Welcome to our Resource Center
Where you can dive deeper on all things Equal Exchange and beyond.
Where you can dive deeper on all things Equal Exchange and beyond.
Featured Articles
It’s hard to talk about the coffee farmer organization COMSA in Honduras without talking about soil. And after visiting them in January, where they repeatedly astounded me, I wouldn’t want to be soil silent. To the contrary, I hope to share a few insights to spread my newfound soil enthusiasm.
What would you do if you had the chance to apply to the US government for a $4 million grant? Back in 2010, we had this chance, and frankly, we were on the fence. After serious deliberation, we decided to apply. As a result, for almost 15 years, we managed farmer-focused development projects, directing resources and programming to small farmer co-ops and their members, with undeniably positive results. We were poised to implement the next wave of this work until, in February this year, the US government abruptly terminated USAID awards like ours.
We took a group of food co-op partners, wholesale accounts, and consumers to visit the farmers of ASPROCAFE Ingruma, a co-op that’s bucking the norm in Colombia to grow coffee organically. These are their takeaways, in their own words.
Equal Exchange Olive Oil and Medjool Dates from the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee (PARC) come from small farmers in the West Bank. PARC shares an update on what the situation has been like for farmers in the West Bank after October 7th, in 2024 and so far in 2025.
Well, if you were Beth Ann Caspersen, our Coffee Quality Manager, back in 1998, that was a good question. There were no courses or certificate programs for such a thing as specialty coffee. Today, there are more options. But for small-scale coffee farmers and their co-op staff, access to those formal training options can be very limited, making it just as challenging, in a different way, as when Beth Ann was starting out. She has worked for decades to make this knowledge more accessible for remote farmers.
A few weeks ago, Equal Exchange organized a virtual event in collaboration with the Panzi Hospital. We came together to talk about the disturbing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the current realities on the ground, and how the Panzi Hospital has been a beacon of light for the healing that is needed in the DRC.