27th Feb 2023
I first became involved in Fairtrade about 15 years ago when I joined our local Fairtrade campaign group to achieve Fairtrade Borough status for our local area (we did it).
Back then we spoke to various business owners, retail staff and the general public about Fairtrade. Awareness was a little patchy, even though quite a few high street shops were selling products that carried the Fairtrade mark. However, when we held stalls at public events it was encouraging to hear that children and young people were very knowledgeable about Fairtrade, what it meant and why it was important. On those occasions the young people would educate the the older generations on the issue and we stood back, impressed by their understanding and enthusiasm.
Around the same time, I also met a Fairtrade banana farmer called Gideon, from Saint Vincent. He told me what a difference the living wage pay through Fairtrade had meant to him, his family and fellow farmers. I still think of Gideon sometimes and wonder how things are for him or the proceeding generation of farmers now. Fairtrade is as necessary as ever and the climate crisis is an even bigger concern than before, making produce like bananas, coffee and cocoa harder to grow. And today those well-informed young people at our Fairtrade stall may have children of their own and will be hoping for a healthy and secure future for them.
So, the theme of this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight seems particularly pertinent as it highlights the harmful effect that the climate crisis has on food production and the livelihoods of farmers in the places worst affected by climate change and financial hardships.
Unjustly, those affected by climate change the most are often those who contribute to it the least. Additionally, some of the foods we love and consume every day are under threat because of the climate crisis. Less fertile land, extreme weather and disease are causing failing harvests and putting farmers under even more pressure in what is an already incredibly difficult situation. In the current financial crisis many people can relate to the worry and stress of providing for the basic needs of themselves and their families due to circumstances out of their control. For many farmers in low-income communities overseas they also must pay for healthcare and their children’s education on top of other living costs.
Social and environmental issues don’t exist in isolation and it makes sense that they are tackled together. As well as farmers getting a fair price for their produce and a premium for them to invest, Fairtrade provides advice and training on sustainable farming techniques and climate resilience via producer networks around the world. Farmers also work to eco-friendly Fairtrade standards which involves protecting biodiversity, reducing carbon and working towards a ban on deforestation.
Emilia Debrah’s story is a great example of this in action
Emilia Debrah (pictured above - photo credit Chris Terry) is a Fairtrade cocoa farmer in Ghana. Emilia has a flair for farming but despite this, her income from cocoa before 2018 was so low that she fell into debt and struggled badly for a while. What turned her finances around, she says, is the support she got from the Fairtrade co-op she belongs to and training as part of a project where she learned to farm her four hectares of land more productively.
She’s now almost self-sufficient thanks to her newly created ‘micro-forest’ and can sell the vegetables she intercrops with cocoa locally. The savings she’s made on pesticides help protect Emilia, and her six grandchildren she cares for, against rising living costs.
That’s why climate justice and Fairtrade go hand-in-hand and why here at Make Hay and Green Hosting we continue to support Fairtrade in our shopping choices.
The Fairtrade Foundation suggests other ways we can support farmers like Emilia, the future of our food and the natural world:
Fairtrade Fortnight 2023 campaign
Fairtrade and Climate Justice
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