ISSUE 2
Tread
CONNECTING COMMUNITIES ACROSS OCEANS BY SAIL WORDS ELLIE STROHM
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owered by the wind and a web of passionate people, New Dawn Traders is an experimental business working with sail cargo vessels to import delicacies from across the Atlantic and along European coastlines, pollution-free. It shows what is possible from the raw, human ingredients of passion, drive and a desire to change things for the good of people and planet. New Dawn Traders is building new models of trade that put people and planet first. Harking back to a bygone era, New Dawn Traders bridges the gap between small producers and customers by building relationships with distant farmers to bring ethically produced, high-quality produce to the UK with a carbon footprint that is close to zero. With a growing network of ships, sailors, farmers, producers, and ‘port allies,’ New Dawn Traders’ mission has been to cut the supply chain down to its vital parts to allow more transparency for customers and fairer prices for farmers and consumers. Alex Geldenhuys, founder, and director of New Dawn Traders says, “our journey is a symbolic one, playing our part in the global movement to bringing food trade to a human scale and consumerism to a conscious level.” She adds that, with this model, farmers and producers pass their cargo to the crew of ship, which is then passed directly from crew to buyer when the ship arrives at port. At its destination, ‘port allies’ encourage coastal communities to pre-order products from the ships and set up events at the docks to celebrate the full process and the cultural significance of the cargo when the ship arrives. Whether it’s a single bottle of olive oil or rum or several tonnes of goods ranging from chocolate to nuts, or to wine, New Dawn Traders is encouraging people
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to invest in the creation of a sustainable shipping economy by reconsidering their buying patterns. Alex’s philosophy is to encourage people to buy in advance, in bulk and to collect their goods themselves, from the ship. In terms of risk, the voyage costs and those for storage, packaging and distribution are saved, or shared with the community. Alex says that this makes it possible for New Dawn Traders to pay farmers and producers a fair price, whilst charging buyers a fair cost for the products. Nowadays, Alex runs the operation from her home at Argal Farm in rural Cornwall. But her inspiration for the venture arose from the travels of her twenties – hitching lifts on sail boats from her homeland South Africa to the Caribbean and South America. Along the way she was inspired by the resilience she observed in local food movements but also touched by the rich cultural exchange and celebration that comes through sharing the fruits of our land with others. Her vision was to bring this human-to-human connection between producer and consumer to international supply chains without causing harm to the planet. New Dawn Traders officially began in 2013. While working as a chef on the ship Tres Hombres, Alex sailed back with their first cargo - a single barrel of rum from the Dominican Republic. It was the first sail-shipped rum barrel to be landed in the UK for nearly 100 years. The rum’s journey ended when it was blended, bottled and sold as New Dawn rum in the Cornish town of Falmouth. To Alex, and many others who have joined the sail cargo movement, clean transport is the missing link in our food systems. She says that many allegedly sustainable or ethical goods are transported on ships that pollute the air and sea and are a big contributor to
