Fairtrade Supporters Conference

It would take more space than there is here to describe all that happened yesterday, but I'll do my best to pick out the highlights.
On a very personal note, before even arriving at the conference, there was one of the best breakfasts I've had in a long time with lots of fresh fruit and decent coffee served by cheerful staff.
Arrival at the conference itself meant being greeted by friendly welcoming members of the Fairtrade Foundation team and being shown exactly where everything was and what to do.
The first session was a plenary discussion chaired by George Alagiah of the BBC, former patron of the foundation, between Douglas Alexander MP, Secretary of State for International development and Harriet Lamb, Executive Director, Fairtrade Foundation.
The theme of the day was Fairtrade in relation to sustainability and climate change.
George Alagiah pointed out in his introduction that aid is a relatively modern invention but trade is as old as mankind, obvious but often forgotten.
Douglas Alexander described being brought up in a family committed to Fairtrade, drinking Campaign coffee because it was the right thing, not because it tasted good, and now as a government minister being completely committed to promoting Fairtrade as part of the solution to dangerous climate change. He announced the government grant of £12m to the foundation as a sign of the commitment the DfID has to Fairtrade as part of the solution to poverty. His personal commitment was obvious and it was pleasing to see someone so obviously in the right job in government. I have never applauded a Government minister so enthusiastically.
Harriet Lamb talked of the time it takes to develop a product/group to Fairtrade certification. E.g. Zaytoun Olive oil took over 5 years. This kind of commitment needs a lot of investment. Much of the investment comes from the fees paid by producers for certification so the Fairtrade movement is self sustaining but larger investment needs large donors. She welcomed the announcement by the government of £12m grant to the Fairtrade Foundation which will allow much more of the development work to be done working with the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation.

In the course of the discussion examples of rules made in the developed world which make trade difficult and unfair for developing countries were given. The one that hit me hardest and which I wished I’d known about a few days earlier when at the European Parliament was that all bananas entering the EU have to be washed! Why??? Health and Safety apparently! As a result water that should be used for drinking is being used to wash the bananas.

After that came the presentation of awards. Groups from all over the country were recognised for their achievements in Fairtrade Fortnight. Interestingly, both the winner and the runner up in the Most Imaginative campaign category were in the North of England - Scarborough and Tees Valley. Our trip round the Tees Valley with a giant inflated banana had really impressed the judges. Shared Interest had contributed money to give cash prizes this year so we have a base on which to build next year's campaign.
The photo was taken by Moe Kafer.
Workshops on different subjects followed and I was pleased to find out that a group of producers in the DRC are working towards achieving Fairtrade certification for their coffee despite the dangerours political situation in that country.
During the afternoon plenary session I was made aware of something I didn't know was happening in this country (where have I been for the last few weeks?). ASDA has initiated a banana price war, cutting their price 6 times in 6 weeks. At 39p a kilo for loose bananas there's no way it's sustainable and someone is suffering. In the short term it's not the consumer who's saving money nor the shareholder who's getting profits from the increased footfall in the stores. The first people who suffer are the producers who are paid less and less. Thank God for Fairtrade which guarantees a fair price to the grower. But as Renwick Rose of the Windward Islands Farmers pointed out, even Fairtrade growers will suffer because the supermarkets that aren't committed to Fairtrade will just stop buying their produce. He had a revolutionary solution which won't be adopted - pay some of the increased profits back to the farmers who grow the bananas!
There was much more debate about sustainability and climate change but I'll close with the comment from Sophi Tranchell of Divine Chocolate: "It’s down to you. Everything you do and buy makes the world the way it is.” Do we want a world run entirely for the benefit of the few, destroying the lives of the many or will we make the necessary changes?
A Thank you presentation to George Alagiah for his support during 7 years as patron rounded off the plenary session, before we went off to taste wine and chocolate and ask all the burning questions that hadn't been answered in the day. A completely spontaneous standing ovation for George expressed everyone's heartfelt gratitude for all he's done. Tammy Stewart-Jones of Thanet Fairtrade group made the presentation on behalf of all campaigners, old and new.

