When Equal Exchange started in 1986, we purposely set out to build both a new and more equitable model of international trade and a rare-in-the-U.S. democratic business. We broke many of the conventional rules of the market with the goal to trade fairly with farmers and build democratic supply chains. The concepts of fair trade and alternative trade were barely known at that time. Today, while we are a much larger organization with more than 100 worker-owners and a significant national and international scale, we are still living our original wild-eyed dream and breaking conventions with every purchase we make from our trade partners in coffee, bananas, cocoa, and tea.
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Fair Trade: News & Updates
Event
May 3, 2022
Event
April 23, 2022 to April 24, 2022
Come to the annual Fair Trade Festival and plan to make a simple purchase to change lives! This year's Fair Trade Vendors include: Revy Fair Trade, Esperanza Threads, Canaan Fair Trade, Land of Peace, Santa Rosa Stitches, Shema Store, Global Gifts Short North, JCU Fair Trade/SERRV, Mira Fair Trade, Joyce's Boutique, InterReligious TaskForce on Central America.
Event
April 12, 2022
Join Equal Exchange in their upcoming Events on April 7, April 12, May 3, and May 24! Click here for more information and registration links
Event
April 7, 2022
Join Equal Exchange and for a conversation with Santiago Paz Lopez, Export Manager of Coop Norandino in Peru. Santiago will be in Boston to attend the annual (but first since 2019) gathering of the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA). He will join us via Zoom to share more about the current reality for coffee farmers who have endured the pandemic as well as ongoing challenges with the climate crisis. After this unique and timely presentation we will open the virtual session to questions from participants.
News Article
April 1, 2022
With April Fools on our doorstep, it's time we said goodbye to Banana Month. Thanks so much to everyone who came to our webinars, engaged with our traveling team, read our musings, and used our new POS in their stores!
News Article
March 26, 2022
This blog post comes from Celina Lima, the newest Fair Trade Campaigns fellow who is studying International Development and Social Enterprise at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS). This summer, she travelled to Guatemala and Nicaragua as a fellow for our organization, to learn about coffee cooperatives and how Fair Trade Community Development Funds affect their members’ livelihoods. The following is the first of a series of blog posts of Celina’s journeys to the mountains of Central America.
News Article
March 26, 2022
For 20 years, Fair Trade has empowered farmers and workers in countries around the world with protections against the harsh realities of agricultural work. Within the last two years, that has also come to include the United States. This National Farmworker Awareness Week (March 24-31), it’s important to recognize and appreciate the estimated 2-3 million U.S. men and women who work the fields to feed us every day. By purchasing produce with the Fair Trade Certified™ sticker, we all have the power to make the world a better place to live and work for them.
News Article
March 26, 2022
Lupita López Dearcia Comitán is a farmworker in Sonora, Mexico. She’s forty-four years old, has five children, and just so happens to grow the cucumbers you put in your salad last night. It’s a job she has a lot of pride in. Most people don’t know that cucumbers grow on vines like tomatoes, requiring constant care to ensure that the plant grows in the proper direction. It’s a technique called “training”, and Lupita has the practice down to a science.
Event
March 23, 2022
We will be connecting the supply chain and hope you will join us! In this webinar we will hear from some of the important people whose work brings bananas to your stores and countertops. We'll hear about their day-to-day growing, harvesting, managing, and ripening, and about how they pivoted their businesses amidst pandemic challenges.
Event
March 9, 2022 to March 23, 2022
Continuing in the annual tradition of celebrating our favorite fruit, the one that launched it all, we're kicking off Banana Month next week. This year we're providing more opportunities to connect with the unique Equal Exchange Banana supply chain and learn more about Fairtrade, small-scale farmer cooperatives.
