2025 Equal Exchange Summit
June 13, 2025 at Wheaton College in Norton, MA
Let’s reconnect as a community! The annual Equal Exchange Summit is a powerful gathering that brings together all stakeholders in our alternative trade network. For nearly four decades, we’ve been working together to build an alternative trade model that brings coffee, chocolate, tea, bananas, and other fairly traded goods from democratically organized small farmer co-ops in the global south to Citizen-Consumers in the north through Equal Exchange’s worker-owned cooperative.
Join us for a fun and informative gathering of all parts of our supply chain as we continue to advance our solidarity network and mission in an ever-consolidating food system that so badly needs alternatives like ours.
Calling all who want to
build a better food system
Register by filling out the form below
or email organizing@equalexchange.coop
Monday, May 26, is the last day to register.
Wheaton College, 26 E. Main Street, Norton, MA 02766
Campus Map
2025 Schedule of Events
Thursday, June 12
Welcome dinner (optional)
Early check-in available
Friday, June 13
Keynote Address author Austin Frerick
Workshops
All meals provided, followed by a party
Saturday, June 14
Breakfast (optional)
Overnight accommodation will be provided in Wheaton dorms for anyone wishing to stay on campus Thursday and/or Friday nights.
There is no charge for the event or accommodations this year.
Keynote Address: Austin Frerick
Austin Frerick is an expert on agricultural and antitrust policy. In 2024, he published his debut book, entitled Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry. The book, which includes a forward by Eric Schlosser, profiles a series of powerful magnates to illustrate the concentration of power in the global food system. Barons has received universal acclaim, including a coveted starred review from both Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews, and has been named one of the “Best Books of 2024” by the latter. The host of Bloomberg's Odd Lots applauded the book, remarking, "I have come away with a completely different idea of agriculture that I cannot unsee." The Times Literary Supplement (UK) noted that it is “steeped in policy and enlivened by anecdote” and the Los Angeles Review of Books said that the “prose is refreshingly accessible and nonacademic.” The book has also received praise from across the political spectrum, including a rave review from The American Conservative. It has been excerpted in The Independent (UK), Salon, and The New Republic, among others.
Austin also has a strong track record of organizing conferences and other forums to push the conversation forward on agriculture policy. He worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to organize a conference and publish a compendium at Yale Law School entitled “Reforming America’s Food Retail Markets,” which explored competition issues in the nation’s food retail industry. He previously spearheaded other conferences at the Yale Law School, including “Big Ag & Antitrust: Competition Policy for a Sustainable and Humane Food System.” He also created & organized the "Heartland Forum" in Storm Lake, Iowa, the first candidate forum during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary process, which focused on the impacts of economic concentration in rural America. During the 2020 presidential campaign, he advised candidates Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Pete Buttigieg on agricultural policy before ultimately serving as Co-Chair of the Biden campaign’s Agriculture Antitrust Policy Committee.
Frerick previously worked at the Open Markets Institute, the U.S. Department of Treasury, and the Congressional Research Service before becoming a Fellow at Yale University. He is a 7th generation Iowan and 1st generation college graduate, with degrees from Grinnell College and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He also serves on the Board of Directors as Vice President for Common Good Iowa and as Treasurer for the Socially Responsible Agriculture Project. In 2022, The Advocate named him a "Champion of Pride.” He has been quoted in The New York Times, National Geographic, Bloomberg, Politico, Vanity Fair, and The Washington Post, among others.
Workshops
A Life-changing Experience: Citizen Consumer Members Reflect on Their Eye-opening Trip to Colombia
The closest most of us come to experiencing the world of a coffee-growing family in Latin America is sipping the fruits of their incredible labor every morning. For two fortunate members in our ranks, that experience became first-hand this past November. Traveling with a group of Equal Exchange worker-owners and food cooperative partners, Susan and Terry had the experience of a lifetime—and they are eager to share the moving stories from their time at ASPROCAFE Ingruma in Riosucio, Colombia.
Presented by Susan Redlich, Citizen-Consumer and Board member, and Terry Steele, Citizen-Consumer
...
Farmer Cooperative Advancement: Equal Exchange Support in a Post-USAID Environment
Most of you know the basics of Equal Exchange’s longstanding fair trade commitment to farmer cooperatives all around the world. But did you know that for over a decade, we have leveraged additional resources via USAID’s Cooperative Development Program to deepen these relationships and further strengthen the coops’ capacity to build resilience & improve the livelihoods of their members? Climate mitigation, financial strengthening, and gender equity training are among the tangible benefits of these programs, now threatened with the government’s elimination of USAID. Join us here to learn about the innovative approaches we have just launched to retain much of this valuable work!
Presented by Equal Exchange’s Small Farmer Fund Team
...
Savory Solidarity: Olive Oil, Medjool Dates, and our Partnership with the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee
For almost fifteen years, Equal Exchange has supported farmers in the West Bank through purchases of their delicious olive oil and dates. Have you ever imagined the journey these products follow from the groves to Equal Exchange?
In this workshop, we will share the story of cultivation, and of our organizational partner, the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee (PARC). We will also provide an update on how these farmers are faring at this tragic and dangerous time in the Middle East.
Presented by Susan Sklar of Equal Exchange, and Jim Harb, Director of Olive Branch Olive Oil - Southeast
...
The National Organic Coalition: The Urgent Work of Now
For fifteen years Equal Exchange has been a member of the National Organic Coalition, an alliance of organizations working to provide a "Washington voice" for farmers, ranchers, environmentalists, consumers and others who care about organic agriculture. The struggle to defend the integrity and expand the reach of organic production is never-ending and this diverse group of like-minded businesses and organizations has fought to do just that.
Come to this workshop to learn how now more than ever, we are urgently engaging our broad base to retain strong organic policies under the new administration.
Presented by Abby Youngblood, Executive Director, National Organic Coalition
...
The Remarkable Staying Power of IRTF
The Cleveland-based InterReligious Task Force on Central America (IRTF) has been an especially close ally and friend of Equal Exchange for over thirty years. When violence exploded in El Salvador in 1980 with the assassination of Archbishop Romero, followed by the murder of four US Catholic missionary women—two of them from Cleveland—IRTF was formed to focus local faith communities on Central American education and support.
They have a sustained history of promoting human rights, mobilizing a Rapid Response Network to help free activists disappeared by governments or paramilitary groups, and educating on the connections between strong-armed repression and economic oppression.
Equal Exchange fondly recalls the pivotal role they played in the early 1990’s helping us launch Café Salvador, an early manifestation of their commitment to building momentum for Fair Trade in the U.S. Come to this workshop to learn more deeply of their work and what has enabled them to endure for over 40 years!
Presented by Megan Wilson-Reitz, Board Member, IRTF
...
Sindyanna Olive Oil of Galilee: A Jewish-Arab Collaboration for Peace
Sindyanna of Galilee is a female-led non-profit that actively promotes the concepts of “business for peace” and fair trade in Israel. They sell olive oil from Arab small farmers and then channel the profits back into Arab women's education and other economic activities. This enables Jews and Arabs to reach across the cultural divide to support one another in the areas of sustainable agriculture and organic farming.
With the current tragic climate in the region posing new constraints on PARC, our West Bank partner of fifteen years, we were pleased to call on our friends at Sindyanna to provide additional organic extra virgin olive oil to the Equal Exchange product line. Join us to learn all about Sindyanna and the important work they do.
Presented by Hadas Lahav, Founder & CEO of Sindyanna of Galilee, and Susan Sklar, Equal Exchange
More details will be added to this page as they are announced.
Questions? Email Danielle and Frankie at organizing@equalexchange.coop or call (774) 776-7366.