All Fair Trade fans in the east of our beautiful county will want to visit Near and Fair.

Near and Fair are a family owned independent fair trade shop based in Hull’s historic Trinity Market Arcade, selling ethically sourced gifts, clothing, and groceries from around the world.

They are registered with the British Association of Fair Trade Shops (BAFTS).

Check out the website: Near and Fair

Facebook.com/NearAndFair
Instagram.com/NearNFair

Fairtrade Fortnight 21 Feb – 06 March is a time to stand up for the producers of our food, drink, clothes etc who are overworked, underpaid and often exploited.  If you would like an activity to do during this fortnight then please consider the 90kg Rice Challenge.  Get your family, friends, neighbours and community involved and see how many bags of rice you can sell in order to help small holder farmers in Malawi work their way out of poverty with dignity and empower them to provide a secondary education for their children.

Take the 90kg rice challenge

Tuck into a fair Christmas treat from  Whitakers Chocolates a family business based in Skipton.

Over 80% of the Whitakers range uses Fairtrade Cocoa and over half the range is Vegan Society approved. Whitakers Chocolates takes their role as a leading chocolatier very seriously and strives to offer sustainable chocolate products at affordable prices.

In-line with their environmental and sustainability goals, Whitakers decided nearly 2 years ago to support the Fairtrade Foundation and also to revamp and develop their packaging to achieve 100% recyclability status by 2022. They invested heavily in the development and launch an ever growing Vegan chocolate range.

Whether you are looking for luxury boxed chocolates, gift hampers, Vegan gifts, Gluten-free chocolates or stocking fillers – Whitakers have just what you need – from dark chocolate fondant creams, milk and dark wafer thins, luxury chocolate truffles, Merry Christmas themed chocolate bars, stem ginger, rose Turkish Delight, signature mint crisps to the new and exclusive launch of the UK’s first Vegan selection tin.

Consumers can buy with confidence and buy from a true Yorkshire based family business.

The full range of luxury chocolate gifts and hampers can be found at the online shop: www.whitakerschocolates.com

Whitakers Chocolates offer FREE UK delivery on all online orders over £40!

To keep updated with chocolate news and new product launches, you can follow Whitakers on social media, you’ll find them on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.

Please note: last orders for guaranteed delivery Sunday 19Th December (midnight).

During the lead up to the COP26 climate conference, All Saints CE Primary School in Totley (near Sheffield) took part in the ‘Wave of Hope’ project with their partner school in Uganda, the Old Kampala Primary School. The ‘Wave of Hope’ project was the initiative of the Crack the Crises coalition, of which the Fairtrade Foundation and 69 other organisations are part of. Each child wrote a message of hope for the world on their traced hand – hands were chosen because they reflect our connection with the wider community and a wave signals a growing momentum for change as more people speak out and take action for a better future. Digital images of the display were sent to Crack the Crises and were part of a digital gallery used to greet world leaders at COP26.

The Moths to a Flame project for COP26 in Skipton and Embsay

Moths to Flame in the making

The Fairtrade town and village groups worked together in the Great Big Green Week and encouraged others to join them making moths out of the middle of plastic milk containers. The moths made in Skipton and Embsay became part of an installation comprising 20,000 others in Glasgow’s Botanic Gardens for COP26, where they provided an oasis of calm and contemplation. If you’re asking why moths it’s because the moth is a metaphor for our relationship with energy.

Skipton and Embsay moths

The Moths to a Flame project was the brainchild of the Plymouth Energy Community and aimed to help people make creative connections with action on climate change. We certainly enjoyed the experience and were delighted when the moth installation won the Sustainability People’s Choice Art prize 2021. This short video on You Tube https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=wyJnvUy75yM  will give you a tour of the exciting installation and the photos show some of the moths we made and some in the making.

Moths to Flame art installation at Glasgow Botanic Gardens

Fairtrade supporters across Yorkshire are calling for COP26 to be more than just blah, blah, blah. Climate justice is needed to ensure that the countries of the global south, who have contributed the least to escalating climate change, are given the support they need to adapt to the changing climate. The Fair Trade movement is at the forefront of assisting producers to cope with the adverse effects of climate change and has a key role to play in creating sustainable livelihoods for the future.

Fairtrade supporters joined the Global Day for climate justice march in York on Saturday 6th November. The march began at York Minster and the protesters demanded that world leaders assembling at COP26 deliver on promises of a low carbon future and climate justice for the world’s poor.

