Small Farmers, Big Change

That’s our new message at Equal Exchange. Many looked long and hard for something pithy to capture our intent, and are happy it came out so straightforwardly.

Small Farmers
That’s who we support. Not plantations, not factories, not agribusiness.

Big Change
This is more ambiguous, so let’s start off with what it’s not.
It’s not Big Attempt, or Big Profile: its Big Change.
It’s not Some Change or Potential Change: it’s Big Change.

What exactly is that change? Perhaps a green and just food system? Quite ambitious: but don’t you think we need Big Change in our trade and agriculture? Then let’s set out to do it. Can we help revitalize the rural farming communities across the planet? If you chose to invest in organizations with that goal it’s certainly more likely. That was a subtle pitch wasn’t it?

Down, Down, Up, Down it goes …

… where it’ll end, no one knows.

Do the recent stock market undulations make you yearn for a different type of stock?

A stock that can steadily transform the world for good and put a nice consistent dividend in your pocket. One whose value isn’t yanked around by fear or avarice. One whose value is linked to our collective ability to make the world more decent, trade more equitable and commerce more sustainable.

Me too.

At Equal Exchange, we’ve tried to avoid some of the avarice and fear by actually rewriting corporate structure, and developing a new business model. For example we have a fixed price share – no way to get too rich there, now way to and manipulate the company to get rich. It’s just not possible. And for accountability, every worker owner also invests their own money. Can’t say that about too many companies or non-profits.

What do you think? How many truly alternative stocks are there out there? How many will there be in five years?

A Better Bike

Equal Exchange was built with a purpose beyond making money. Determined to start a company that changed the terms of trade, our founders decided to build a different kind of company. So what did they do? Let’s start with an analogy.

Back in the ’70s, almost every bicycle in the U.S. was a form of road bike, often a racing bike with curved down handlebars. For over a century this form of bike had evolved for one primary purpose: to travel down roads, usually fast. And that they did. Similarly, today’s corporations are built for one primary purpose: to make shareholders money fast. And that they do.

Then some wild-eyed folks in California noticed that most of the world didn’t consist of smoothly paved roads or roads at all. They wanted to cycle through forests, up hills, and across streams; to go places that road bikes couldn’t take them. While everyone else thought they knew what a good bike looked like, they set that aside and built a different kind of bike—one with fat tires for better grip, low gears for the long climb, and strong brakes for the hairy descent. The result was a more versatile, rugged, durable bike. You probably own one: it’s called a mountain bike.

The Cupertino Riders found a better way

Just as most of the land area in the world doesn’t consist of roads, so most of the good in the world isn’t just about money. Conventional corporations are designed to make money, but poorly suited to pursue a larger social mission. This takes an entirely different kind of business. So what are the gears and brakes, the tires and suspension of our new corporation? What makes Equal Exchange more versatile, rugged and durable? Fair Trade, Worker Ownership, Fixed Price Shares, Extreme Community, No Selling Out. These are the features that constitute the frame of our organization, built with the explicit purpose of pursuing social justice and fairness over profits. It only took a few years for the advances of the mountain bike to be embraced by the mainstream. Now more than half of all the new bikes sold in the U.S. are mountains bikes.

Perhaps 20 years from now, half of the new companies started in the U.S. will be purpose-built to pursue the greater good. If you’re reading this, chances are that you’re already part of one of them.