Every time any of us visit a farmer’s market, we make a strong statement. We value the exceptional flavor of farmer’s market produce over supermarket produce, we are supporting family run farms over corporate run farms, and we are voting with our dollars to support sustainable farming. The power of produce cannot be underestimated, and where you spend your money on food can have a far reaching impact. While I love supporting my local farmers, I realize that I have an ability to support farmers worldwide that are struggling and under duress from war, or multinational corporations. Enter the Equal Exchange Coop.
Equal Exchange is worker cooperative based upon standard democratic principles. The goal is NOT to maximize profits, nor returns to investors, but rather to bring to the workplace many of the rights and responsibilities that we hold as citizens in our communities. Fair Trade is a way of doing business that ultimately aims to keep small farmers an active part of the world marketplace, and aims to empower consumers to make purchases that support their values. The easiest way to support authentic Fair Trade is to purchase fairly traded products from small farmers. By making the choice to buy fairly traded products, you help provide health care, education and technical training for farmers, workers, and artisans around the world. By supporting Equal Exchange, you join a movement to reclaim the food system – to make it better for farmers, consumers and the earth.
Equal Exchange has recently partnered with Palestinian farmers to create the first ever Palestinian Farmer’s box! This box contains pantry items that can mix beautifully with your local farm fresh produce to create outstanding Middle Eastern dishes.
I go in depth to explain each of these ingredients in my latest video below. Make sure to subscribe to my website so you can get my recipe next week, where I share how to put some of these ingredients together to create a Middle Eastern harvest dish! To get on the waiting list for future Palestinian Farmer’s boxes, click on this LINK.
