Meet Ed Bachleda, organizer of Equal Exchange sales at St. Catherine of Sienna church in Portage, Mich. I recently got to meet Ed and see firsthand how he organizes his inventory, and schedules volunteers to sell Equal Exchange fairly traded products after four masses twice each month.
Kathy Zielinski of St. Monica-St. George Parish Newman Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, shares how she and her congregation have supported small farmers for over 20 years with Equal Exchange. Many thanks to this amazing church for their years of partnership.
20 Years of Justice
In February I spent a week traveling around Ethiopia with representatives from other coffee companies as part of a Cupping Caravan. In two 15 passenger vans, top loaded with gas ranges, propane, and 5 gallon bottles of water, we spent the first few days cupping—the industry term for analyzing coffee—at various ECX field labs. ECX stands for the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange, which is the government agency responsible for grading all commodities produced in Ethiopia.
Mike Mowry, Coffee Quality Coordinator, and Beth Ann Caspersen, Quality Control Manager, are in Ethiopia for two weeks. Here Mike talks week one and gives us an overview of what's still to come for the two travelers.
You may have heard about food co-op general managers, employees, church members, or Equal Exchange staff making the trek down to the places where coffee, tea and cocoa are grown. In October of 2011, Equal Exchange took our first delegation to see a very different product: bananas!
I often think about how we are changing the world through trade - with relationships and the belief that everyone has rights, no matter where they are from. It's easy to get overwhelmed by the complex issues spanning the globe, from myriad protests to governmental conflicts to human right abuses. Look at a place like the Democratic Republic of Congo - a war-torn country in Central Africa with a devastated economy and massive sexual violence against women and girls of all ages. Did you know that the D.R. Congo has been called one of the worst places on earth to be a woman?
The road heading south between Guayaquil and Machala, on the coast of Ecuador, is lined with banana plantations. Endless rows of green banana plants stretch as far as the eye can see. Economic activity in this tropical region revolves almost exclusively around banana production and export. In fact, Ecuador is one of the world's largest banana exporting countries.
At the Tierra Nueva coffee and honey co-operative, some new initiatives are helping women to improve their economic standing. Gender roles in Latin America, as in most parts of the world, are inequitable.
San Fernando Co-op is very young but has a lot of members - around 400. I was one of the first members in 2001. I've always been loyal to my co-op. It has grown little by little. What I like most is the organization. Before we were selling organic, but now the price is raised because it is Fair Trade. [People in the U.S.] should appreciate our coffee and that's important for us because we feel proud.
