Small Farmers. Big Change.

Sustainable small farmers play a critical role in greening our planet, preserving healthy communities, and building a just food system for all of us. What can we – as consumers, religious community members, environmentalists, food co-op and food service workers – do to support their efforts and take actions of our own? On the Green Partnerships page, we highlight concrete examples of ways in which we at Equal Exchange, as well as our consumer, Interfaith, food service and food co-operative partners, are greening our communities and restoring justice to our broken food system.

Building these types of community projects here, and supporting the sustainable projects underway in our farmer partner co-ops, are exciting ways to take action. Individual and collective changes in our consumer choices and behaviors are clearly also important and necessary.

At the same time, if we hope to dramatically reverse the current rate of environmental degradation, steward our natural resources for the future, and gain control over our food system, we will need to become better educated about the relationship between agriculture, trade, and energy policies and their impacts. It’s up to us to then take creative and determined actions to change the underlying policies that favor agribusiness over small farmers, empowered consumers, and the planet.

In these pages, we will keep you informed about important and timely political and legislative debates and alert you to some of the actions you can take to influence the discussion and the decisions.

In the meantime, the following is a list of actions you can take right now:

• Support your local farmers by buying local produce where available.
• Continue to purchase Equal Exchange coffee, tea, chocolate and snacks and encourage your friends and neighbors to do the same.
• Starting on Earth Day (April 22) and continuing throughout 2008, Equal Exchange will donate 20 cents/package of all purchases of ORGANIC LOVE BUZZ into our Small Farmers. Green Planet fund. This money will go directly to our farmer partners in South Africa, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Colombia to support their reforestation, organic conversion, and environmental protection efforts.
• Write a tax-deductible check to Grassroots International and send it to:
  Equal Exchange
  50 United Drive
  West Bridgewater, MA 02379
  Write “Small Farmers. Green Planet Fund” on the memo line.
• Buy Fair Trade products from small-scale farmer organizations, rather than large plantations wherever possible.
• Join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).
• Take actions in your own communities, workplaces, and congregations to make them more green – and write about what you’re doing on our Green Partnerships page.
• Stay informed about important environmental, trade, and agricultural policies being debated and decided upon by Congress and other governmental bodies. On our action alert web page we will keep you alerted about how to most effectively get involved.
• Sign-up to get emails letting you know when we are putting out an action alert to sign petitions, write or call your representatives, or other actions to influence public policy on important agriculture and trade issues.
• Sign our Call to Action to End the Food Crisis.  Learn more at:  Step up to the Plate on World Food Day: A Call to Action to End the Food Crisis.
• Vote for the BBC World Challenge Finalist!  Read more at:  Heiveld Rooibos Finalist for BBC World Challenge.  VOTING NOW CLOSED!
• There’s still time to sign the Call to Action to End the Food Crisis.  Read the press release about the Call and the letter that accompanied it that was sent to President-elect Barack Obama on December 15th.  The next letter will go to Congress; so please sign on today, either individually or for your organization.
• Please write to Attorney General Eric Holder and ask him to conduct an investigation of the Dole Food Company and other multi-national companies claimed to have supported paramilitary repression against trade unionists, small farmers, and human rights activists in Colombia.
• Please join us in signing a petition, urging President Obama to withdraw his Big Ag industry insiders nominations to vital agriculture posts.   For more information, click here.   We need 50,000 signatures to make an impact and we have until Nov. 4th (when the Senate Finance Committee will vote) to make a difference.