|
Monday morning, I drove south of Boston to see the headquarters of Equal Exchange, a company I knew only for its Fair Trade chocolate, coffee, and tea. Rodney North, their PR guy, had invited me to visit for a tour (and some delicious tastes of their products) and while I normally turn down any offers of that sort from for-profit businesses, this one was different because Rodney also asked if I'd address the staff of Equal Exchange to tell them a bit about my book.
Equal Exchange is a company I have personally bought products from in the past (both chocolate and coffee), and I'm certainly an advocate of Fair Trade products. However, I'd prefer to continue advocating for ethical business models and sustainable practices without endorsing specific companies in exchange for a bit of free food. That wouldn't be honest to blog readers, and it probably wouldn't even make for very interesting blog content. On the other hand, we do need businesses like Equal Exchange as part of our movement, both because they provide us with Fair Trade products (so we can eat cocoa and know it wasn't harvested by child slaves) and because we want businesses weighing in on our side of political issues.
That said... here are a few pics and some details on my visit with Equal Exchange.
|
