Our partnership with La Riojana Co-op in Argentina enables us to get unique, co-op made products at a great price while benefitting the communities who grow the ingredients. Direct co-op trade has saved our shoppers thousands of dollars on quality Riojana wine and olive oil! In May, 2017, several members of our staff traveled to La Rioja province to visit the co-op and maintain the strong ties we’ve forged. We toured the vineyards and winery and learned about the community projects that have resulted from the fair trade prices and premiums paid to farmers. This is one in a series of posts about the trip.
By Lance Glass, Weaver Street Market in Hillsborough Grocery Department
To hear the story of Tilimuqui in Argentina and the progress that has been made through fair trade initiatives is nothing short of inspirational, and a testament to the power of the producer and consumer when ethical trade practices are put into use.
Like most interesting stories, this one came about by chance: a wrong turn by a wine buyer from the UK’s the Cooperative and Walter Carol, a representative of La Riojana winery. The Cooperative is the UK’s largest co-op and was one of the first champions of the fair-trade initiative worldwide. In fact, the Cooperative was the first company to stock and feature fair-trade products. While on a trip to inspect vineyards and discuss upcoming wine production, Walter and the wine buyer were considering ways to use the funds from La Riojana’s fair-trade premiums. They happened to stop in Tilimuqui, a remote village in La Rioja province whose citizens commonly referred to themselves as “the forgotten people.” As they discussed the town’s plight, which included no secondary school, a vicious cycle of poverty, and even lack of running water, it became obvious that this was where money should be used to improve people’s lives.
After bringing a source of water, as well as running water, to the citizens of Tilimuqui, the next obvious step was to address the cycle of poverty through education. Until the school was built in 2010, using fair-trade funds raised by the Cooperative through wine sales, only one or two out of every thirty children could afford to move to a town with a secondary school. For those who did not have the opportunity to move, most would fall into the cycle of seasonal employment during harvest, drinking, and often becoming young parents. When Walter first visited the town, he heard of or met many in their early 20s with anywhere from four to eleven children.
The secondary school for the village of Tilimuqui opened its doors to a class of 33 in 2010, and has been to date a powerful symbol of achievement, as well as a driving force in the improvement and sense of hope for the future in this village, whose citizens once considered themselves forgotten people. Currently there are over 330 students enrolled in the school, with over 200 potential students on a waiting list (on our visit, construction was underway to expand the school to deal with this demand). One student travels 50 miles each week to stay with family in order to attend this secondary school. Attending the school is free except for meals, and the Cooperative subsidizes the meals of the 28 students who cannot afford to pay. The school also provides employment for the citizens of Tilimuqui and the surrounding villages. In fact, since the school opened, Tilimuqui has had a 0% unemployment rate.
Perhaps the most powerful and promising aspect of the school, with its impact on the youth of the area and the long-term, sustained improvement in the area’s quality of life, is what the students are taught and the philosophy behind it. Students are instructed in both the academic and practical skills needed to live a productive, happy life. In the classroom we visited, students shared the various professions they were studying for, which ranged from working at the winery and being a winemaker, to being a doctor, lawyer, or teacher—there was even a student studying to be a commercial pilot, and already accepted into a flight program—all of which did not exist a few years ago.
Along with the academic side of instruction, students are taught basic construction skills (they repurpose pallets and spare wood into furniture for their common areas); sound sustainable agricultural practices, as well practices for raising and using livestock for raw materials and goods for market in an ethical way; and irrigation methods. With regards to economics, students fund their own trips during their school years by creating, marketing, and selling goods they’ve made at local markets.
The goal of all this (and in fact, it’s already bearing fruit—no pun intended) is to provide a strong education to create generations of graduates who will apply these trades and practices to strengthen, grow, and better the community from within. It is truly amazing to have been able to see what was once a center for a cycle of poverty now be a center for learning and opportunity. As a former educator, for me personally it was both inspiring to see and moving to know what people are capable of when given the opportunity.