National fair-trade group picks Tacoma for 1 of 6 murals connecting farmer to food
When you buy a chocolate bar, do you consider how the cacao was harvested? Who picked the beans and tended the farm? Whether they were paid fairly and treated with respect?
A new mural outside Tacoma’s Central Co-op wants to convince you to consider those questions and, ideally, learn to adjust your shopping habits.
Fairtrade America is the U.S. arm of the international organization dedicated to improving trade prices and practices. It has commissioned murals in six cities with support from National Co-op Grocers, a coalition of independent, member-led stores.
Together they selected artist Mari Shibuya for the Central Co-op project. Her murals span Seattle to Tacoma, including the Fern and Foster mural in Hilltop. She spent a week illustrating Carmen Mueses, a cacao farmer in the Dominican Republic with a Puget Sound tie: Through the co-op CONACADO, she sells Fairtrade-certified beans to Bellevue-based Fran’s Chocolates, one of several ethical chocolate brands available at Central Co-op.
The idea, said Central Co-op CEO Catherine Cleveland Willis, is to tell a “full-circle food story.”
The company, which has operated a Seattle store since 1978 and opened its 4502 N. Pearl St. store in Tacoma in 2019, carries an array of locally sourced and Fairtrade-certified goods. During the pandemic, member numbers in Tacoma swelled as consumers sought alternatives to crowded or otherwise ravaged supermarkets.
It’s about “championing Fairtrade products,” said Cleveland Willis, as well as supporting the environment, farmers’ working conditions and fair pay, all of which are reasons people shop at the co-op. “You bring a story to your table.”
Tacoma joins Minneapolis and Austin in the “Choose the world you want” public art campaign, which last year completed murals in Denver, Los Angeles and Nashville.
Mary Linnell-Simmons, director of marketing for Fairtrade America, said the group considered cities with a prominent co-op “that had a progressive spirit in food culture … as well as an appetite for sustainability that would contribute to the mural culture they already had.”
In finding the artist, they sought locals who had a vested interest in food and sustainability and who “can really speak to the local community,” she said.
Shibuya was drawn to the project because of her interest in local farming. She serves on the board of a Seattle nonprofit called The Common Acre that works with public agencies and community groups to restore native habitats and build urban green spaces.
“Food and community goes hand in hand — the community it takes to make our food systems be what they are,” she said.
Thanks to Fairtrade’s direct connection with its farmers, Shibuya, who also speaks Spanish, was able to meet with Mueses over Zoom. After purchasing and reinvigorating an abandoned plot of land, according to Fairtrade, the farmer has been able to make a living through her cocoa crops, sold at Fairtrade prices through the CONACADO co-op. She started her own business selling sweets and liqueurs, too.
The mural “is highlighting her … and what it is like to see women in leadership roles,” Shibuya said. “Her being in leadership is changing some of the outcomes for the greater community, just in terms of the way collective resources are being generated.”
From farmer to artist to chocolate bar to store, at each step is a woman. That was important in Central Co-op’s attraction to Mueses over other potential candidates, said Fairtrade’s Linell-Simmons. Chocolate, she added, is something everyone can relate to.
“I think it’s about, No. 1, people recognizing that they might never come into contact with some of the farmers that grow their food — some of their most beloved food like chocolate or coffee — but there are millions of people around the world who are providing this for us every day,” she said. “Unfortunately these are some of the least paid farmers. They’re often making less than $2 a day.”
Mueses might not be from Tacoma, but her image at the co-op serves as a reminder that there are farmers locally and globally who are supported by what you buy.
“I know it’s not Carmen shaking hands with the Pacific Northwest farmer,” said Shibuya, but she sees her work as a reminder to honor those who grow our food and to “remember some of the greater story of how it gets into our hands.”
Watch a time-lapse of the mural in the making, compliments of Fairtrade America and photojournalist Jordan Somers:
CENTRAL CO-OP FAIRTRADE MURAL
▪ 4502 N. Pearl St., Tacoma, 253-888-4288, centralcoop.coop
▪ Details: exterior mural by artist Mari Shibuya; scan QR code on the image to learn more about the farmer, Carmen Mueses, and how to support Fairtrade products
▪ Official unveiling event: Fairtrade Celebration at the co-op Sunday, Nov. 7, 12-2 p.m.; Fran’s Chocolate sharing free samples, Martin Family Orchards pouring heirloom ciders, plus live Dominican music curated by Northwest Folklife
This story was originally published October 30, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
