New Dawn Traders — Farms To Feed Us

The New Dawn Traders bring precious cargo from Europe and the Carribean that we don’t produce here in the UK, such as olive oil, almonds, cocoa and coffee. Sailing on the natural wind patterns of the ocean, they retrace a trade route that entails the trail of colonialism which formed the world we live in today. Whilst the ship was mid-voyage, Tiger Lily caught up with founder, Alexandra Geldenhuys, who told her tales of the journey so far and where it might be headed...

The voyage

As I write, The Gallant, a Blue Schooner Company sailing ship, built in 1916 and first commandeered by the New Dawn Traders in 2019, sits in the port of Leixões, near Porto, where it arrived ahead of schedule on favourable winds. Her 3rd trip to Porto, she’d usually be greeted by the crowds of this bustling cargo town, but this time the port is quiet and the crew have to stay on board.

Luckily there’s plenty to be getting on with while they await the arrival of the finest Portuguese olive oil, almonds, honey, wine and beans, brought from the farms to the port. Thanks to the support of olive oil sommelier, Marije, from Passeite farm, New Dawn Traders work with 3 local farmers growing different varieties of olives in harmony with the local ecosystem, to produce gallons of golden, organic oil.

Before arriving in Penzance on July 3rd, The Gallant and her crew will sail from Porto, to Les Sables d’Olonne, near Nantes, and then L’Aber W’rach, in Brittany, where they’ll deliver cargo and collect ‘Fleur de Sel’; the salt of Noirmoutier is produced by 5th century salterns, transformed from wetlands by Benedictine monks, and harvested using ancestral techniques.

Back on the shores of the British isles, cargo will be unloaded to the local community, and, for the first time, in the wake of the Covid crisis, delivered nationally from Penzance. The ship will make local drops to Queensborough and London ports, before setting out on its Autumn voyage. (Links to order cargo UK-wide can be found at the end of the article)

Newhaven harbour, photo @sail_boat_project

Following the summer/autumn trips to Europe, The Gallant heads to the Carribean in the winter, for coffee, cacao and sugar - luxuries, like olive oil and almonds, that we don’t produce in the UK and have historically imported in unethical and unsustainable ways. But NDT has built relationships with small farms and co-operatives who cultivate and trade in harmonious and supportive ways with the land, growers, and buyers.

“If we wish to heal and protect the planet and our communities, we need to support the farmers who are doing the work. They have their hands in the soil and they are the cornerstones of their communities as well”.

In Trinidad, NDT works with the Alliance of Rural Communities to source the native, highly sought after Trinitario cacao beans, bought directly from the growers and brought back to Cornwall, where they’re made into single-origin, bean-to-bar chocolate by Chocolarder.

In Colombia, Tolima coffee beans are carefully picked and dried in the sweet smelling breeze that blows through the smallholder farms in the mountains and valleys where they grow, before NDT returns with them for roasting by Cornwall’s Yallah Coffee.

Further North, where glacier-fed-rivers irrigate the plains and valleys of the Sierra Nevada, a small, indigenous community makes panela: raw, unrefined sugar that’s full of molasses, making for a nutrient-rich and fudgy treat. Panela trade supports 180 families, whose ancient methods of farming align with the moon, and produce small amounts that wouldn’t be possible to export on a larger scale.

“We still need to trade, but in a way that is truly fair and respectful for the people and the planet that provide for us. By doing it on a community scale we can get the model right.”

The model ship
Farmers and producers, as well as crew, captains, and buyers, make up the ‘Voyage Co-Op’. The model aims to build a sustainable economy around fossil-fuel-free sailing of sustainably produced cargo. The ship can carry 35 tonnes and make 3 round trips a year; 1 full ship on 1 round trip can cover running costs for the year, so it's scalable and self-sufficient, doesn’t rely on volunteers, and supports workers rather than shareholders.

