Jon Rosenthal

February 2008

Jon Rosenthal, co-founder and former Executive Director of Equal Exchange, a worker owned fair trade coffee company, will be presenting "Talkin' about Fair Trade" at the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College on Tuesday, March 18,  at 11:45 a.m.

Rosenthal has 25 years of experience as a leader in the fair trade coffee and natural and gourmet products industries. He is currently managing Oké USA, a new fair trade banana company. He has recently been an independent consultant creating and managing projects that help advance social justice issues with farmer cooperatives. Rosenthal is also an advisor to numerous fair trade organizations and companies.

Oké USA is the first 100% Fairtrade fruit company in the United States, importing high quality Fair Trade and Organic Fair Trade bananas and other tropical fruits directly from farmers in Latin America. Oké USA is a four way partnership between small fruit farmers and leading Fair Trade organizations. Its mission is to promote sustainable production and Fair Trade in order to benefit producers and workers in developing countries.  Oké USA achieves its mission by guaranteeing better security of supply and fair prices. According to Rosenthal “Our small experiment (could we hold on to our values and run a successful business, something unheard of in the 1980’s) is now a more-than-$20-million company and is still a worker cooperative sticking to its ideals”.

Rosenthal’s talk will take place in the 2nd floor lounge at USM LAC. USM’s Lewiston-Auburn campus is located at 51 Westminster St. in Lewiston. The event is free and open to the public.