Learn the Story of the Black Farmers Who Grow Equal Exchange Pecans

Learn the Story of the Black Farmers Who Grow Equal Exchange Pecans

When you own the land you farm, you decide what to plant, when to harvest, and which maintenance methods to use. More importantly, you’re the one who controls your own livelihood. For Black farmers in the United States, land ownership is tied to freedom. But systematic racial discrimination has pushed many out of agriculture.

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Cooperative Bananas, in Dollars and Cents

Cooperative Bananas, in Dollars and Cents

When you purchase a conventional banana at a grocery store, there are certain costs that your everyday low price covers: the fruit itself; the international shipping costs; the trucking from the warehouse to the grocery stores. These costs are internalized, meaning they’re accounted for in the final price you pay. But there are hidden costs to banana production that you won’t pay a cent for at the cash register.

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Unconventional Bananas in Peru: Interview with Julio Oscar Gallegos Herrera-Rambla

Unconventional Bananas in Peru: Interview with Julio Oscar Gallegos Herrera-Rambla

Equal Exchange works with a movement of independent businesses–farmer co-ops, distributors, stores–to create a banana supply chain that is unconventional at every step. In a sensitive industry, we look to the farmer organizations revolutionizing the banana trade to envision a future in which the industry represents and benefits all stakeholders.

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The Citizen-Consumer Dilemma: Part Two Continued

The Citizen-Consumer Dilemma: Part Two Continued

In Part One of the Citizen-Consumer Dilemma series, we described key problems we need to address, challenge and solve if we want to create a just food system. In Part Two, post one, we dug into the successes and failures of Fair Trade and Certifications as food system reforms. And now, we look to Food Co-ops and Boycotts.

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The Citizen-Consumer Dilemma: Part Two

The Citizen-Consumer Dilemma: Part Two

Fortunately, there have been movements and models that have attempted to address, challenge and change food system problems and create food justice, solidarity, and authentic citizen-consumer actions. Over the next two posts, we will examine and analyze four different reforms spawned by these movements.

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A Conversation with Edith Stacey-Huber

A Conversation with Edith Stacey-Huber

Edith Stacey-Huber is passionate about food. She is the creator of the food buying club Authentic Provisions just outside of Ann Arbor, Mich. Authentic Provisions aims to reconnect people in the community to the food, land, and farmers who sustain them, through collective purchasing outside of the corporate food system.

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Power to the (Women) Farmers
Food System, Farming and Agriculture Greta Merrick Food System, Farming and Agriculture Greta Merrick

Power to the (Women) Farmers

In the fair trade world, farmers form the backbone of the supply chain and are essential partners for the businesses with whom they work. However, in discussions about farming, well-intentioned speakers on the receiving end of the supply chain tend to fit farmers into boxes, conjuring an image of “The Farmer” as a middle-aged (and in the U.S., white) male.

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Building the People’s Food System: Next Steps
Food System, In Your Community Greta Merrick Food System, In Your Community Greta Merrick

Building the People’s Food System: Next Steps

We’re excited to announce the start of a new initiative to support fellow independent food businesses in New England and around the country. For those who have followed us over the past several years, you know that the threat to small companies posed by massive consolidation in the food industry is something we have written and spoken about at length.

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