Articles - Miscellaneous

Fair Trade

Mark Richardson, the Fair Trade Organiser for Wales came to Lidgett Park in June 2007 to tell us about Fairtrade. He told us that there is now much Fairtrade tea and coffee available in most supermarkets so we have considerable choice according to our taste. The Fairtrade producers are paid a fair price for their crops in return for fair practices and no oppression of workers.

He told us about bananas. On the banana plantations, the workers are paid a pittance. They have no land of their own to grow food, because all the land is devoted to bananas. On these huge plantations, it is more economical to spray crops by air. The result is that the workers are sprayed along with the crops, resulting in skin and eye problems. Fairtrade producers are paid a fair price and often have their own land as well. Communities of Fairtrade producers are also given a "social premium", which enables them to build clinics and schools for their community.

Mark told us about cocoa plantations in Ghana. He told us of children snatched from the streets with the promise of football training and a possible future career; of grandparents turning up with their grandchildren, without the knowledge of the parents. These children are sold into slavery to work on the cocoa plantations. They have their feet cut with razor blades to stop them running away.
In this year, when we are celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, we know that there is slavery in this country - in the sex trade, in domestic service, with gangmasters running agricultural labourers. This is not easily seen or combated but we trust the police deal with it when it is known about. But surely we, as individuals and collectively, can do something about the slavery and oppression which is producing the common foods we are buying in our supermarkets.

Are you as concerned as me? Do we want to make our churches Fairtrade churches? There are 3 requirements for this:

• Use Fairtrade tea and coffee for all meetings for which the church has responsibility.
• Move forward on using other Fairtrade products (such as sugar, biscuits, fruit)
• Promote Fairtrade during Fairtrade fortnight and through other activities wherever possible.

But can we go further? Can we, not just commit our churches, but also commit ourselves, in our daily and weekly shopping, to using more Fairtrade products wherever possible?

Sainsbury's sells only Fairtrade bananas. You can buy Fairtrade demerara sugar and granulated sugar at Sainsbury's. Fairtrade biscuits can be bought at the Beehive, a Fairtrade shop, run by volunteers on Potternewton Lane. Have a go at trying these and I hope to bring you more news soon.

Patricia Davies

© St Edmund's Church, Roundhay