“The message is not as simple as telling customers to look for a seal, in fact, quite the opposite.”

Recently, I was asked by my brother-in-law to explain something about my professional life that he has never quite understood. A staunch capitalist, he believes that money motivates. How did we expect workers to give one hundred (and sometimes even more) to their jobs if the financial incentive is not there. How on earth could I be in sales and not make any commission?

I feel incredibly lucky to get these opportunities to educate outside of Equal Exchange’s normal base. Most often when I am explaining Equal Exchange’s organizational structure or our Campaign for Authentic Fair Trade I am talking to food co-ops, students, or long standing customers. The thing about education is that you have to meet people where they are, and it’s not much of a challenge if folks already understand WHY Equal Exchange is doing the work we do.

After some brief discussion about the obvious: profit sharing, decision making, and ownership, I found myself talking about what brings people to Equal Exchange in the first place. People come to Equal either because they want to be part of a co-op for the empowerment that comes with having a real voice (not just voting in board members or holding stock) or to participate in changing trade through building a more equitable, democratic, and sustainable food system; or both! In short, we as workers are motivated by money, but our products and our money are the vehicle for social change.

This company, our company, was founded on some key principles: trade directly with democratically organized small farmer cooperatives, facilitate access to credit for producers, pay producers a guaranteed minimum price that provides a stable source of income as well as improved social services, provide high quality foods products, support sustainable farming practices, build a democratically-run cooperative workplace, and develop more environmentally-sounded business practices. Sounds a lot like what most people imagine Fair Trade is all about. These principles are a reflection of the values of every worker-owner at Equal.

Equal Exchange is involved in a campaign for Authentic Fair Trade. This is a reaffirmation of commitment to our farmer partners, our customers, and of course, ourselves. Changing the food system, the broadest principles in which we were born from, is our goal. With FairTradeUSA’s departure from the international fair trade system and their intention to lower the standards of fair trade coffee and cacao by including plantations to compete with small farmer coops, the meaning of ‘Fair Trade Certified (*trademarked, yep, that’s right, they’ve trademarked the term) now has nothing to do with creating real change in trade nor does it have to do with democratically organized small farmers. This shift in standards does very clearly make sense to me when reflecting on this conversation with my brother-in-law. If FTUSA is certifying volume, and taking a premium that is based on volume, are they not acting from motivation by money?

The identity of this movement is at stake, as are the small farmers who fair trade was supposed to be for in the first place.

This campaign is not just a statement, but an opportunity to educate everyone, especially our base.

Jump now to those store buyers who already know why co-operatives are important and understand why fair trade is a meaningful alternative to conventional trade; our core.

I am a sales representative and my territory is MA, CT, RI, and eastern upstate NY. The Pioneer Valley in Western Mass, my new home, is a special place with a rich co-operative culture. I decided to invite a few co-ops from the Pioneer Valley for a day long training called, ‘The Pioneer Valley Fair Trade Forum’. This took place at Equal Exchange in West Bridgewater, MA. We had representatives River Valley Market, Franklin Community Co-ops (Greenfield and McCusker’s Markets), the Toolbox for Education and Social Action, and from outside the valley, folks from Berkshire Co-op Market. The group was made up of buyers, marketing people, managers, outreach folks, and educators- about 18 people came to Equal Exchange to hear about what was happening in fair trade. This event was a group effort here at Equal Exchange. Marketing helped make materials, the sales team spent much of the day helping with the presentations, the food, the cleaning. The banana team and campaigns manager came to participate. There is a collective understanding that we are trying to build something together- and this particular day, we were the vehicles for change, not the products.

From a history of the fair trade movement, how the certifiers came to be, how different fair trade products/markets evolved (how did those sneaky plantations get into tea and bananas!?), and brainstorming for what we could all do to spread awareness of the issues, it was a very intense day. The message is not as simple as telling customers to look for a seal; in fact, quite the opposite. Our campaign starts with awareness and education. From inside the walls of EE West Bridgewater, to the co-ops of the Pioneer Valley we want everyone to know: FairTradeUSA’s new model is not authentic fair trade.

After breaking down what’s going on in the fair trade world, we began discussing what stores can do to further authentic fair trade. One reality stores share with Equal Exchange is the need to be successful and profitable in order to be sustainable. We all have to make a profit but not at the expense of our values, so I guess my brother-in-law was right, money motivates. It can motivate people to work harder, and it can motivate progress and change; successful movement building. Part of Equal Exchange’s mission statement is ‘to demonstrate, through our success, the contribution of worker co-operatives and Fair Trade to a more equitable, democratic and sustainable world.’

