On 17th June Fairtrade supporters joined with Climate Coalition partners (including Christian Aid, Greenpeace, Oxfam and WWF) to lobby their MP’s for more action to combat climate change.  The mass lobby took place at the Houses of Parliament in London.

The goal of the coalition is 100% clean, safe energy by 2050, to protect both people and nature.

Matt Wright of Fairtrade Horsforth and Mark Dawson, Coordinator of Fairtrade Yorkshire at the climate lobby

The world’s poorest communities are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, unable to afford adaptation strategies.  They are also the least to blame for the change in climate caused by rising CO2 emissions.

The benefits Fairtrade has brought to smallholder farmers and poor communities across the globe could be lost because of the changing climate.  Farmers in developing countries are already experiencing the detrimental effects of a changing climate leading to lower crop yields.

Constituents told their MP’s to:

Make it clean – we need to get all out energy from clean sources

Make it fair – support developing countries hardest hit by climate change

Make it work – for the sake of people and the environment – locally, nationally and globally.

The UK can play a pivotal role in obtaining a global climate deal at the UN climate conference in Paris in December, agreeing action to limit the rise in global temperature and delivering climate finance for developing countries.

Richard Lane, Communications Officer of Fairtrade Yorkshire, adds his message to the display in Lambeth Palace Gardens.

Fairtrade campaigners in York went bananas as they called on Tesco to stock more Fairtrade. Members of the York Fair Trade Forum assembled at Tesco’s Clifton Moor superstore on Friday 12th December and, with the help of a 5 metre long inflatable banana, drew attention to the campaign: ‘Asda and Tescos make your bananas Fairtrade.’

The campaigners were joined by the Fairtrade Councillor for the City of York, Linsay Cunningham-Cross, who handed over letters to the Duty Manager calling for the Tesco store to stock more Fairtrade bananas.

The Fairtrade Foundation’s ‘Asda and Tescos make your bananas Fairtrade’ campaign has been launched as bitter banana price battles between the UK’s biggest supermarkets are trapping vulnerable farmers and workers in poverty.

Over the past 10 years, the price supermarkets charge for our loose bananas has halved, whilst the cost of producing them has doubled, leaving many banana farmers and workers caught below the poverty line.

Asda and Tesco are two of the biggest bananas sellers in the UK and major players in this price war. Thousands of farmers and workers grow the millions of bananas they sell each year, yet less than one in ten of these bananas comes with Fairtrade certification, which research shows is the best independent assurance that those who produced them were protected from the pressure of low prices.

Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and The Co-operative have already acted to give their customers confidence that they’re not squeezing their farmers and workers – 100% of the bananas they sell are Fairtrade certified. Asda and Tesco, selling less than 10% Fairtrade, lag a long way behind.

We need to know that farmers and workers aren’t paying the price for our cheap bananas. Asda and Tesco are negotiating their banana contracts right now so it’s important to act quickly.

Ask them to go Fairtrade today – send a message to your local store now

A slightly soggy bunch of bananas a-peel to ASDA for better bananas

Campaigners from Leeds have called on Asda and Tesco stores to sell more Fairtrade bananas to prevent banana farmers and workers in the developing world suffering as a result of supermarket price wars.

They are asking the supermarkets to make the switch during November, when retailers typically negotiate supplier contracts for the year ahead.

Bananas are the UK’s favourite fruit – the UK public spends over £700m eating 5 billion of them a year – yet instead of making a decent living, many banana farmers that supply the UK are struggling to get by. For instance in Ecuador, one of the UK’s biggest suppliers, only 1 in 4 families working in the banana industry earns enough to take them above the poverty line.[1] Read the rest of this entry »

Fairtrade Fortnight this year is from 24th February to 9th March and the theme this year is Make Bananas Fair.

We love bananas – in fact they’re our favourite fruit. In the UK alone we eat over five billion a year.

In the last 10 years, the UK supermarket sector has almost halved the shelf price of loose bananas while the cost of producing them has doubled, trapping many of the farmers and workers who grow them in a cycle of poverty.
Does that sound fair to you?

Our campaign aims to transform the banana industry. We want to make bananas fair. This means that every banana farmer and worker earns enough to have a decent standard of living, works in conditions that are safe and has rights and benefits. It also means bananas are produces in a way that is environmentally sustainable too.

More than 1.2 billion Fairtrade bananas are now sold in the UK each year. That’s one in every three bananas we buy.

Fairtrade provides a vital safety net for banana farmers and workers.  The Fairtrade safety net is the minimum price that farmers get to cover the costs of sustainable production, and a premium on top of this which they choose to invest either in community projects or in their business.

Fairtrade alone is not enough to end the price wars. We have to go further to ensure the price we pay for our bananas is sustainable, so that the whole industry can be made fair for farmers and workers.

Colombian banana farmer, Foncho.

Foncho is a banana farmer from Cienaga in Colombia.  This Fairtrade Fortnight, he’s coming to the UK and he’s on a mission to make bananas fair.

Before Foncho’s co-operative Coobafrio was certified as Fairtrade, Foncho often struggled to make ends meet – it was a hard life.

But since becoming Fairtrade, Foncho receives a fair price for his bananas, which means he can afford to care for his loved ones and send his daughter to college.

We need to act now so that all banana farmers and workers get a fair deal.

