Fairtrade - A Taste for Life:
Fairtrade is one simple way of challenging injustice in a global context.
Fairtrade is about justice. It guarantees a better deal for workers and small-scale farmers in poor countries. It gives people a fair price for their products. And it offers us all the opportunity to use our consumer power to make a difference, and challenge the global trade system.
Fairtrade changes lives.
Most people in our country take just seconds to choose their groceries, unaware of where their food has come from. Yet this decision has a lasting impact on farmers and their families.
Fairtrade ensures:
- A price that covers producers’ costs.
- A premium for producers to invest in their communities – e.g. clean water, healthcare, education, the environment.
- Long-term and more direct trading relations.
It’s a life choice. We can choose to stand against the flow of injustice. We can make a positive difference to the lives of farmers and workers in the developing world.
The Fairtrade Mark is the only independent consumer label that guarantees international Fairtrade standards have been met.
There are many foods which are sold with the Fairtrade mark, as well as clothes, furnishings & gifts.
Many items are available in major supermarkets and local shops (eg World of Difference in Rugby).
Most of the large coffee shop chains now sell Fairtrade coffee, some as the only available blend.
Virgin Trains
In March 2004, Coventry Diocesan Synod voted to support Fairtrade products. It called on all parishes to pursue Fairtrade accreditation by the Diocese of Coventry and the Fairtrade Foundation.
In September 2004, the church PCC agreed to support the Diocesan position on Fairtrade, but made a commitment that went beyond that required by the Diocese. Our commitment is:
- To use Fairtrade coffee and tea at all church organised meetings
- To move forward on the use of other Fairtrade products, such as fruit and sugar.
- To promote Fairtrade actively, during Fairtrade fortnight and at other times
- The PCC to ensure that someone is appointed to promote and inform the congregation about Fairtrade
- To actively encourage individual members of the church to use Fairtrade products
- To individually commit as PCC members to personally use Fairtrade products wherever possible
Following the PCC resolution we started to use Fairtrade tea and coffee at all Sunday services in November 2004, and also at all church organised meetings. This enabled us to become certified by the Fairtrade Foundation as a Fairtrade Church.
Since this time we have continued to promote Fairtrade within St. Matthew's, and now also use Fairtrade sugar in church.
In 2005, along with CLC Church and Rugby Borough Council, St. Matthew's were founder members of the Rugby Fairtrade Group, which has been set up to promote the concept and practice of Fair Trade within the borough. For more information about what is happening within Rugby to promote Fairtrade see www.rugbyfairtrade.co.uk
In May 2008 the St. Matthew's and St. Oswald's PCC reconfirmed our commitment to being a Fairtrade Church.
For more information about fairer trade and how to buy fairly traded goods, please click on the links below:
The Fairtrade Foundation
Tearcraft - Tearfund's fair trade catalogue
Traidcraft - The UK's leading fair trade organisation
The British Association for Fair Trade Shops (BAFTS)
| 