The Gallant sailing out of Trinidad toward Colombia, photo New Dawn Traders

Before Covid, The New Dawn Traders hosted parties for the Gallant on arrival to port, for people to celebrate the ship, learn about sail cargo, and collect their orders. Whilst it’s a shame for the ship to move into more virtual interactions, NDT was fortunate in already having a direct sales model, only needing to tweak the schedule and delivery plans.

“If anything, we’ve seen an increase in interest. Our ethical values resonate more strongly now with people than they have before”, with sales up 70% from the last voyage. “Despite the global upheaval, as a working cargo vessel, the Gallant can keep sailing. If anything, our small but resilient network of producers, sailors, makers and port allies are coming into their own - showing that another system is possible! Food grown with love, shipped with the wind and delivered into your hands.”

To make up for the loss of the events and ensure everyone gets their goods, there’ll be national delivery through DropPoint, and local distribution coordinated with the team of ‘port allies’. Port allies galvanise their communities to pre-order in bulk and then share the cargo. Anyone can become an ally, receiving the tools to become part of the supply chain and create a local market for sailed cargo. “People want to get involved but don’t necessarily have the business skills to set themselves up… Their enthusiasm was worth so much more though”.

“NDT handles the import and export paperwork, pays the ship and the producers, and works collaboratively with the supply chain to maximise the marketing potential for each port ally”. There’s a WhatsApp group including the allies, producers and captains of the ship, to keep each other updated, and one spreadsheet for prices and orders, Aex tells me. The system, she says, “seems common sense to me, but is quite an unusual way of doing business”.

The captain

Alex was born in South Africa and moved to England when she was 15, where she’s lived in Birmingham, London, Brighton, Bristol and, for the last few years, in Cornwall, near the ships and sea. Despite growing up 8 hours inland, and with no history of sailing, she always knew she’d live on the coast; “I always believed it was possible to go everywhere and see everything, but as a participant, not a tourist, and without negatively impacting the environment.”

At university, Alex studied fashion - a “window into consumer culture” and supply chains. Getting as far away from fashion as possible, she went to work on a cacao farm project in Brazil, where she was inspired by the idea of bringing beans back on a sailing ship. Here, she experienced food directly from the fields and rivers, like when the neighbouring farmer, to apologise for the buffalo trampling their trees, brought them a bucket of mozzarella & left them “no choice but to build a pizza oven and eat until we rolled down the hill…”

As the relationship of taste and place grew out of Alex’s experiences of real, quality food, so did her dream of sailing cargo. What she hadn’t dreamed of, however, was the long, slow lesson in economics and the shipping industry - it’s evolution since the invention of the shipping container and the explosion of consumer capitalism, discovering how “disjointed and murky the supply chain, the links between producers and buyers, has become”.

Alex’s first transatlantic trip was spent as a cook aboard the Tres Hombres, which sails under the flag of the Fairtransport Company. It was a lesson in the story of ships throughout economics, history, food sovereignty, community and culture. They brought rum back from the Carribean - a lesson in trade and marketing, leading Alex to set out to find a product of value that could be traded affordably.

“In the ultimate sustainable reality, imported products would only be those that can’t be produced locally, but might be culturally important or interesting, perhaps the finer things, that add excitement to life.”

The high seas

New Dawn Traders endeavours to find ways to make more high quality food more available and affordable, whilst supporting more small scale farmers, so are currently working toward a membership scheme that aims to make it possible for people to spread the cost of their cargo pre-order.

“We presume that price relates to quality, but it doesn’t necessarily reflect the true cost of food,” says Alex. “Subsidies on fossil fueled shipping and agriculture make things that are actually expensive seem cheap, as the costs are covered elsewhere, like our taxes. As we unpick the supply chain, the injustices become clear and can be rebalanced, by replacing old systems with fairer ones.”

NDT products aim to cost less than, or at least equal to, the equivalent supermarket price. By shortening the supply chain and inviting customers to pre-order and collect, costs are reduced. Growers can therefore be paid higher than market-value for produce, the ship is fairly remunerated, and, through bulk ordering, savings can be passed to the community.

