BOLTON AND ROCHDALE METHODIST DISTRICT

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New Fairtrade products

Smoothies - You can buy OKÉ smoothies in Asda now and read more about OKÉ, how it is changing the lives of producers and what what you can do to support it at www.okefairtrade.com

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BOLTON and ROCHDALE METHODIST DISTRICT -  to become a Fairtrade District?

Sometime ago, Bolton and Rochdale Synod voted in favour of becoming a Fairtrade District.

The following information is to describe a way to make progress on this vital issue of justice for the poor.

What is Fairtrade? 

Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay above market prices, Fairtrade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers. It enables them to improve their lot and have more control over their lives.

What is the FAIRTRADE Mark? 

The FAIRTRADE Mark is an independent consumer label which appears on UK products as a guarantee that they have given their producers a better deal. The Mark is awarded by the Fairtrade Foundation, a registered charity set up by CAFOD, Christian Aid, Oxfam, Traidcraft Exchange and the World Development Movement. It shares internationally recognised Fairtrade standards with initiatives in 20 other countries, working together as Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International ( FLO ).

What does Fairtrade mean for third world producers? 

There are an estimated 1 million farmers and workers directly involved in Fairtrade. In addition, millions more people benefit indirectly from the investments in communities of the social premium. Fairtrade means better terms of trade and decent production conditions. The Fairtrade Foundation, with its partners, maintains these standards by regularly inspecting third world suppliers, and checking contracts and trade terms.

What products are available and where can I find them?

The FAIRTRADE Mark appears on over 2000 different retail products. They are available in most major supermarkets, wholefood and Fair Trade shops, and by mail order. If your store doesn’t have the product you want, please ask the manager to stock it!

Fairtrade is bringing real improvements in the lives of many people across Africa , Asia and Latin America so they are no longer merely struggling for survival.

How to become a Fairtrade District

To become a Fairtrade District, the MRDF recommend that the majority of the churches in the District must become Fair Trade by following the guidelines below.

• Using Fairtrade tea and coffee for all meetings for which you have responsibility and after services.
• Moving forward on using other Fairtrade products (such as sugar, biscuits and fruit)
• Promoting Fairtrade during Fairtrade Fortnight and during the year through events, worship and other activities whenever possible.

You can apply for a Fairtrade Poster Certificate for your church from the Fairtrade Foundation, Room 204, 16 Baldwin Gardens, London, EC1N 7RJ   Tel: 020 7405 5942 (general) E-mail: mail@fairtrade.org.uk   if the appropriate Council or Church meeting has agreed to the three points above.

We would like to know the number of Churches that have become Fair Trade. (Contact District Office)

It would be wonderful if we could achieve the required number of Fairtrade Churches in 2008 so that we can progress in becoming a Fairtrade District. This activity is a very practical aspect of Christian living today. We look forward to you joining in.

Sharon Harbottle  (District Mission Forum Secretary)

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Fair Trade Tr-aid Fayre

“It’s Homegrown.”

I stood and looked around me at the vegetables and then at Florence’s beaming face.  

“It is all home grown and then the vegetables go to a co-operative called homegrown who transport them to Britain and secure a fair price for us which we receive, and that way I support the families who work for me and their children get to go to school like mine have.” That was the basic explanation from Florence as I stood in her Shamba or vegetable garden in Meru, Kenya, East Africa .

I thought about me shopping in Bolton and popping into the local Supermarket. Sure enough on the shelves were French beans, mange touts, mini sweetcorn and more, packaged and labelled "Homegrown, Product of Kenya". I had seen the finished product and now I was seeing how it all started.

Florence is the Nurse Tutor in charge of the Nurses training school at Maua Methodist Hospital . She travels daily 30 miles to work leaving her home and small holding to be tended by others.  Nine families live on her land like tenant farmers and in return for managing the crops she ensures that they  are paid a fair wage, their children’s school fees are paid, medical care is paid for and everyone has enough to eat. This is on top of putting her own three girls through university. She and her husband Stephen, an ex-policeman who now drives Aid trucks to Northern Kenya to help with the drought , take their responsibilities seriously.

As I walked through the Shamba surrounding the main house I passed under the banana trees with their huge umbrella leaves affording shade from the brilliant sunlight . Sweet, small finger bananas grew upwards in clusters away from the gaudy ,purple, hanging flower. Soon these would be on our shelves labelled Fairtrade Product, with the logo of a waving neighbour in another land, appealing to us to be bought.

The shade gave way to rounded mango trees. (How do you eat a mango? – First get in a bath…..for the juice will run down your front!) and upright lemon trees and green oranges (very confusing but very sweet).Below,from  the ground pineapples grew on stalks (just plant the head and three years later there’s another pineapple)  and arrowroot developed underground with the yams . Familiar rows of onions, carrots ,potatoes and cabbages all had their place  but the tomatoes needed special care as did the French beans that bushed around my feet. Length and straightness of the bean would mean that more would be acceptable to the British market. There was no place the mis–shapen, odd-looking, extra long bean.

Around the house pyrethrum blossomed to keep away mosquitoes and the dreaded malaria. Passion fruit hung on trellis on the wall and poinsettia trees waved in the breeze. High above, the mauve flowered jacaranda trees lent shade and scent in the evening with the jasmine and frangipani..

The deep, fertile soils of the slopes of Mt Kenya are well watered from the 17,000ft snow-capped mountain on the equator. As with most volcanic areas the land is rich in minerals thus affording at least two crops a year if managed carefully. What a contrast to the grassy savannah and scrubland inhabited by the animals in the nations gameparks or the desertland where communities eke out a living.

There are many farmers like Florence, a Local preacher in the Methodist Church, throughout the world who cultivate God’s earth and care as a steward for its well being and for those in her domain. Without them we would not enjoy the rich variety of foodstuffs on our supermarket shelves. Their labour demands a fair wage, one worthy of the time and effort necessary to produce the crop. We are the recipients and when fair trade comes into play , the global corporations with profit and greed seeking middlemen, are replaced by small co-operatives who know their farmers and trust that we will pay the fair price which will be returned to the farmer, not lining a pocket on the way.

Fairtrade comes in a variety of forms – clothing and crafts, biscuits and coffee. I have picked the coffee beans through the day, blistered my fingers and carried my basket. I have had my labour weighed…..2p a kilo and realised I have not earned enough in the day to feed the family. I will not touch the coffee that is produced by the multi – nationals for such a low wage to the worker. I look carefully at say the packet of tea…seeking the logo of a waving arm (come and join us) and enquiring where it comes from and occasionally I recognize the name of the district or the village and I think of people I know who grow tea, took me round their land and factory and who will benefit as I purchase their product.

Will you join me and thousands of others in exploring a fairer way to trade so that an unjust system that creates poverty and dependency on Aid, can be replaced by just system allowing folk to trade their fayre?  

Sharon Harbottle (former mission partner in Kenya)

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The Bolton Fairtrade website has moved to a new look location at:

http://www.boltonfairtrade.org.uk