Important Follow-up On Organic Coffee Sign-on Letter

From:Rob Everts, Executive Director
Equal Exchange

Friends,
On April 18th we notified you, and about 5,000 others, that the USDA had recently issued a new policy that threatened the organic certification of small-scale farmers the world over, including the thousands of coffee, tea, cocoa and sugar growers that we partner with.

We want to thank you for your overwhelming response. We had asked that you sign on to a letter we and our allies had drafted and that we were going to deliver in person to officials at the USDA. Because so many of you took action--and shared the message with others--in less than a week 3,150 individuals and 450 organizations signed on to the letter. This was a much, much more powerful response than we had dared hoped for and we thank you.

An Update:

As promised on April 26, 2007 Todd Caspersen, Director of Purchasing at Equal Exchange and representatives from the National Organic Coalition, the National Cooperative Grocers Association, and RAFI-USA, met with USDA officials, Mark Bradley, Program Manager of the National Organic Program, and his boss, Lloyd Day, Administrator of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service to express our concerns and present our letter with your 3,600+ signatures.

The USDA assured us that they had heard from us, and you, "loud and clear" and that in "two or three days" they would issue a statement that they thought would make us "happy." They would not share any more details other than to offer a little more explanation of how they perceived the issue. Given the stakes, complexities and interests involved, we cannot assume that the USDA statement will completely solve the problem. Also, given the nature of any federal agency, it could actually be weeks, not days, before they release their
statement. But when their position is stated we will post it, and any other updates, on our website. So, please stay tuned and thank you again for taking action so quickly. Experience tells me we may need to call on you again.

Lastly, during the past 10 days many of our farmer co-op partners, whose livelihoods hang in the balance, have written to us to express their appreciation for what we – and you – are trying to do on their behalf.
You may read some of their letters at http://r.vresp.com/?EqualExchange/ef752df095/941444/TEST/TEST

Sincerely,
Rob Everts, Executive Director
Equal Exchange
www.equalexchange.coop