Through our success, and through the success of food co-operatives, we have built a profitable system of fair trade and we are not going to let anyone take that away. I’m excited to see what kind of education stores will do with their member owners, and how member owners then might decide to educate their friends and family. This is how fair trade was built, and this is how we will take it back.

An Open Letter to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters From Equal Exchange:

“Please Leave Fair Trade USA”

WEST BRIDGEWATER, MA―May 20, 2012―In a rare business-to-business plea Equal Exchange has released an open letter to Larry Blanford, the CEO of fellow New England specialty coffee company, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) in the form of a full-page color ad in today’s Sunday edition of the Burlington Free Press (Vermont) that strongly encourages the multi-billion dollar brand to withdraw its support from the controversial certification agency, Fair Trade USA (FTUSA).

Equal Exchange is the Massachusetts-headquartered business that introduced Fair Trade coffee to American grocery stores and coffee shops in the 1980s and 90s and who today remains the largest North American enterprise dedicated exclusively to buying and selling Fair Trade products. GMCR, based in Waterbury, VT, was itself an ‘early adopter’ and has been offering Fair Trade coffee for 14 years. To their considerable credit GMCR recently become the world’s largest purveyor of Fair Trade Certified™ coffee, handling more than 26,000,000 pounds of Fair Trade coffee annually. They have also donated generously to support various economic development efforts in coffee growing communities.

However, while acknowledging these accomplishments, in today’s ad Equal Exchange challenges GMCR to “open your eyes…to the controversy raging…” and “leave Fair Trade USA” in light of recent unilateral changes enacted by the agency.

Without input from stakeholders, on January 1, FTUSA abandoned the global Fair Trade system (Fair Trade International, aka FTI) and loosened eligibility rules to allow large coffee, cocoa and sugar plantations to receive Fair Trade certification. That would put these large estates in direct competition with the hundreds of small-farmer co-operatives around the world who co-created the Fair Trade movement and have been the core of Fair Trade for over 25 years. This was a FTUSA proposal that the 20+ other global members of FTI, including the farmer representatives, had overwhelmingly rejected previously. FTUSA also withheld from FTI the dues it owes for 2011, funds that it is now using to compete with FTI in the US certification market.

Equal Exchange, the small-farmer co-operatives, and many other Fair Trade pioneers and advocates believe these and other recent acts by FTUSA gravely undermine the very purpose of Fair Trade and constitute a betrayal of the small-farmer co-ops.  Consequently they also undermine the important social and economic progress that GMCR’s support of Fair Trade and small farmers has to date made possible.  The open letter goes on to state,

“Fair Trade, a product of years of sweat, sacrifice and risk, belongs to the farmers. But Fair Trade USA has abandoned the legitimate system, not paid its dues, and changed the rules…”

Rink Dickinson & Rob Everts, co-presidents, Equal Exchange

In different forums Equal Exchange has been challenging the path taken by FTUSA, including a recent private meeting with Larry Blanford and others at GMCR. Because of GMCR’s large volume of Fair Trade sales, and the licensing fees it pays for use of the FTUSA seal, it is the largest single source of revenue for FTUSA and a critical pillar of support. Those funds, and the benefits of being associated with the popular GMCR brand, are aiding FTUSA’s efforts even as it pursues a course apart from the rest of the global Fair Trade movement. Therefore Equal Exchange is using this ad, and a subsequent ad that will run on Thursday, May 24^th, to publicly encourage GMCR to end its relationship with FTUSA and rejoin the global system of certifiers that FTUSA recently left.

About Equal Exchange
Equal Exchange has been a pioneer and U.S. market leader in Fair Trade since 1986 and is a full service provider of organic coffee, tea, chocolate, cocoa, bananas and other products. 100% of Equal Exchange products are fairly traded, benefiting more than 40 small farmer co-operatives in 25 countries around the world. In keeping with its Fair Trade mission Equal Exchange is a democratically governed, employee-owned co-operative, one of only a few in the US. Equal Exchange has been honored for its social entrepreneurship by Fast Company magazine, The Financial Times, WorldBlu and others.

