By Carly Kadlec, Equal Exchange Coffee Purchaser
Over the past several weeks I have been in Central America, visiting our producer partner groups. At every stop along the way, I get gems of knowledge dropped on me at totally unexpected moments. Sometimes this is as straight forward as a farmer explaining a new organic practice that I have never seen before. However, more often than not, producers shatter my worldview with their incredibly refined and pointed observations of the world in which we live.
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Small Farmers Big ChangeOctober 31, 2013 -
Jessica Jones-HughesOctober 25, 2013With the holidays approaching, I always get questions about how to avoid packing on the pounds when our offices, homes, parties and stores are full of tempting, delectable treats. I, for one, am a huge sucker for my grandma’s fresh-baked rolls and chocolate chip cookies made with our new Equal Exchange chocolate chips.
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Ashley CheukOctober 23, 2013Last week, we hosted two managers from cacao co-ops we work with in Peru to source chocolate for our new Organic Chocolate Chips and for our line of Organic Candy Bars. Hildebrando Cárdenas Salazar from Oro Verde co-op and David Contreras from ACOPAGRO co-op visited our headquarters in Massachusetts to learn more about Equal Exchange, meet some of our store accounts, and work on 2014 planning for our USAID grant project with the two co-ops.
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Ashley CheukOctober 23, 2013From well-loved products to brand new ones, we’ve got plenty of gift options that will be sure to put smiles on the faces of your friends and family this holiday season. And, you can feel good knowing your gift choices support small-scale farmers and their communities.
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Small Farmers Big ChangeOctober 6, 2013
Ten years ago, Equal Exchange brought a group of food co-op and natural food store representatives to visit CEPICAFE, one of our small farmer coffee co-op partners in northern Peru. We stayed four days and nights living and working along side the coffee farmers, “helping” them with the harvest. One of my most fond memories was during lunch following that first full morning (ie 4 hours) picking coffee. We had had a lot of fun, laughing, singing, and telling jokes with the farmers, while they tried to teach us their techniques. But truth be told, the work is back-breaking, the hike to the farms was exhausting, and the sun was hot.
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Small Farmers Big ChangeOctober 6, 2013
Reblogged from Somos Estrellas - 31 ways you can support co-ops throughout the month of October.
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Ashley CheukOctober 4, 2013Help us plant 10,000 cacao trees at CONACADO Co-op in the Dominican Republic! Each time a tree is virtually planted at equalexchange.coop/asfg, we'll plant a real one!
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Small Farmers Big ChangeOctober 2, 2013
Fair Trade, like coffee, is complex, rich and fascinating.
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Small Farmers Big ChangeOctober 1, 2013
Fair Trade, like coffee, is complex, rich and fascinating. This month, we are making available a new educational resource, The History of Authentic Fair Trade. In comic book format, we present a version of Fair Trade that is shared by many Equal Exchange colleagues, allies, and partners.
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Small Farmers Big ChangeSeptember 30, 2013
We got the news late last week! Our first shipment of avocados from Mexico has just arrived and is being stored in a warehouse on the East Coast. Soon, food co-operatives and natural food stores in the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and Upper Midwest will not only be carrying our small farmer bananas, but also these tasty avocados from Pragor, a small farmer co-op in Michoacan, Mexico. The first shipment of avocados arrives in the U.S.!
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