At Woodies, we are keen love God's creation and our People + Planet group is key in helping us to reduce our impact on the environment as a church. Throughout 2020, we want to challenge everyone in church to do the same - so each month we’ll be having an EcoChallenge.
February 2020: EcoChallege
Try out a new Fairtrade product
This month marks the beginning of Fairtrade Fortnight (24th February – 8th March), so it seems fitting that our EcoChallenge for this month is Try out a new Fairtrade product. There are many great things you could buy, from coffee, tea and bananas, to products such spices, snacks, beauty products, wine and clothes.
There’s a famous Martin Luther King quote ‘Before you finish eating breakfast in the morning you’ve depended on half the world.’ That’s even truer now than when he said it in the 60’s! Much of the food we eat every day is grown overseas by farmers in developing countries. They generally will have received only a fraction of the value we paid for it in the shops, are exposed to wild swings in global commodity prices, and can become trapped in a cycle of poverty.
Fairtrade seeks to establish a more just system, giving marginalised farmers and producers a better standard of living and more control over their lives.
The key principles of Fairtrade are:
Farmers and producers join together as a cooperative, to work together where appropriate and to increase their selling power. (Some companies dependant on hired labour can also become Fairtrade certified if the meet Fairtrade standards)
They receive a guaranteed minimum price for what their produce (never less than the market price) allowing them to be sure they can make a living and plan for the future.
On top of this, they also receive a Fairtrade premium, to raise their living standards. They collectively choose what to invest this in, typically community benefits such as schools, healthcare and housing, and also tools and training to improve production.
For products to be certified as Fairtrade, certain environmental standards and worker’s rights must be met. This helps to guarantee that people are treated fairly, and the planet is not being unduly harmed, which is not always the case with non-certified products. For example non-certified cocoa farming has been associated with child labour, modern day slavery and illegal deforestation in West Africa.
Today over 1.66m farmers and workers are Fairtrade producers and around 17% of UK shoppers buy Fairtrade products regularly. You may already be one of these, if so continue the good work! Choosing to buy Fairtrade products is one of the easiest ways we can make a difference in the lives of people who might otherwise be marginalised by our current economic system.
So please do give this month’s challenge a go and find a new Fairtrade item for your shopping basket. Visit the Fairtrade website to check out how you can buy Fairtrade products.
Get involved with Woodlands People + Planet group
If you’d be interested in finding out more about our group, or have some feedback about the challenges, connect with us: