10.02.2007 - 11:59pm ET

(CSRwire) BOSTON, MA - October 2, 2007 - Farmers from Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Georgia, along with local farmers from each region, will tell their stories in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. between Oct. 18 and Nov. 1st as part of the "Faces of Fair Trade: Uniting the Global and Local" tour.
 
"The events we have planned will connect people who love food with the people who grow it," said Sarah Belfort, Domestic Products Coordinator at Equal Exchange, a sponsor of the tour.

Three New England-based organizations that dedicate themselves to finding markets for small farmers are sponsors of the farmers' story tour: Oké USA, providers of fair trade fruit www.okeusa.com ; Red Tomato, non-profit marketer of family farm fruits and vegetables www.redtomato.org ; and Equal Exchange, the worker co-op that pioneered fair trade food and beverages in the U.S. www.equalexchange.coop . Local groups in each city are also sponsoring the tour.
 
Tour dates are: Minneapolis-St. Paul, Oct. 18-23; Boston, Oct.24-25; NYC, Oct. 26-28; Philadelphia, Oct. 29-30; and Washington, D.C., Oct. 31 – Nov. 1. For the most up-to-date schedule details, please visit the tour web page at www.equalexchange.coop/faces-of-fair-trade or call Oké USA at 973-615-6111.
 
"This is our story: we are producers and we produce on our own land. We created the cooperative and learned how to export so that we did not have to rely on intermediaries. We are partners in this business both with Agrofair in Europe and Oké in the U.S. We are a family; everything we do is not for personal benefit but for this grand family we have here and abroad based on fair trade," explained Leonardo Bravo, a banana farmer and member of El Guabo Cooperative, Ecuador, who will be a speaker on the tour.
 
"Oké USA aims to keep deepening this transformation of the produce industry from one that consumes humanity to an industry in service of humanity and this planet," said Jonathan Rosenthal, top banana, Oké USA.

"Small, independent family farms are essential if we hope to have an eco-friendly, fair, and abundant supply of food in the US and elsewhere," said Susan Futrell, Tour Coordinator for Red Tomato, a sponsor of the tour. "Banana farmers from Ecuador and Costa Rica, a pecan farmer from Georgia, and local fruit and vegetable farmers may seem worlds apart, but they share many of the same challenges and goals."

Featured speakers on the tour are:
 
Leonardo Bravo and Washington Torres. Both belong to El Guabo Association of Small Banana Producers (APPBG).  El Guabo is one of the world’s leading exporters of Fairtrade bananas, exporting around 30,000 boxes a week to Europe and the USA. It represents growers from 339 farms in 15 different communities. Before Fairtrade the growers sold through intermediaries and the prices they received were often too low to cover their basic costs. Fairtrade has meant a guaranteed fair deal and long-term trading arrangements. Thanks to the Fairtrade premium, education for local children has been improved, families can now afford healthcare, workers have been affiliated to the social security system and food baskets are issued to those that need them. 
 
Carlos Vargas and Yocser Godoy. They are Costa Rican banana farmers who belong to Coopetrabasur, the Co-operative of Workers from the South. Coopetrabasur was founded in 1980 by former Chiquita workers after the multi-national pulled out of part of Costa Rica where it is situated. The region in the southwest of the country is very isolated and work opportunities are scarce. The workers bought the plantation with a state loan and now have about 70 members. Learn more at www.okeusa.com
 
Diann Johnson. A pecan farmer in Baconton, Georgia, Diann is a member of Southern Alternatives Agricultural Co-operative. Learn more at www.equalexchange.coop/dft

Local Farmer. Family farmers in the US are working hard to stay on the land and rebuild diverse, local food and farming. Red Tomato, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit, partners with over 40 small-scale fruit and vegetable growers in the Northeast to market their produce. Several of these farmers will represent the voices of local and regional family farmers. Learn more at www.redtomato.org

In addition to public presentations highlighting personal farmer stories and the impact of consumer support for fair trade and family farms, the tour will include tastings, farmer visits with local retail outlets, and participation in community gatherings.
 
For more information, and the most complete up-to-date tour schedule, please visit the "Faces of Fair Trade: Uniting the Global and Local" tour web page at www.equalexchange.coop/faces-of-fair-trade or call Oké USA at 973-615-6111.
 
About Oké USA
OKé USA is a farmer co-owned fair trade banana company that seeks to make international trade a little bit more "OKé."  We are committed to empowerment of communities through fair trade and illustrate this commitment through our ownership structure. OKé bananas come directly from farmers who are paid a fair price. That means higher wages, safer working conditions and a cleaner environment for farmers, workers and their families. Profits are shared between the farmers and their fair trade partners: Red Tomato, Equal Exchange and the European fair trade group: Agrofair. OKé champions sustainable business and farming practices in an industry infamous for worker exploitation and environmental abuse. We aim to set new standards of quality for not just bananas but for social and environmental issues as well. 
 
About Red Tomato
Red Tomato is a nonprofit organization based in Canton, Massachusetts. Founded in 1996, Red Tomato markets ecologically-grown fresh fruit and vegetables from family farms in the northeast US to supermarkets and other customers throughout New England. Red Tomato partners with twelve northeast apple farmers to market Eco Apples, grown ecologically on small-scale family orchards, and with over 30 vegetable growers in the region. Red Tomato is a leader and resource for sustainable food and agriculture efforts nationwide, and a founding partner in the fair trade banana company, Oké USA.
 
About Equal Exchange
Equal Exchange is a full service provider of high quality, fairly traded and organic coffee, tea, cocoa products, chocolate and packaged snacks to retailers and food service establishments. A pioneer and U.S. market leader in fairly traded coffee, Equal Exchange helped introduce Fair Trade to the nation's specialty coffee industry in 1986. Equal Exchange is currently pioneering Domestic Fair Trade with nuts and dried fruit sourced from U.S. small farmers and their co-operatives. These snacks were launched initially through consumer food co-ops and Equal Exchange's Interfaith Program, which distributes these and other fairly traded products to thousands of congregations nationwide. 100% of Equal Exchange products are fairly traded, benefiting 39 small farmer co-operatives in 19 countries around the world. In keeping with its mission, Equal Exchange is a worker co-operative, owned and democratically controlled by its employees.
 
 
MEDIA: Interviews, photos and product samples are available upon request.
Please contact Sue McGovern at sue@mcgov.com tel. 781 648 7157.
 

For more information please contact: