MPs sign up to Fairtrade campaign
Friends have been flagging the Fairtrade Foundation's achievements
Quakers have been raising awareness of the achievements of the Fairtrade Foundation.
Olivia Hayne, from the Fairtrade Foundation, said that 100 MPs had signed up to the organisation’s campaign in 2024 to ‘be the change’ and champion fairer trade.
There was a big boost in sales, she said, as a result of Fairtrade Fortnight, which many Quaker Meetings, including Keswick and Central England Area Meeting, supported. Almost twice the number of people heard about the foundation in 2024, she added, compared to the previous three years, supporting the more than 5,000 Fairtrade products available. ‘Around 400 UK businesses partnered with us to amplify Fairtrade’s message,’ she said.
As well as supporting the fortnight, Keswick Friends joined in celebrations last year of the thirty years of Fairtrade in the UK. This included a public meeting in Keswick Meeting House where sustainability campaigner Joe Human spoke on ‘Coffee’s Brewing Crisis: The impact of climate change on your cuppa’. This outlined how members of coffee cooperatives, who are able to sell their coffee into the Fairtrade market, benefit from a programme which helps them adapt and build resilience.
Another project highlighted by the Fairtrade Foundation includes an initiative called ‘Resilient Cocoa for Climate Change’. This enables farmers to grow a variety of crops, which not only protects biodiversity but provides them with additional income. ‘With climate change, our way of life has changed,’ one farmer called Marisol said. ‘Through Fairtrade we’ve replanted trees, grown diverse crops, and invested in organic farming practices funded by Fairtrade Premium.’
Quakers have long supported the Fairtrade Foundation with many Quaker Meetings signed up as Fairtrade Meetings. Friends have been involved in the fairtrade movement since the 1800s when they founded the Free Produce Society to boycott goods made by enslaved labour.
