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Acloser connection between people and the farmers we all rely
on was the vision that the three Equal Exchange founders —
Rink Dickinson, Jonathan Rosenthal, and Michael Rozyne
held as they began meeting in 1986 to discuss how best to change
the way food is grown, bought, and sold around the world. The
three, who had met each other as managers at a New England food
co-op, were part of a movement to transform the relationship
between the public and food producers.
After meeting once a week for
three years they had a plan for a
new organization called Equal
Exchange that would be a social
change organization helping
farmers and their families gain
more control over their economic
futures, educate consumers
about trade issues, provide of
high-quality fairly traded foods
and was controlled by the people
who did the actual work.
Café Nica: “The Forbidden Coffee”
For their first fair-trade product they chose Nicaraguan coffee —
which they called Café Nica — as the first Equal Exchange product
for a few reasons. In 1986, the Reagan administration imposed an
embargo on all products from Nicaragua’s Sandinista government.
Importing coffee beans from Nicaragua would demonstrate solidarity
with the fledgling people's movement and would challenge
U.S. trade policies.
Equal Exchange brought Nicaraguan coffee into the U.S. through a
loophole in the law. If the coffee were roasted in another country, it
could be regarded as a product from that country, and therefore
legally imported into the U.S. A friendly Dutch alternative trade
organization stepped forward to offer assistance with the brokering
and roasting.
Alerted to this symbolic action, the Reagan administration
tried to stop the tiny organization. Officials seized Equal
Exchange’s Nicaraguan coffee as soon as it arrived in the
port of Boston. During their first two years of business, the
founders spent many days, with trade lawyers at their side,
doing battle with customs officials. Each time the coffee
cargo was released it was a small victory.
Cocoa and Chocolate Join
the Mix
Over the years Equal Exchange
added a variety of products to the
mix including tea, cocoa, chocolate
and nuts. Their worker owned
cooperative is nearly 80 worker/
owners strong, with a broader
network that includes 400 loyal
investors, more than 300 food
cooperatives, hundreds of cafés
and other stores, and more than a
million consumers.
But the growth of Fair Trade has not come without profound
challenges. The acceptance of large plantations and
corporations such as Nestlé into the Fair Trade labeling system
calls into question the very underpinnings of the fair
trade certification. Like the organic movement and the sustainability
movement, over the next few decades, Equal
Exchange needs to engage and collaborate with like-minded
partners and stakeholders throughout the Fair Trade system
to continue to transform how business is done.
Look for Equal Exchange, cocoa, chocolate bars, and coffee
in bulk and vacuum packs at all Co-op locations. Try new
Equal Exchange snacks. These “Domestic Fair Trade” products,
including Organic Dried Cranberries, Roasted Pecans,
and Organic Tamari-Roasted Almonds, are sourced from
family farmers and farmer co-operatives right here in the US.
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