Global Day for Climate Justice march in York

Across Yorkshire Fairtrade supporters have been drawing attention to the need for climate justice. They supported the Young Christian Climate Network march for climate justice, as activists walked from Cornwall to Glasgow, passing through our region. Events along the route included the holding of  a special service at York Minster, which was led by the Dean. At a local level, Fairtrade campaigner Cynthia Dickinson set up a display of climate related artwork in the Crofton Parish Centre and promoted the Wave of Hope, to persuade leaders to do act swiftly in the face of the escalating climate crisis.

Fairtrade stalwart, Cynthia and the artwork display in Crofton

Wave of Hope window display

The international community must confront trade injustice, enforce transparency and accountability in supply chains, and secure climate financing mechanisms, living incomes and wages for the world’s smallholder agricultural producers, artisans and workers in order to successfully address the climate crisis and guarantee a sustainable future for all, the world’s leading Fair Trade organizations announced today.

In a position paper released ahead of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, Fairtrade, the World Fair Trade Organization, and the Fair Trade Advocacy Office and 14 additional signatories from the global Fair Trade movement, have outlined the critical steps deemed necessary for achieving comprehensive climate justice, including urging the private sector to increase transparency and accountability over sustainability in supply chains; demanding strengthened environmental regulations and trade rules; and calling for facilitated access to appropriate funding mechanisms for smallholder farmers and producers.

Without these measures in place, the signatory organizations argue, the international community’s climate ambitions will continue to fail the planet’s most vulnerable communities, particularly the smallholder farmers and agricultural producers, who remain increasingly affected by the consequences of climate change.

“Our planet’s farmers and agricultural workers are on the frontline of the global climate crisis. But far from being victims, they are integral in developing those key climate solutions that can reverse environmental degradation and pave the way towards a more sustainable tomorrow,” declared Dr. Nyagoy Nyong’o, Global CEO of Fairtrade International.

Download the position paper:

Fair Trade Movement Position Paper

Fairtrade campaigners across Yorkshire are getting involved in activities for the Great Big Green Week, demanding action to combat climate change, in advance of the United Nations climate change conference (COP 26) which will be held in Scotland.

The Fair Trade movement has a strong focus on sustainability. Its aim is to provide sustainable livelihoods to the benefit of poor communities and to the natural environment.

Liz Roodhouse, the coordinator of the Skipton Fair Trade Initiative, has been working alongside many partners to produce a Great Big Green Week programme in Craven District.

There is a wide variety of activities including give and take days, an incredible edible walk, green crafting and an online question and answer session on ‘Facing up to Environmental Challenges’ with Myfanwy Trueman of Craven U3A. The Facing up to Environmental Challenges event is on Tuesday 23rd September at 7.30pm on Zoom. Email liz@cravendec.org.uk for the link or for any other information about the Big Green Week activities in Craven.

Former Bake Off contestant Sandy Docherty has been a staunch supporter of Fairtrade from her home near Leeds and we were delighted when she agreed to partner with one of our favourite Fairtrade brands – JTS – in a series of cookalongs during Great Big Green Week.

JTS has been working with Nature Bio, an Indian supplier of Fairtrade and organic pulses, and their new range of red lentils, toor dal and chickpeas launches this summer.

Sandy has worked up three recipes based on these ingredients, as well as some of JTS’s other great products like Kilombero rice and Meru herbs, and will introduce them in online cookalongs on three consecutive nights to mark this September’s Great Big Green Week.

They will run from 7-8pm and will be recorded and uploaded to YouTube for you to watch later if you prefer. If you would like to join and watch along with the rest of your Fairtrade group the National Campaigner Committee is working on a series of conversation cards based on the themes of Fairtrade, climate change and the role of plant based and organic diets in climate campaigning, to help spark debate within your group after the event.

You can download the recipes below:

Cheese and Lentil slice

Chickpea rissoles

A very Handy Pie Filling

Get your free tickets via eventbrite:

Book Monday 20 September – cheese and lentil slice

Book Tuesday 21 September – chickpea rissoles

Book Wednesday 22 September – very handy pie filling

2021 has been all about the impact of climate change on farmers and workers and campaigners have been asking for a simple explanatory leaflet with a few statistics about the connections between Fairtrade and climate.

Download the jpeg for use on websites and social media

If you would like to print your own at home, or send them to a friendly local printer you can download them as a pdf here:

Copy of GBGW – Flyer Templates (2) (1)

Copy of GBGW – Flyer Templates (1)