She is famous for her best-selling novel Chocolat.
Now Huddersfield author Joanne Harris is helping cocoa producers across the globe get a sweeter price after taking part in a charity’s radio debut.
Joanne, who was recently awarded an MBE, got behind the Huddersfield-based Lorna Young Foundation (LYF) by representing them after they won a BBC Radio 4 Appeal slot.
The trade justice charity – named in memory of one of the Fairtrade founders – works with poor farmers overseas to help empower them to achieve better trading conditions and good prices for their produce.
Joanne, who has a strong interest in international development issues and trade justice, jumped at the chance to appear in the charity’s radio project – Farmer Radio – after they battled it out against other national charities to win a place on the show.
Joanne read a three-minute script focusing on the work of the charity’s Farmer Radio project. The programme was then broadcast on BBC Radio 4 three times throughout this week and can still be heard on the BBC’s website.
Ian Agnew, director of the Lorna Young Foundation, said: “Farmer Radio is a very simple but effective approach to helping poor farmers to move beyond subsistence farming.
“We began our programme with coffee farmers in Kenya and Ethiopia and are now are working with women cocoa farmers living in conflict- affected areas in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“These are women who have to face the most horrific circumstances – rape, abduction, murder – simply just to be able to get to their fields in order to cultivate their crops.”
Ian added: “Many people appreciate the fact that we are based at a Huddersfield address and operate with minimum overheads. We make sure that every penny goes to our projects overseas – as well as the work we do with disadvantaged groups in the UK. So we really would like to appeal to local people to support us in our highly unusual and ground-breaking trade justice work.”
Joanne said “One of the reasons that I support the LYF is because I have found that chocolate – and other products – taste so much better if they have been sourced ethically and if the people who produce it for us are paid enough money to be able to have a proper living.”
For further information or to make a donation about LYF visit www.lyf.org.uk .
