It's Fairtrade Fortnight at the moment and that seemed a subject worth blogging about. The Fairtrade Mark is ten years old - Happy Birthday! I remember as a student sitting in a lecture theatre while someone from Christian Aid told us about this new initiative. I think the Fairtrade Mark and CafeDirect were launched at about the same time. Both have been phenomenally successful. CafeDirect now has a 1% share in the coffee market in this country. My guess is that other fairtrade coffees can only amount to another 1% at best, so there's plenty left to do!
The Fairtrade Foundation has suggestions for being a 'Fairtrade Church', which I think I will take to our PCCs. It will be more interesting than other topics that we have to address (I see the accounts have to be approved at the next meeting!). There are only three things that you have to do to be a Fairtrade Church:
i. use Fairtrade tea and coffee for all meetings for which you have responsibility.
ii. move forward on using other Fairtrade products (such as sugar, biscuits, fruit).
iii. promote Fairtrade during Fairtrade Fortnight – and through other activities whenever possible.
If your church council agrees to do so, you can apply to be recognised as a Fairtrade Church! (You can also apply to be a Fairtrade school, university, town, etc; each have their own criteria).
I hereby promise that all tea and coffee drunk while writing this blog will be fairtrade; I'll try to use other fairtrade products as well. Since I'm publicising fairtrade fortnight, can I apply to be a fairtrade blog??
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