Fairtrade for all ...

Mar 3 2008 by Andrew Baldwin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

BRITISH people spent half a billion pounds on Fairtrade products last year.

Two stories on the same day in the Examiner last week illustrated how the movement is growing locally in the Huddersfield area.

In one, we shone the spotlight on Meltham, where they are aiming to become a Fairtrade town.

In the other, we took a look at a campaign running with support from students and staff at Huddersfield University.

Both articles showed the desire of people to do good by developing countries.

Halfway through Fairtrade Fortnight today it is worth asking the question: Do our efforts make any difference?

Are the lives of poor farmers in Africa, Asia and South America really improved?

The need for change cannot be doubted.

Just listen to the words of Fairtrade spokesman Mark Richardson about chocolate.

“Around 51% of the cocoa used to make the chocolate we eat has been produced using child slavery,” he has said.

“These children are often abducted, or sold into slavery by families who cannot afford to keep them. They’re then forced to work on cocoa plantations for no money, living in appalling conditions and suffering regular beatings.”

It’s a similar story in tea, which has vast millions of children working in plantations. Many of the pickers are paid as little as 5p per kilo, well below a living wage.

There are plenty of well-documented cases which demonstrate the difference Fairtrade can make to poor communities.

In Uganda they have had the stability to build up democratic farmers’ organisations, to invest in quality or training, and bring much needed investment to villages.

Fairtrade may cost a bit more. But do we really want to pay a very cheap price at the misery of someone else?