change is already severely threatening coffee production. How do you address a problem that is a global concern but that is wreaking havoc in different ways in different communities? Small farmer co-ops [...]

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ASK YOUR CONGRESS MEMBERS TO SIGN ON TO GE LABELING A Bi-Partisan letter is being circulated in Congress for Senators and Representatives to urge FDA to require the labeling of genetically engineered foods. This letter will support the Legal Petition filed with FDA in October on behalf of over 400 organizations and businesses to require [...]

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“For decades smallholder farmers and food justice advocates have used fair trade to build collective power by combining responsible consumerism and political awareness with a fairer and more environmentally sustainable market. Changes in fair trade certification enabled large corporations to enter this market, leading to a dramatic increase in sales—now topping $5 billion globally. Unfortunately, [...]

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