For more information:

http://www.equalexchange.coop/small-farmer-campaign

&

http://www.equalexchange.coop

CONTACT:

Rodney North

Rodney@equalexchange.coop
Desk        774-776-7398

Cell          617-571-0041

Skype       Rodney.north

Today, we bring you on another Equal Exchange visit; this time to Peru’s “White House”, or the Presidential Palace as it is called in Peru.

Well, we didn’t actually make the trip ourselves; rather, our chocolate bars did.

How did this happen?  Santiago Paz, Co-President of Cepicafe, and good friend to many of us here at Equal Exchange, was invited by Peru’s Vice President, Marisol Espinoza, to lunch at the Presidential Palace.

The background:  Cepicafe, a small farmer coffee co-operative located in Piura, Peru is one of Equal Exchange’s long-term partners.  Along with the members of other Fair Trade co-operatives in northern Peru, Cepicafe helped launch Marisol Espinoza’s political career.  A prominent journalist, with roots in the mountains of Piura, she often wrote about the challenges facing small farmers, learning much from her relationships with the co-ops.  Eventually, she was encouraged by the farmers to run for Congressional office.  To the surprise and delight of many, Marisol ran on an anti-mining and pro-small farmer platform – and won!  Her election illustrates one of the most important achievements of Fair Trade – the ability to influence regional politics.

In 2005, Ollanta Humala ran for President and invited Marisol to join his ticket.  She consulted with Cepicafe and other co-ops in the region and with their support, accepted his invitation.

Celebration in Piura after the 2006 Presidential elections.

Today, Marisol is Vice President and continues to use her position to support progressive economic and social policies affecting rural communities throughout Peru.

And so, last week when Santiago was invited to dine at the Presidential Palace, what did he decide to bring Marisol as a gift of appreciation?

Why, Equal Exchange chocolate bars of course!

Jessie Myszka of Equal Exchange and Melissa Hoover, Executive Director of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives, at the White House meeting on cooperatives

In 2003, while meeting with coffee producers on an Equal Exchange visit to Guatemala, our farmer co-op hosts were proud to show us the power lines that snaked up the mountainside. Electricity had arrived just three months before our visit. I couldn’t help but wonder how life would change in Pueblo Nuevo; what unintended consequences would occur as a result?

This past Friday, I heard another side of the electrification story, this time recounted by staff of utility companies from the American midwest. Rural electrification in the 1930s took place through the formation of co-operatives because private companies believed the provision of electricity was not a profitable goal: electricity co-ops proved them wrong. During that time, 44 percent of the U.S. population was rural. Today, that percent has dropped to 16 percent. Still imagine: what would it be like if the power lines had never come?

Last Friday, I sat in a small auditorium on the White House campus with 150 cooperators from dozens of industries. White House staff and the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA) had invited us to educate the administration, Department of Agriculture (USDA), and Small Business Administration (SBA) about what we co-operatives have done and what the federal government could do to help – or to get out of the way.

Now history repeats itself. Last week, the USDA announced a new loan program to extend broadband to rural communities. Access is important not only for schools and medical facilities, but also contributes to an infrastructure that supports both businesses and employment opportunities – thereby allowing communities to stay rural and sustainable. Customer call centers can be “insourced” to the countryside rather than exported abroad. This was just one example of the NCBA’s key message to the White House, USDA, and SBA: not only do co-operatives do better at sustaining the economy, but we co-operatives can offer solutions to the problems of the Great Recession. For example:

• Nationally, mortgages provided through credit unions have much lower foreclosure rates.[1]

• Of the hundreds of organizations who borrowed money from the Cooperative Fund of New England (CFNE) since 1975, 75% are still in business.[2]

• CFNE also boasts a loan repayment rate exceeding 99% – much higher than conventional loan repayments[3].
• Worker co-operatives contribute to individuals’ assets and are much more likely to redistribute hours than lay workers off during the recession.

• In a recent survey by the Consumer Federation of America, people rated consumer co-operatives more highly than for-profit businesses on quality and service. For example, 74% of respondents agreed that co-operatives “have the best interests of customer in mind,” compared to only 52% of for-profit businesses.[4]

The speakers – from the USDA, National Economic Council, Domestic Policy Council, to the Chief of Staff Jack Lew – often began their own presentations with an anecdote about how after reading the co-ops’ profiles prepared by NCBA, they discovered that they had several personal connections to the co-operatives. Like lamp posts turning on one by one on a dark road, the prevalence of co-operatives and the benefits provided was illuminated:  no single light could be sufficient on its own.