The day started with the disappointing news that several schools and community centres in the Borough have decided not to provide space for a polling station for the European Parliament election in June. This is becoming an increasing problem and I'm becoming more convinced than ever that we'll need to turn to the supermarkets and such places in the future. It's sad that our public bodies don't see supporting the democratic process as part of their civic duty but it seems to by a sign of the times. Inevitably if we end up with polling stations in supermarkets we'll get even more complaints from our smaller retailers that everything's going to the big guys. But we do need to provide places for people to cast their vote, so anyone who lives in Stockton and knows of somewhere that would be willing - get in touch. It might be somewhere we don't know about.
I spent a part of the afternoon in Nightingale House, starting with a tour of the Bereavement suite. This has two functions. There's a comfortable room where bereaved families, or people preparing for the death of someone with a terminal illness, can discuss possibilities with a sympathetic member of the bereavement staff. They can explore possibilities without any pressure from funeral directors or friends or anyone else and the hope is that people will be able to decide on the kind of funeral which best suits them. The other room is a display room for a number of alternative coffins and containers for cremated remains. The traditional wooden coffin contains glues and varnishes which are not particularly good for the environment and an increasing number of people want something less damaging. There are plain cardboard coffins which can be personalised or left plain, printed cardboard coffins, woven wicker ones and now papier mache. The wicker ones are made in the south of England at present but I'm sure it won't be long before we have a firm in the north coppicing willow for this purpose. The papier mache ones can be finished with a top layer in coloured tissue paper and then decorated or you can go the whole hog for a real bling funeral - gold leaf finished coffin with a feather lining in a choice of colours. So there really is something for everyone. My personal favourite was the papier mache acorn designed to hold cremated remains for interment. It's attractive enough to be used as an ornament in any house, and far too nice to be buried!
Seriously, I encourage everyone to think about this seriously and make some decisions while fit and healthy and able to do it.
The committee went on to discuss the possibility of having a new crematorium in Stockton. One of the issues with the facilities currently available outside the borough is the increasing number of people who need a larger coffin which won't fit into the cremator. I'm not sure if that's an incentive to lose weight or not.
We also agreed our final report on Dog Fouling and Animal Welfare which will go to cabinet in April. All in all, a busy meeting and a very interesting one.
When I returned to the computer I found a photo showing the end of the bananan skins from Friday. They'd all been collected up and taken to the Shaw Trust in Fairfield. There they've been added to the compost heap and the photo proves the point.

Fairtrade Campaign Day

It's not often that two of us from Eaglescliffe get ourselves up and out on a Saturday morning before 8 but today was one such occasion. Suzanne Fletcher and I had decided to forego a lie in so that we could go to Sheffield for a Fairtrade Foundation campaign day. The venue was Sheffield Hallam University, a Fairtrade university and a very good venue for such an event. A few minutes walk from the railway station, and very accessible.
At Darlington station we met up with Shabana from the Middlesbrough Fairtrade group so the journey down was spent discussing some of the things that might happen in Teesside. The day itself was crammed with opportunities for meeting other campaigners, workshop sessions to discuss all sorts of topics and presentations from various people. There was far too much to write about here. On the train home I typed up 3 pages of notes from the day to share with others in Stockton!
A few highlights here though:
70% of people in the UK now recognise the Fairtrade mark - better than many leading brand names!
In the 20 minutes of a presentation about the Co-op's involvement in the movement 400 children around the world died because of poverty - and you don't have to be a genius to realise that they didn't live in the developed world.
Fairtrade cotton clothes retailers have to be able to demonstrate that the whole of their supply chain is meeting certain minimum standards like freedom of association for the workforce, basic wages, no child labour before they're allowed to use the Fairtrade mark on the clothing. It doesn't mean that the supply chain is all fairtrade but it should mean that the workers are getting a basic minimum of rights. There's work ongoing on how to ensure that the manufacture of the garments is done with higher standards but that will take some time. The representative of one small clothing company described how she'd found this audit trail very educational as well as hard work.
There isn't nearly enough Fairtrade chocolate in this country. We heard via the wonders of the internet from two members of the Kapua Kokoo co-operative in Ghana who produce the cocoa beans for Divine Chocolate and the Co-op's own brand. Less than 10% of their production is sold on the Fairtrade market yet the premium from those sales is making a huge difference to the lives of the families involved - educating the children, empowering the women, providing clean water for all the families. At the end they had one question for us: "Are you buying our chocolate?" We need every newsagent and every petrol station mini-shop to offer Fairtrade Chocolate as one option - it's such good chocolate that once people taste it they'll buy more!
We heard about a campaigner who celebrated her 60th birthday by taking a giant Fairtrade banana on a bus tour of libraries, schools and shopping centres in her neighbourhood using her free bus pass. She generated loads of publicity locally!
And so the day went on - lots of inspiration and lots of ideas. The art now is to enthuse others before the buzz wears off!