Equal Exchange Stands with Small Farmers and their Co-ops
Many of our friends have heard the news about the USDA's National Organic Program ruling that appears to indicate an end to group organic certification of small farmer co-operatives. This is of course a concern for Equal Exchange because the core of our mission is partnering with small family farmers and supporting their organizations. Group organic certification has been key to our success - and the success of our farmer partners - over the years. In particular, it has made organic certification accessible to poor farmers in the developing world who would otherwise be unable to afford it.
But group certification is also crucial to the organic movement as a whole:
Group certification makes access to the organic market possible for poor farmers and their families, improving their incomes and protecting their communities, farm workers and the environment from harmful agricultural chemicals. Ending group certification would devastate these communities, making certification for individual farmers prohibitively expensive and resulting in increased rural poverty and migration, and a return to less sustainable, chemical-dependent farming. Farmers' co-ops that have spend years developing organic programs to help them access the US marketplace would see all of this work go to waste;
Group certification is central to the growing organic food industry in our own country. As demand for organic products such as organic coffee, tea, cocoa and sugar continues to grow dramatically, the process enables buyers to access quality organic food grown by family farmers around the world. Ending group certification would cut off supply chains for hundreds of businesses that depend on co-operatives for their organic products, and increase prices for others. Particularly affected would be organizations - such as Equal Exchange - that are committed to Fair Trade as a model for empowering small farmers and their co-ops;
And of course, group certification also provides US consumers with delicious, nutritious organic foods grown with care by family farmers. Without group certification, consumers will be left with fewer choices as the supply of these products declines dramatically, raising retail prices and leaving only large farms and plantations in the organic system.
We at Equal Exchange believe in the original goals of the organic movement: creating a credible system that helps protect the environment, support family farmers and farm workers, and provides consumers with healthy, safe and nutritious food. A certification system that supports this effort must also have integrity. We believe that group organic certification has been very effective to date, and should be formalized and improved upon, rather than discarded.
We are therefore joining with other organizations - farmers, consumers, NGOs and the business community - in calling on the USDA to delay this ruling and instead focus on making group certification work better.
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