[1] http://www.cutimes.com/2009/09/02/cus-foreclosing-on-fewer-homes-than-banks-and-not-as-quickly “In general, credit unions appear to be foreclosing on a smaller percentage of their mortgage loans than other financial institutions and are usually taking longer to do it, according to credit union executives and NCUA data.”

[2] NCBA case study for this White House briefing.

[3] The rate for SBA loans in 2009 was 12%, but this is not a fair comparison as it is a single year. The rate was 2.4% in 2004 and 8.4% in 2007. http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/25/smallbusiness/smallbiz_loan_defaults_soar.smb/

[4] NCBA news release, May 2, 2012.

Action Alert: Tell Starbucks and Green Mountain to Support Small Fair Trade Farmers!

Fair Trade USA  (formerly TransFair USA) and its new initiative, Fair Trade For All,  aims to expand fair trade certification to include coffee plantations.  “Fair Trade for All” has been a major point of contention in Fair Trade USA’s split from Fairtrade International (FLO).  For more on the Fair Trade USA/FLO split, see Fair World Project’s (FWP) statement. Putting aside the secretive and unilateral nature of the initiative, certifying coffee plantations has a number of critical problems.

Small producers and democratic cooperatives are core to the founding principles of the fair trade movement and market.  By definition, small producers are vulnerable, excluded and under resourced in the global market. In the coffee sector, small farmers produce approximately 70% of the global coffee supply. Despite the current high prices in the coffee market, many fair trade coops are still unable to sell the majority of their coffee under fair trade terms. Expanding fair trade certification and market access to large-scale plantations will assure that fair trade cooperatives continue to remain vulnerable to volatile international markets and undermine 25 years of fair trade development. Importantly, consumers will be unable to distinguish between small farmer and cooperative coffee from plantation coffee. Fair Trade activists have sent thousands of letters to FTUSA, Fairtrade Internaional and IMO in support of small farmers. Learn more about fair trade and plantations by reading “Fair World Project Statement Regarding Coffee Plantations and Hired Labor.”

Take action and tell Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and Green Mountain CEO Larry Blanford to Support Small Fair Trade Farmers!

Before I came to Equal Exchange, I spent most of my working life in the produce departments of consumer cooperatives.  I hefted 50-pound cases of potatoes and cabbages, cleaned delicate bunches of cilantro and spinach, and built mountains of broccoli and apples that customers quickly reduced to foothills.  Seward Co-op, where I spent eight years, was a particularly good place to work, with a membership (including me) that highly valued a sustainable local economy.  Our member-owners wanted to know who grew their food, not just be assured that it was organic.

Local farmers brought their produce to our back door, and stayed to chat about the weather, the progress of the season, their CSA or farmers’ market successes and failures, the challenges of transportation and distribution, and so on.  Some of them aired age-old feuds, but most of them respected each other, and certainly most of them knew each other.  Organic farmers have had to do their own crop research, develop their own cost analyses, figure out their own marketing strategies – it stands to reason that they share skills and knowledge, and have thereby built a community.

Seward Co-op sent me several times to the Organic Farming Conference in La Crosse, WI, sponsored by MOSES (Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service.  There I had the privilege of watching farmers not only teach and learn from each other, but get down on the dance floor.  Oh, and this conference is the only one I’ve ever been to that had good food – it’s all organic, donated by and bought from mainly local producers and distributors.

When I started at Equal Exchange, I learned that most tea, including fair trade tea, comes from plantations.  And plantations (or estates, as they’re often called) are not simply “big farms.”  Tea plantations in India often include bonded labor – families working the same jobs for generations, with no ownership or control over their work, dependent on the benevolence of wealthy owners or transnational corporations.

Remembering the bountiful snack and hot-beverage tables at MOSES, I decided I wanted our tea, perhaps the only small-farmer tea on the US market, to be on those tables.  I wanted the farmers I knew and admired to be able to delight their tastebuds or feed their addictions (whichever it is) with a product grown and harvested by people like them – small businesspeople who own their little piece of the world, make their living from it, and feed the rest of us.

It was the last weekend of February and Equal Exchange co-owner Luke Fowler and I were fired up about the progress of our campaign for authentic fair trade.   We wanted to make the connection between family farmers here and family farmers in the rest of the world.