This Fairtrade Fortnight Stick with Foncho to make bananas fair.

Supporters of the Enough Food for Everyone: IF campaign headed to London for a last push before the G8 meeting hosted by David Cameron.

They rallied in Hyde Park on 8th June.

45,000 people came from across the UK to demand the changes necessary so that no one in the world goes hungry.

The Fairtrade Foundation had their own display at the event & Yorkshire was well represented with many coachloads of supporters making the journey south.

The IF campaigners were joined by Rowan Williams, Bill Gates and Myleene Klass.

One of the highlights of the day was the planting of the field of flowers.  The two million petals of the paper flowers represent the 2 million children’s lives lost each year to hunger.  Lives that should never have been lost and we have a duty to ensure that policies change, so that children do not have to die of hunger and starvation in the future.

Read here of Oxfam’s verdict on the G8 meeting and what has been achieved so far by the IF campaign.

A large contingent of Yorkshire campaigners headed to the Hyde Park IF rally.

Sheffield IF campaigners proudly display their impressive banner

Fairtrade supporters from York, Maurice Vassie and John Whitworth, were delighted to take part. ‘ We must hold the G8 to account’ stated John ‘policies must change if we are to see a world without hunger.’

Mark Dawson, Coordinator of Fairtrade Yorkshire, was also amongst the 45,000 strong crowd.  He planted one of the hundred of thousands of flowers in the dramatic field of flowers.  ‘It’s a stunning sight’  Mark commented ‘the symbolic act of planting a flower represents our commitment that we will carry on with the fight until we have a world where no child has to suffer from hunger’.

Mark Dawson plants a white rose in the field of flowers.

Sheffield Oxfam Campaigners staged a land grab in the centre of the steel city.

Prominent landmarks such as the City Hall and the Crucible Theatre were sold off to the highest bidder.

Sheffield citizens will be relieved to hear that this was not the real thing but a campaigning action to highlight the growing problems associated with land grabs.

Large scale land deals in developing countries are leaving people homeless and hungry.  Families are being unfairly evicted from their land – sometimes violently – and left with no way to grow food or earn a living.

Every second, poor countries lose an area of land the size of a football pitch to banks and private investors.

Poor families are often evicted without fair treatment or compensation.  In losing their land they often lose their livelihoods or an opportunity to grow food to feed themselves.

Find out more on the Oxfam website.

Trade Justice activists have called for retailers to take more responsibility for the safety of the people who are making the clothes that they sell.

The building collapse in Bangladesh, which resulted in hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries, is a stark example of what can happen when the safety of workers is ignored.

In addition to the responsibility of the authorities in Bangladesh, western retail companies who benefit from cheap labour, also have an obligation to ensure workers are safe.

York campaigner William Gomes

William Gomes is a Trade Justice activist based in York but has lived for most of his life in Bangladesh.  Together with Trade Justice activists, he has visited large clothing retailers in Leeds and York to talk about working conditions for garment workers and calling for the tightening up of ethical procurement policies.

William said; “I cried when I heard what had happened to the workers in the Rana Plaza.  Many people have died making clothes for western retailers.  They paid the price for our fashion.”

Read William’s article which was published in the Huffington Post.

The Fairtrade Foundation is a proud member of the Enough Food For Everyone, IF campaign.

IF campaigners at Leeds Market with Fabian Hamilton MP

The campaign calls for the changes necessary to ensure that no one need go hungry.  This includes support for small scale farmers as the Foundation outlines in its Make Food Fair campaign.

Food campaigners Yilli and Jess urge York shoppers to back the campaign

It is important that everyone reading this website signs up to the campaign.

Sign up to the IF campaign now.

On Saturday 8th June, thousands of food justice campaigners will be converging on Hyde Park in London to demand change.  The campaigners hope to influence the G8 meeting that will take place in Northern Ireland in June.  Do you want to be there at this change making event?  Check out the website for more details.

IF is formed by a coalition of different groups including: the Fairtrade Foundation, Oxfam, Christian Aid, CAFOD and the Women’s Institute.

To end hunger, we need to tackle four big IFs:

• IF we stop poor farmers being forced off their land and we grow crops to feed people not fuel cars.
• IF  governments and big companies are honest and open about some of the things that stop people getting enough food.
• IF we give enough aid to stop children dying from hunger and help the poorest families get enough food.
• IF we stop big companies dodging taxes in poor countries.

Read the rest of this entry »

Karen Palframan (second on the right) and Cheska Hull (third on the right) join in the handover at Number 10. Credit: Matt Crossick (Fairtrade Foundation)

Karen Palframan, of Fairtrade Bradford and Ilkley, was there at the big handover of the Make Trade Fair petition at number 10 Downing Street on 9th May.

Campaigners, including the “Made In Chelsea” star, Cheska Hull, handed in two petitions containing 75,000 signatures from Fairtrade campaigners and members of the Co-operative.  The petitions call on the UK government to use the G8 summit to support smallholder farmers, to feed the world fairly and sustainably.  Together with the Enough Food For Everyone IF Campaign, this action has a strong chance of bringing about change in the way food is produced and distributed.

Join the IF campaigners in London on June 8th to remind David Cameron to urge the G8 to reform our broken food system.  We need real change so that no one need go hungry.

Check out the handover on You Tube.