While the fair trade model is very effective at bringing direct benefit to farmers, it is still small-scale compared to the conventional coffee trade. For cooperatives to survive and grow, they must find markets for their products - whether this be coffee, tea, bananas, or chocolate. For fair trade to reach the farmers that need it most, consumers must demand fairly traded products where they shop. Fair trade is a start a bringing justice to a world trade that has never benefited the very people who do most of the work. With enough support, it can become a healthy alternative economy.
Fair trade holds everyone accountable, from the producer to the consumer.
Fair trade assumes that we have the power to make conscious choices about the products we buy. Equal Exchange s cooperative partners are actually businesses owned and governed democratically and directly by the farmers. Decisions are not made based on who has the most wealth, but how the collective resources can best be managed to improve the welfare of the whole community as well as that of each family. Cooperative structures enable farmers to pool their technical and financial resources, thus giving them strength to compete in a marketplace that otherwise would lock them out. Cooperatives offer community services, such as healthcare, education, public transportation, and, most importantly, the pride and dignity to create a better life for the members and their children.