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What is Domestic Fair Trade? |
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Extending Our Model to Farmers in Our Own Backyard
When Equal Exchange was founded in 1986, few would have predicted the success of the Fair Trade movement. For over 20 years now, we have been building Fair Trade around the world, partnering with small farmer co-operatives to bring you delicious fairly traded coffee, tea and chocolate from marginalized countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia. But it was not so long ago that the specialty coffee industry dismissed our vision of more equitable relationships with farmers as unrealistic. They questioned whether consumers would care. But today there are some 400 coffee companies that are purchasing at least a small portion of their coffee under the trading terms that we pioneered in the US. Meanwhile, Equal Exchange is a thriving model of Fair Trade and co-operation that has exceeded our founders' original vision.
However, the challenges facing small farmers and rural communities in the Global South have only become more severe. And as our food system has become ever more globalized and its control more concentrated among a shrinking list of large corporations, family farmers here in North America face problems that are similar in many ways to our farmer partners in the developing world. In fact, farmers and farmer workers around the globe are caught between declining prices for their products, the consolidation of markets and distribution, and tightening control over inputs such as seed.
As a result, the people who grow our food receive an ever-shrinking share of the money consumers spend on their food. And between 1935 and 1997, the total number of farms in the U.S. fell from 6.5 million to just 2.05 million. By 2003, there were just 1.9 million working farmers in the U.S. - less than the prison population. Meanwhile, over 50% of the revenue generated globally by food retailing is accounted for by just 10 corporations.
As we enter our 20th year, Equal Exchange is extending our vision by "Bringing Fair Trade Home" - partnering with small farmer co-ops, workers, consumers and retailers here in North America to build a vision for a more socially just, participatory and sustainable economic system that includes the global, domestic and local levels. While our work is guided by our Mission and Guiding Principles, we are also part of broader movements that seek to change the way business is conducted. For example, as a worker co-operative, we are part of a movement that seeks to empower workers, farmers and consumers around the world through economic democracy and the Principles of Co-operation. We are also founding members of the International Fair Trade Association (IFAT) and members of the Fair Trade Federation (FTF).
And as we have launched this new program, we have also joined with other organizations in building a movement for "Domestic" Fair Trade. Equal Exchange, along with Organic Valley, the Farmer Direct Co-operative and RAFI-USA, is a founding member of the Domestic Fair Trade Working Group, which in 2005 brought together likeminded organizations from the U.S. and Canada. The result of that gathering was the development of a set of "Principles for Domestic Fair Trade" which translates the goals and priorities of the international Fair Trade movement into the regional, domestic and local spheres. You can download a copy of these principles here.
Principles for Domestic Fair Trade, English (PDF Format)
Principles for Domestic Fair Trade, Spanish (PDF Format)
For More Information
Fair Trade Hits Home, by Jane Black, The Washington Post, July 18, 2007
Bringing Fair Trade Home (PDF Format) by Erbin Crowell, Cooperative Grocer #127, November - December 2006
Domestic Fair Trade: For Health, Justice & Sustainability by Erbin Crowell and Michael Sligh, Social Policy Magazine, Vol 37.1, Fall 2006
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