19 May
That’s the strong message from Fairtrade Foundation CEO Michael Gedney as he delivered a petition to 1o Downing Street, calling on the prime minister to take the lead at the forthcoming G8 summit in Northern Ireland by putting smallholders firmly at the top of his trade agenda.
You can read Michael’s thoughts on the day in the Guardian here.
19 May
An interesting article appeared recently on the Fairtrade Foundation website:
How can Fairtrade cotton bring together a Premier League football club, a 14-year-old Malawian, a new web platform and a Fairtrade cotton clothing company? Kate Jones, Education Campaigns Manager at the Fairtrade Foundation explains:
For me, one of the most powerful things about the fair trade movement is that it brings people together.
It connects communities, businesses and international borders to weave stories of opportunity and action that can have unintended impacts for campaigners and producers alike. This one brings together a Premier League football club, a 14-year-old Malawian, a new web platform and a Fairtrade cotton clothing company.
In October I spent time with the Kasinthula Cane Growers Cooperative in a village called Chinangwa in Malawi, to prepare materials telling Chifundo’s story. He’s the 14 year old at the heart of some of the resources for schools on askmalawi.tv, officially launched last week for World Fair Trade Day. As a thank you, Chifundo’s family asked for some shirts for the local football team. Not knowing how I’d get football strips out to a remote rural community in Malawi, I decided I’d deal with that when I got back to the UK, and happily agreed.
Back in the office, I was on the phone to Kool Skools, a Fairtrade cotton school wear company, who were sponsoring a competition we ran with schools, to design a Fairtrade cotton uniform for the future. Could they by any chance help with finding some shirts? They not only agreed to source an entire set of strips, but even commissioned a crest for the team, getting input on the designs directly from Chinangwa village and throwing in goalkeepers’ strips as well.
As we announced the winners of the cotton uniform competition, I was thinking about how to transport the new kits to the team. As luck would have it sugar cane producer Henry Matenda was visiting us from the same village in Malawi during Fairtrade Fortnight – I asked him to bring an empty suitcase.
Kool Skools even took care of the handover – getting Southampton FC’s Foundation involved in hosting an event where young people from local schools got to hang out with Henry and find out more about how Fairtrade is helping young people in Malawi. They even got a behind-the-scenes tour of St Mary’s stadium, and went out to the pitch for a kickabout.
Henry is still very excited about the handover of the football kit and has just sent us a photo to let us know that ‘Chinangwa people and players are complementing the jerseys you gave me with students at Southampton stadium’.
As a campaigner, I am always inspired by the ingenuity and creativity across the fair trade movement – the most important thing I have learnt is that together we are so much greater than the sum of our parts.
15 Apr
You may have seen our articles about ethically-sourced gold and been confused about the differences between Fairtrade Gold and Fairmined Gold.
Well, the dual labelling is about to end. The Fairtrade Labelling Organisation has just announced that over the next 3 years, the ‘Fairmined Gold’ label will be phased out from Fairtrade Gold.
The Fairtrade Labelling Organisation are trumpeting this as simpler labelling, although the story behind the scenes is doubtlessly more complicated than that!
You can read more about the partnership of the two labels here, and the parting of Fairtrade Gold and Fairmined Gold here.
7 Apr
Easter may be over, but we will continue to buy millions of pounds of chocolate. And increasingly, the chocolate we buy is Fairtrade. Last year, sales of Fairtrade chocolate in the UK were up 21%, to £153. This is great news for the 142,000 small scale farmers who sell their cocoa on the Fairtrade market.
Cocoa is a notoriously volatile product on the international market – between 2000 and 2011 the price fluctuated between $3775 per tonne and $714 per tonne. For farmers, these dramatically unstable prices make it very difficult to run their businesses, impacting profoundly on the everyday lives of their families. Selling cocoa on the Fairtrade market offers farmers a stable price to farmers who comply with the social, environmental and business criteria required by Fairtrade.
There is more about Fairtrade chocolate on the Fairtrade Foundation website
21 Mar
Have you ever wondered how to get Traidcraft goods to sell in your workplace, or at your local event? It could be easier than you think!
Elizabeth Rolph is a locally-based stockist Tradecraft stockist. She holds a wide range of goods from chocolate to loo rolls, jewellery to honey and she can lend them to you for your event on a sale or return basis. It couldn’t be easier to bring some great Fairtrade goods to your event.
For Elizabeth’s contact details, go to this page on the Traidcraft website and search for stockists in Cambridge, or wherever you are looking. Elizabeth can be found in Trumpington.
For details of products see http://www.traidcraftshop.co.uk/
15 Mar
This year for the first time, St Mary’s Junior School celebrated Fairtrade Fortnight. Girls at St Mary’s enjoyed a wide variety of activities, both inside and outside the classroom. Teachers integrated Fairtrade into lessons throughout the curriculum and the girls even ran their own Fairtrade stall selling a range of popular Fairtrade goods. One morning, Tom Taylor, from Fairtrade Cambridge, visited the school to talk about his own experience working with Fairtrade and non-Faritrade coffee farmers in Guatemala.
Overall, the fortnight was very successful - the pupils enjoyed the theme and were able to explore important issues through Fairtrade and are already looking forward to next year’s Fairtrade Fortnight.
4 Mar
Visitors to London can see a unique piece of art celebrating Fairtrade.
A model of St Paul’s made entirely from the packaging of fairtrade products was unveiled in the famous cathedral last Monday for Fairtrade Fortnight.
The unveiling was joined by Fairtrade sugar producer Henry Matenga, from Malawi, and Sophi Tranchell, managing director of Divine Chocolate company.
It comes as the Diocese of London celebrates its first anniversary as an accredited Fairtrade Diocese.
The model was designed and created by Amanda Hughes, Children’s Church Co-ordinator of St Mary’s, Finchley, to celebrate the London Diocese’s support for fairtrade.
“I’m thrilled to see the model in St Paul’s Cathedral and feel very happy to do my small part in showing how we can help reduce poverty in the world with our shopping habits,” she said.
The eight-feet long structure is made up of fairtrade chocolate wrappers, tea boxes, and even banana stickers.
It symbolises the unity of the Diocese in its fairtrade mission, with the model railings surrounding the Cathedral highlighting the names of all 237 Anglican churches within the Diocese of London that have a Fairtrade certificate.
Canon Precentor of St Paul’s Cathedral, Michael Hampel, said: “St Paul’s are very happy to provide a temporary home for this wonderful sculpture during Fairtrade Fortnight.”
The sculpture will be on display by the west doors of St Paul’s Cathedral for public viewing until 10 March.