And we did.  And it was awesome!  At other events (not farmer-focused ones), it’s been difficult at times to convey the authentic fair trade message.  I think many people who want to make ethical choices in their lives, but don’t have time to research, don’t even realize that fair trade is for and by land-owning small farmers organized into democratically controlled cooperatives.  Well-meaning consumers assume that fair trade costs more because it means higher “wages” paid to workers, as opposed to better “prices” paid for farmers’ crops.

This assumption makes perfect sense if you think about the way most people work in the US.  We have jobs, or else are trying to find jobs.  We rent our bodies, minds, and time to our employers.  Our lack of any ownership stake in our jobs tends to make us forget that some people do own their jobs, and not only their jobs but the land on which their livelihoods depend.

The farmers we talked to at the conference seemed to understand right away the difference between small farmer cooperatives in fair trade and large-scale plantations.  Many responded with parallels they saw in the organic movement – especially how large-scale corporate agriculture has sought to weaken organic standards time after time.

Years ago, Riverbend Farm owner Greg Reynolds told me that for the previous couple years, he’d earned a wage effectively lower than his employees (whom he tries to pay as livable a wage as he can afford).  But, he emphasized, unlike his employees, he owns the farm.

Ownership matters.  Farmers know this.  Worker-owners know this.  Food co-op members know this – they often put it on their bumper stickers.

And I think it’s safe to say that people like Greg don’t just own their farms – they own the organic movement.  Companies like Monsanto, which have actively prosecuted farmers for common agricultural practices like saving seed, have no right to say or even influence what’s organic and what isn’t.  Which is why I think we ought to be listening to small farmer cooperatives and their representatives when they say that plantations can’t be part of fair trade.

If you support your local organic farmer, why would you buy plantation coffee?

“Fair Trade, in Fair Trade USA’s scheme, doesn’t mean anything. In order to increase the market share, they have allowed large and small players in the system; organized producers and those who are not organized; good products and bad products.  What is the message that this is going to send to consumers?  In wanting to make everything Fair Trade, we are left with no message. Fair Trade means nothing.”  Santiago Paz

Santiago Paz, CEPICAFE coffee co-operative, Fair Trade Futures Conference, Sept. 2011

When TransFair/Fair Trade USA chose to disregard the wishes of Fair Trade producers, Alternative Trade Organizations, activists, and other long-time actors in the Fair Trade movement and leave the international system to create their own “Fair Trade” certification system which includes plantation coffee and cacao, justifiably they angered many Fair Traders.

On the surface, it’s hard to argue with an initiative entitled, Fair Trade For All. I mean who doesn’t want producer empowerment for all farmers everywhere? The trouble is that once you go beyond the catchy name, you quickly bump into two stark realities. 1) Despite their claim that this initiative will benefit farm workers and small producers, Fair Trade is a model which works for those who own and run their businesses.  In the case of small farmers, fair trade builds support for co-operatives and other associations.  If you add plantations into the Fair Trade system, the benefits of the model will go to plantation owners, not the farm workers who toil in the fields and groves.  So it is important to compare small farmer co-operatives (where the farmers collectively own and run their business) with plantation owners (where one person, or a corporation) owns the business.

Historically, Fair Trade was created in recognition of the fact that plantation owners already receive tremendous support from government subsidies, agriculture policies, international trade agreements, bank credits, and programs which provide technical assistance and field trainings.  Small farmer organizations, on the other hand, are at a complete market disadvantage in almost every respect.  They have never been able to compete in the same market because the playing field has never been level.

2) With their new initiative, Fair Trade for All, TransFair/Fair Trade USA has proclaimed that plantations and small farmer co-operatives can co-exist happily, peacefully, and productively in the same system.  What’s all the fuss about?  It sounds nice, and if it were so, there would absolutely be no protest.  The tragedy is that it has taken 25 years of blood, sweat, risk-taking, mistakes, and losses to build a healthy supply chain for small farmer co-ops.  Finally we can say that small farmers have a voice and a seat at the table, have some degree of economic and political power none of which came magically or overnight.  But, our work is not finished; there is still so much more to be done.  Give a plantation owner additional benefits, beyond those already afforded, and you will wipe out the advances small farmers (and other Fair Traders) have worked so hard to achieve.

TransFair/Fair Trade USA walking away with the fruits of 25 years of the movement's collective labor.

Finally, a philosophical question:  If Fair Trade was created to balance an unfair playing field for small farmer organizations, and Fair Traders (producers, traders, and activists) who built the system and named it Fair Trade have always been strongly against plantations in coffee and cacao, what do you think about an organization that steals the name Fair Trade, walks away from the international Fair Trade system, and creates a new certification system in which coffee and cacao plantations will sit side by side with small farmer organizations?  Is that not theft?

