Supporters gather on the roof garden at ‘The Street’ for the Fairtrade Scarborough AGM.

Fairtrade supporters in Scarborough Borough met at the new state of the art centre ‘The Street’ for their Annual General Meeting.

The event took place on 27th June.  Diane showed a slide show of many of the events that had been held to promote Fairtrade in different parts of the borough.  This highlighted what a successful year it has been for Fairtrade Scarborough.

Mark Dawson, Coordinator of Fairtrade Yorkshire, addressed the seasiders and thanked them for their contribution to making Yorkshire the UK’s first Fairtrade Region.

A full set of officers were chosen at the AGM, with all of last year’s officers being re elected.  Clearly a winning team.

One of the calendar girls (on left) judges the bake off.

A big fair bake off was held in Skipton.  Rather than Mary Berry, Fairtrade Skipton picked one of the famous calendar girls to be the judge.  The girls shot to fame as a result of their WI calendar where they bared (not quite) all for charity.  Their story was made into a popular movie and they achieved world wide fame.

A second year fine art student from Craven College made a fabulous cake from Fairtrade wrappers.

However the worthy winner was a Fairtrade fruit loaf.  A classic traditional recipe, superbly executed and winning the taste test.

The winning fruit loaf

The fine art cake made from Fairtrade packaging

Campaigners at the 2013 Fairtrade Yorkshire Conference

Fairtrade campaigners from across Yorkshire gathered this past weekend at Leeds University for the Fairtrade Yorkshire Campaigners’ Forum. The one-day event was an opportunity for networking, training and learning from each other, and also elected our first regional representative to the Fairtrade Foundation’s National Campaigner Committee.

The event was attended by Adam Gardner, Community Campaigns Officer from the Fairtrade Foundation. Discussion sessions looked into the future of Fairtrade campaigning and how Fairtrade Yorkshire can develop. Workshops covered subjects such as activities for schools and raising your local media profile.

Adam Gardner, Community Campaigns Officer, congratulating Karen Palframan

Children from Bankside Primary School gave a presentation on how their School Council had researched and promoted the use of Fairtrade products, and had learnt about the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh and what it tells us about the true cost of unfair trade.

Karen Palframan was nominated and elected as the first Yorkshire representative on the National Campaigner Committee. Karen is the chair of the Bradford Fairtrade Zone and Fairtrade Ilkley groups. She is an experienced and dedicated campaigner – in May she travelled down to London to keep up the Yorkshire end at the handover of the Make Trade Fair petition to David Cameron. Congratulations Karen!

At the Fairtrade Campaigners Forum at the University of Leeds, Mo Zafir of Fairtrade wholesalers, Premcrest announced that they would be supplying the world’s first Fairtrade crisps.

Made from plantain rather than potatoes, the delicious Zamora crisps are Fairtrade certified.  The plantain trees are grown in the Amazonian region of Ecuador.  Producer Geovani Rodriguez comments ‘plantain trees need a lot of care and attention; I look after them just as I would look after my wife.’

Everyone wins with Zamora crisps.  The purchaser gets a delicious product and the plantain farmers get a fair price for their produce, offering them a sustainable livelihood with which to support their families.

Fairtrade actvism doesn’t just take place in our cities and towns.  The message reaches out to the countryside, even to the most tucked away of places.

The village of Littlebeck nestles in a hidden valley below the North York Moors, just south of Sleights.

The Methodist church in the heart of the village is proud to support Scarborough Borough’s Fairtrade status.

The church offers serve yourself refreshments (free, donations welcome) to walkers on the Coast to Coast trek which passes through the village.  Of course the tea, coffee and sugar are all Fairtrade.

Even in the remotest parts of Yorkshire; you’re never far from Fairtrade.

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.

The Borough of Harrogate has had its Fairtrade status renewed by the Fairtrade Foundation for another two years.

Steering Group members have pledged to support Fairtrade on a district-wide basis and help  increase the range of shops, cafes and workplaces using Fairtrade goods.

Fairtrade Harrogate supporters with Andrew Jones MP, celebrating the declaration of Yorkshire Fairtrade Region earlier this year.

The spa town has its own dedicated Fairtrade shop based at St. Peter’s church in the heart of the town centre.

Carmen Sawyers of Fairtrade Harrogate was delighted at the renewal announcement.  She said that the aim of the Steering Group, in the next two years, was to increase awareness of the wide range of Fairtrade goods and assist several schools across the borough to achieve Fairtrade School status.

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.