Praise For Fairtrade At Sustainability Event
A speaker meeting held in York on 30th May raised awareness of the United Nations Rio +20 meeting that takes place in June.
Professor Dave Raffaelli and Nicola Sansom at the Rio +20 event
Oxfam’s North of England Activist Coordinator, Nicola Sansom, held up Fairtrade as an example of successful action for a sustainable future. Although society is a long way off from taking the actions necessary to secure the well being of future generations, there is still much that has taken place that should be celebrated, including the rise of the Fairtrade movement.
Fairtrade is sustainable as it seeks to offer producers long term livelihoods, often encouraging diversification. The Fairtrade movement seeks to minimise adverse environmental impact, for example supporting organic farming and ending the use of many pesticides which can cause serious health problems and poison the land and water supply.
Nicola called on the audience to back Oxfam’s Grow campaign which supports sustainable small scale agriculture.
Professor Dave Raffaelli from the Environment Department at the University of York, who is the director of the UK programme “Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for Sustainability”, talked about his work at national and international levels to find new ways to help communities develop, without threatening the very landscapes and biodiversity which underpins their livelihoods.
