Think fair trade products are only from far-off places, requiring a lot of greenhouse gas emissions to make their way to the US market? Well, for the most part, you’d be right — except fair trade company Equal Exchange is breaking those stereotypes. Now we’ve got domestic fair trade and enviro-conscious international trade, thanks to Equal Exchange’s innovative initiatives!

First, Equal Exchange is working with California’s Big Tree Organic Farms co-op, making sure these co-op members get a fair return for their product. I’m lucky in that the almonds both grow in my state — and are sold at my local co-op, in the form of Equal Exchange organic tamari-roasted almonds. Yum!

On an international level, Equal Exchange’s just launched a new campaign, dubbed “Small farmers. Big Change: Creating a Green and More Just Food System.” The main point: To join fair trade activism with enviro-consciousness. “While 25 – 30% of the carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming are estimated to come from the industrial agriculture sector, the sustainable farming practices of small-scale producers actually help cool the planet, protect the environment, and restore local eco-systems,” according to Equal Exchange.

Yes, it’s true — Importing stuff from faraway places does burn greenhouse gases. But while we can agree that shipping or flying products thousands of miles is not desirable, we also know coffee and cacao only grows in certain areas — and that people that don’t live in those areas are still going to keep getting their java and choco fix. And who’s to say a coffee habit’s a bad thing, provided one chooses fair trade, organic, shade-grown coffee from companies committed to social and environmental justice? In fact, by providing a market for products that allow for environmental preservation in ecologically fragile areas, US consumers can play a small part in the environmental management of even far-off places.

Many fair trade companies, including Equal Exchange, work in this hard-to-define territory — one that’s fraught with contradictions, as Jonathan Rosenthal of the fair trade fruit company Oke Banana points out:

For me, fair trade is an opening — a window into reassessing choices we make about how we live in community with the rest of the planet…. Are we perpetuating a very wasteful system? Yes. Given it is a deeply entrenched system, should we just refuse to participate or attempt to reform, maybe even radically reform, the system? I think my ideal is that people are working on both approaches.

There are no panaceas, but only partial solutions to very complex problems. To that end, “Small farmers. Big Change” has identified a few specific projects — and has made a financial commitment to each of these, hoping that fair trade activists and consumers will help meet its goals.

Wanna help out? If you’re a coffee drinker, just opt for Equal Exchange’s Organic Love Buzz coffee or for Equal Exchange’s Organic Co-op Blend. Each 12 oz. package sold of the former means a 20 cent — each pound sold of the latter means a 25 cent — donation to the Small Farmers Green Planet Fund.

You can also make a direct tax-deductible donation to Small Farmers Green Planet Fund, or stay up on what’s happening with Equal Exchange’s projects via the Small Farmers Big Change blog. And of course, you can always support small-scale farmers both locally and abroad by buying their products at the farmers’ market or wherever you can find them.

Images via Equal Exchange

[crossposted on BlogHer]

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