The winds of change

Privileged to be able to pursue her dreams and live precariously, supported by a network of sofas for sleeping on between trips, Alex founded NDT when she was living in Bristol, inspired by the city’s active food and environment networks. Her motivation: to take others on a journey to connect with those living in harmony with the planet, and participate in fair exchange.

“Today’s sail cargo ships are travelling routes that follow the natural wind patterns swirling around the planet’s oceans. These are the same forces harnessed by the first ‘Voyages of Discovery’ in the 17th Century; voyages that set us on the path toward the economy and culture that we have today, voyages that intended to exploit and conquer distant lands for the benefit of our rich elite, in the name of ‘progress’. These voyages have left a legacy of oppression and environmental destruction that is still palpable today.”

Last year, NDT finally brought a ship into Bristol after several false starts. An international port since medieval times, Bristol was Britain’s second biggest port in the mid 1700s, when it became the centre of the slave trade. Over half a million enslaved Africans were traded on Bristol ships [1]; in 1750 alone, around 8000 of the 20,000 enslaved Africans sent that year to the sugar and tobacco plantations in the Carribean and North America, left from Bristol [2].

Accounting for 80% of Bristol’s trade by the end of the 18th century, slavery profited investors, shipbuilders, merchants and manufacturers, forming the foundations of the city’s wealth. Bristol ships capitalised on the ‘triangular trade’ between England, West African and the Caribbean [2], exporting goods for the plantations - mainly woolen cloth for slave clothing. Ships returned to Bristol with slave-produced sugar, rum, indigo and cocoa, where they were processed by local industries that employed thousands of working people. [1]

Alex believes that understanding our heritage and history, and feeling its consequences, is what will empower us to make better decisions for the future. The New Dawn Traders mission involves ‘retracing old trade routes with a fresh and revolutionary mission, turning full circle, upside down and inside out the intentions and exploitations of the Age of Discovery… Revitalising the futures of traditional sailing vessels and the industries of traditional skills and knowledge that maintain them. Revolutionary, direct and respectful cross-cultural pollination of knowledge, food, commodities and culture, empowering inspired individual creativity for the benefit of the planet, through direct experience of different ecosystems and cultures.’

Sailing the old sea routes of the slave trade is a sensitive journey and uncomfortable subject, but not one that she shies away from. Alex wants to offer this return to sail-shipped cargo as an opportunity for learning - part of the process of understanding and healing.

On the horizon

“Sailing ships don’t easily fit into the system as it has become. They operate seasonally and work with nature, not against it. New systems of business need building to align with the nature of sailing and therefore with the natural cycles of the planet.”

New Dawn Traders aims to make a Voyage Co-op toolkit available to communities around the world, as a model for small scale supply chains that can multiply. Inspired by other alternative economic models, like CSAs, veg box schemes and food co-ops, many of which are included on the Farms To Feed Us database. Alex aims to apply these principles to ocean shipping, and build a network along the supply chain, based on shared ethics and values, production methods, economic and business practice.

The ‘Sail Cargo Alliance’ (SCA), is currently a network of the different projects around the world. The aspiration is to build the network so small ships can carry cargo along the coastline, making use of all the ports in the UK and Europe, which are specifically designed for sailing ships. “Bigger ships would then be able to start filling their capacity for international trade, once we build the demand up to a certain scale.” They’re ready and raring to go when we are.

Alex’s bold vision of a new paradigm of global trade involves ethical and equal exchange, a balance of shared nutrients and respect between people and place. In New Dawn Traders, we see a model for sailing cargo based on the principles of permaculture - quoted by Alex as ‘Earth care, people care and fair share’, taken to the seas and driven by the changing winds.

You can still pre-order from New Dawn Traders, including olive oil, almonds, wine, salt, chocolate, coffee, sugar and more, subject to availability. For all the information on produce, ports and the ship’s schedule, head to: https://www.newdawntraders.com/order-cargo, where orders can either be made with local ports through port allies, or for national delivery.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_slave_trade

[2] Professor Madge Dresser, with contributions from Bristol Museums Black History Steering Group: https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/stories/bristol-transatlantic-slave-trade/

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