Fair Trade Forever at The St. Peter Food Co-op
Did you miss World Fair Trade Day over the weekend? Don’t worry, the St. Peter Food Co-op & Deli carries a wide variety of fair trade items year round!
Fair trade is a movement that empowers farmers to organize and earn a living within a highly competitive global marketplace. When you choose fair trade items, your purchase casts a vote for small-scale farmers, producers, and artisans around the world. Here are a few of our favorite fair trade brands available right here at the Co-op:
Dr. Bronner’s
Dr. Bronner’s makes pure-castile soap, hair, and body care products of the highest quality, and are committed to socially and environmentally responsible products.
The company’s main ingredients are certified fair trade under the Fair for Life certification programme which verify that ethical working conditions and fair prices are provided along the entire supply chain. Dr. Bronner’s was also the first company to establish certified fair trade supply chains for coconut oil and palm oil.
We love their castile soap—it’s versatile enough to use as a cleaner, body wash, shampoo, or soap!
Alaffia
Alaffia is built on a philosophy of fair trade defined by paying a fair local price or wage, offering equal employment opportunities, engaging in environmentally sustainable practices, providing healthy and safe working conditions, being open to public accountability and reducing the number of middlemen from supplier to consumer. Here’s how it works:
“Our women’s cooperatives in West Africa handcraft indigenous raw ingredients then the Alaffia team in Olympia, Washington creates the finished products. Alaffia returns the proceeds from the sale of these products to our communities to fund community empowerment and gender equality projects.”
Alaffia’s natural skin and hair care and methods are rooted in ancient African tradition. Their products are cruelty-free, without sulfates, parabens, phthalates, mineral oil, petrolatum or synthetic coloring. You can find them in our Wellness Department!
Equal Exchange
Fair trade tea, coffee, chocolate, avocados, bananas… should we keep going?! Equal Exchange is best known as the employee-owned company (a cooperative, just like the St. Peter Food Co-op!) that pioneered the practice of fair trade with small coffee farmers in the U.S. The company is unique for having voluntarily adopted, and for aggressively promoting, fair trade standards for years. Equal Exchange persevered with this unusual course because it was founded with an unusual mission—to create a new model of bringing the best from farms to the consumers in a manner that was direct, fair and sustainable to all involved: the environment, the farmers, our employees, our wholesale customers, and the public.
We carry a variety of fair trade teas, bulk and packaged coffee, chocolate, and avocados from Equal Exchange. All of the Co-op’s bananas are fair trade from Equal Exchange (grown in Equador) and yes, you can really taste the difference.
Alter Eco
Every product made by Alter Eco is sourced from farmer-owned coops practicing sustainable agriculture. All ingredients that can be certified fair trade, are. However, there is currently no international fair trade standard regarding milk, sea salt, and a few other ingredients that they source. In those case, Alter Eco works closely with their chocolatiers to ensure these ingredients are sourced from sustainable suppliers.
In fact, Alter Eco goes even beyond just paying a fair price. In addition to paying the fair trade premium every year, the company provides their partners with targeted assistance for concerns such as food security, biodiversity and gender equality. They do so because they believe the health, happiness and future of the families who grow our food are just as vital as our own. When they have the resources to dream and plan, they can achieve miracles for themselves.
Don’t miss grass-fed milk chocolate bars and truffles from Alter Eco at the St. Peter Food Co-op… this is truly chocolate you can feel good about eating.
La Riojana
La Riojana produces its own range of fair trade and fair trade organic extra virgin olive oil. Their products come from selected olives grown in the Antinaco Valleys – Los Colorados in La Rioja province, one of the most important olive producing regions in South America.
La Riojana received their fair trade olive oil certification in 2015, making them not only the first fair trade certified olive oil producer in Argentina but also the first in Latin America.
All the olive oil produced by La Riojana is fair trade certified, extra virgin olive oil and it is entirely first cold pressed, preserving the important nutrients that make EVOO so delicious.
We recommend picking up two bottles—one for your kitchen and one to give to a friend. They make an excellent housewarming or hosting gift!
African Market Baskets
Handwoven in Ghana, West Africa, these baskets are as beautiful as they are functional. Perfect for picking up groceries at the farmer’s market or as home decor.
A member of the Fair Trade Federation, proceeds from each sale help to provide healthcare, education, and financial support to over 5,000 African weavers and their families.