Did you know that October is both National Fair Trade Month and
National Co-op Month? It’s just a coincidence, but like peanut butter
and chocolate Fair Trade and co-operatives are two great things that go
great together. No — wait. I take that back. That’s a lame metaphor.
Plus it’s borrowed from a corporate jingle. We can do better.
You see, co-ops and Fair Trade are not only compatible, but
extremely complementary. They make each other stronger and more
inspiring. And—in our opinion—Fair Trade could not, and cannot, exist
without co-operatives.
The Fair Trade model helps farmer co-ops to thrive and enables
consumer co-op members to connect with farmer co-op members and do
business with one another sustainably, and in solidarity. Sometimes a
worker co-op, like Equal Exchange, acts as the bridge, creating a
potentially completely co-op supply chain. This is one of the best
examples of the 6th Co-op Principle: Co-operation Among Co-operatives.
(If you’re unfamiliar with the seven universal Co-op Principles check
out: http://www.ncba.coop/abcoop.cfm
Conversely, in the 1980’s co-ops, here and abroad, made Fair Trade
possible and today they offer the Fair Trade system it’s most
meaningful expression. I say “most meaningful” because more recently
plantations and publicly traded corporations like Wal-Mart and
Hershey’s have entered the Fair Trade market to an extent. While that
development constitutes an improvement over these groups’ historic
track record, it doesn’t represent as profound a model as that of co-op
based Fair Trade.
When the Fair Trade system for crops like coffee was created in the
1980’s only small-farmer co-ops could participate. And still today
farmer co-ops supply all of the nation’s Fair Trade Certified™ coffee,
cocoa, and sugar. (In contrast, the official standards for Fair Trade
tea, bananas and other crops allow for the participation of
plantations, an issue we’ll return to.) Measured by weight, at least
90% of the nation’s supply of Fair Trade Certified™ foods are still
supplied by farmer co-ops. Later we’ll look at efforts to push that
number back towards 100%.
At this end of the global Fair Trade supply chain consumer food
co-ops definitely “punch above their weight”. That is to say that no
group of retailers in the US food system does more for Fair Trade,
proportionate to their sales, than America’s food co-ops.
But the “good news” mentioned in the headline goes beyond buying
and selling of coffee and such. Right now co-ops of all stripes, in
both the Global North and South, are working together to build a
stronger, more just co-op economy, and Fair Trade is a part of those
efforts. Here are some examples:
- Two North American farmer co-ops, Organic Valley and Farmer Direct
(a Canadian co-op), worked with us and RAFI-USA to draw up a model for
what Fair Trade could look like for farmers and farm workers north of
the Rio Grande. The results were the Principles for Domestic Fair
Trade. See: http://www.equalexchange.com/dftfiles/dftprinciplesflyer.pdf
- Subsequently we worked with a hybrid co-op of pecan growers and
workers in Georgia, and a California co-op of organic almond growers,
to create a line of healthy snacks, the first products brought to
market under the Domestic Fair Trade Principles.
- An international, multi-stakeholder Fair Trade organization, Oké USA www.okeusa.com
, has been created to import Fair Trade bananas into the U.S. A global
co-op of banana growers owns 30%, Equal Exchange owns 20%, and 5
non-profits own the remainder.
- To challenge the current near-complete dependence upon plantations
for the U.S. supply of Fair Trade Certified™ tea we have recently
formed three new partnerships with organic small farmer co-ops in
southern India, Sri Lanka, and South Africa. This is in addition to our
earlier partnership with a co-op in Darjeeling, India. Together we’ve
been able to introduce to the U.S. seven small-farmer co-op Fair Trade
Certified™ teas. The South African co-op is especially promising in
that they, along with a neighboring co-op, are also majority owners of
their own tea packing operation – something almost unheard of for
small-scale tea growers.
- While we at Equal Exchange are dedicated to Fair Trade, we also
appreciate the critical role of food co-ops, and that’s why we recently
contributed $10,000 to the Food Co-op 500 Fund. The Fund is seeking to
expand the number of food co-ops nationwide from 300 to 500 by 2015.
Right now is such a dynamic time in the food industry and our
national food culture. Some of the changes – GMO’s, massive factory
poultry and hog operations – are dismaying. Yet there are also trends
heading in the other direction, such as the growing interest in
environmental issues, animal rights, and the need to fix the federal
Farm Bill. For decades food co-op’s have been at the forefront of new
approaches, including that of Fair Trade, and we just wanted you to
know a little about what you have helped make possible.
Rodney North is The Answer Man for Equal Exchange and has been
with the worker co-op for 11 years. He also serves as Vice-Chair on the
Board of Directors. Rodney@equalexchange.coop