As you sip your cup of tea did you know that we are currently in the middle of Fairtrade fortnight? This is an annual campaign to raise awareness of what Fairtrade means and the power we all have to make a difference in the lives of the people that bring us our tea, coffee and chocolate among many other things.

70% of the world’s food is produced by 500 million smallholder farmers[1] yet many of them remain trapped in chronic poverty while shoppers enjoy the fruits of their labour. Fairtrade ensures farmers across the developing world receive a fairer price for their work, as well as an additional Fairtrade Premium, used by farmers and workers to invest in their communities.

For more information please search for ‘Fairtrade Fortnight’ on the internet and please consider if you can make a change for Fairtrade this year by looking out for the logo when you next go shopping.

And as we start to consider our year 2 Eco-Centres action plan we will be including an action to formalise what we can do at the centre to make better buying decisions. We already do lots from using recycled paper and some Fairtrade items, but we want to formalise and embed these and other choices in to what we do.

Look out for more in the coming couple of months and in the meantime treat yourself to a nice bar of Fairtrade chocolate!

Best wishes

Neil

Eco-Team Lead

[1]Powering up smallholder farmers to make food fair, February 2013 (page 12) from ETC Group, Who Will Feed Us?: Questions for the food and climate crises, November 2009, p.1