1. 33 Brown University Leadership & Global Engagement Summer 2103 Trade + Justice = Fair Trade & Equal Exchange Rodney North rodney@equalexchange.coop

2. Traditional, shade-grown coffee farms like this…

3. Were replaced by large scale, chemically intensive, monoculture plantations

4. The World in 1986 – Cont’d ▪ Market failure ▪ Destructive industrial, chemical-intensive farming ▪ The “mis-incentives” & mis-alignment of large corporations ▪ Uninformed / disengaged consumers ▪ Chronic poverty & hungry, marginalized small farmers

5. A Radical Response Was Required ☼ Support democratic co-ops of small-scale farmers

6. A Radical Response ☼ Direct trading relationships / cut-out the ‘coyotes’ & elites

7. A Radical Response ☼ Direct relationships Replace these 8 links …

8. A Radical Response … with these 5 links

9. A Radical Response ☼ Fair Trade: ◊ Higher, more stable prices

10. Higher, stable, more predictable prices

11. A Radical Response ☼ Fair Trade: ◊ Higher, more stable prices ◊ Affordable credit ◊ Direct, long-term relationships with farmer co-ops

12. A Radical Response Support organic farming

13. A Radical Response ☼ For ex. what kind of farming works here?

14. A Radical Response ☼

15. ☼ Devastation from Hurricane Stan, 2005, Nicaragua

16. ☼ Advocacy in partnership with activists & faith-based organizations:

17. ☼ Consumer education / storytelling

18. ☼ Practicing economic fairness & democracy at home, too Equal Exchange is a worker co-op with an egalitarian, democratic 1 person / 1 share / 1 vote structure

19. The Worker Co-operative model a.k.a. “the John Adams & Adam Smith business plan” ▪ Democratic ▪ For-profit + ▪ 4-to-1 pay ratio ▪ Can’t be sold

20. Sounds good – but has it really worked?

21. Pounds of Fair Trade coffee imported into the U.S. The Early Years 1986 - 1999

22. 1986 2000 2011

23. Companies that have begun to offer at least 1 Fair Trade product:

24. Other signs of success, viability, & scalability

25. Our sales

26. $10k investment in EE vs. S&P500 over 10 years

27. ☼ Steady growth in our partnership:

28. Growth of product line / # and type of farmers served / industries touched

29. Lessons Learned? The importance of challenging / changing institutional power and… of helping people stay on their land