Gastro Traveling

Equal Exchange Farmers Coop

Increasingly more people are concerned about the origins of their food.  After all, this is a global economy and if you take the time to read labels, chances are the apple juice in your refrigerator comes from several different countries.  Do you like to know the impact of your food on the environment and if it supports local farmers throughout the world?  If so, then a worker owned food coop called Equal Exchange is a great business to support.

It all started over 20 years ago with fairly traded coffee from Nicaragua.  Now Equal Exchange has expanded into a network of two million farmers, investors, and activists who contribute to a world they want to live in and leave for future generations.  Products now range from tea, chocolate, and snacks produced from farmers all over the world that are traded using honest and fair methods.  Family farms using organic practices are favored over industrialized agribusinesses dependent on toxic fertilizers.

So here is how Equal Exchange brings superior goodies to your table while doing the right thing:

• It is a worker-owned coop that operates based on one-person, one-vote without the corporate hierarchy.  Partnerships are made between small-scale farmers who exercise their own business decisions based not only on the bottom line but what is best for their respective communities.

• They provide access to credit that small scale producers normally wouldn’t qualify for and they also pay producers a guaranteed minimum price ensuring a stable income stream which is reinvested back into the farmers’ communities.
  

  Fair Trade Chocolate

So now that you know that you are part of the solution in making the world a better place when you purchase from Equal Exchange, here comes the fun part…savoring the tasty end product! My favorite indulgences include sipping their fruity organic Rooibos tea grown and harvested in South Africa and biting into their 80% Cacao Panama Extra Dark chocolate bar that has just the right balance of sweetness mixed with bitter cacao.  So instead of crossing the world or hunting through your local natural foods stores, just sit back and order online.  You are now a gourmand with a cause!