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BOLTON
and ROCHDALE METHODIST DISTRICT
Sometime ago,
Bolton
and
Rochdale Synod voted in favour of becoming a Fairtrade District.
This 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)
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)
______________________
The Bolton Fairtrade
website has moved to a new look location at:
http://www.boltonfairtrade.org.uk
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BOLTON
AND ROCHDALE METHODIST
DISTRICT