In the coming months we will ask our producer partners to weigh in on these questions.  Today we start with Santiago Paz, Co-Manager of Cepicafe (the Piuran Coffee Growers Association) in Piura, Peru.  We asked him why he believed that plantations should not be included in the Fair Trade system and what he thought the impact would be on small farmer co-operatives now that TransFair/Fair Trade USA has allowed plantations into their certification scheme.  Here’s what he has to say:

“Since the 1990s, Fair Trade has supported the reactivation of co-operatives and small producer organizations. Fair Trade gives us an advantage.  It allows us to become more competitive: coffee sales have grown; our product supply has diversified; we have broadened the market; and our sources of financing have increased.

Fair Trade has been made up of small, organized producers. The first phase of Fair Trade was marked by solidarity and the social commitment of the consumers: “These are small, organized producers that should be supported.” Quality defined the second phase: the organizations became more professional and their supply was characterized by superior quality. Fair Trade was economically viable, socially responsible and environmentally sustainable.

There are many examples in Peru: Cepicafe, Cocla, La Florida, Ceovasa, etc., all of which became political actors that continue to play an important role in the economy. Fair Trade has allowed us to become visible and it has given us the ability to influence political decisions at different levels of political power, guiding the role of international co-operation.

Fair Trade is about balancing unequal competition. The decision of Fair Trade USA to include plantations in the system is a serious threat to small farmer organizations. The small producers cannot compete with the plantations and large companies that have taken control of the market and of the decisions being made by Fair Trade USA.

Fair Trade, in Fair Trade USA’s scheme, doesn’t mean anything. In order to increase the market share there are large and small players in the system; organized producers and those who are not organized; good products and bad products.

What is the message that we are going to send to consumers? How are they going to identify us? In wanting to make everything Fair Trade, we are left with no message. Fair Trade means nothing.

… What is clear and seems to be difficult to understand in the North is that a producer organization can never compete with a large plantation. A co-operative is much more than a company that buys and sells coffee; it is a mechanism for development, practicing a solidarity economy by which the producers also hope to resolve their problems, such as a lack of highways and the need for healthcare centers and schools.

From my point of view, Fair Trade cannot stop generating development, this must be emphasized. This was Fair Trade’s originating ideal and it should not be abandoned. Fair Trade is help for self-help: it helps to strengthen your organization so that you can use this to resolve your problems.

Fair Trade USA has taken the wrong path—rather than continuing to fight so that Fair Trade can be more alternative trade, it is moving very close to traditional trade; it is playing by the same market rules which it aimed to change and is endorsing these same practices.

In our opinion, Fair Trade USA is leading us to the destruction of Fair Trade. In the short term, we are experiencing the consolidation of Fair Trade to that which is big. On one side the big importers and on the other side, big producers and exporters. This won’t last for very long and in the end the consumer will discover that s/he is supporting something that is different than what is being promoted.”

So, what do you think? Are we going to allow TransFair/Fair Trade USA to make away with all we have collectively built and set small farmers back 25 years?

Click here to add your name to the growing list of people who support Authentic Small Farmer Fair Trade.

Cartoon courtesy of John Klossner. Copywrite 2012.

This March, as part of Equal Exchange banana Month, we are featuring news from our farmer partners, producer profiles, and articles written by those retail partners who had the opportunity to accompany us on our visit to Peru. The following excerpt is from a wonderful article written by Travis Lusk, Seward Co-op Produce Manager which appeared in the December January issue of The Sprout.

Equal Exchange bananas epitomize Principle Six (P6). They’re from farmer-run cooperatives — small-scale banana farmers in southwest Ecuador and northwest Peru — and are sold to cooperative grocery stores in North America. Equal Exchange bananas are also a premium product of outstanding quality and reliability. Seward Co-op’s partnership with Equal Exchange highlights two cooperatives working together to improve the quality of life for consumers and producers.

Bananas are the highest-volume product sold at Seward Co-op and at most grocery stores across the country. Despite this popularity, many consumers are unaware of the back-story of the tropical fruit. In October 2011, I had the pleasure of visiting Peru, along with other cooperators from Equal Exchange, and learned much about how indigenous communities organize to grow and export bananas.

Read more here (go to pages 9 – 10).

To learn more about Seward Co-op’s philosophy on bananas, read here.