During a 2025 delegation to Peru, Equal Exchange staff and partners learned first-hand how power dynamics differ across an industry. While conventional supply chains perpetuate imbalances, alternative ones diffuse power, ensuring it's not taken from those who grow, pack, and harvest our food in the first place. Cooperatives take this a step further with strength in numbers. As Jessie observed, "Different groups of people got together to do something they could not do as individuals. The power is in those relationships and the potential of those relationships."