Monday 25 February marked the start of Fairtrade Fortnight.
Fairtrade Fortnight sets aside two weeks every year in which the principles and products of Fairtrade are promoted and the links between consumers and producers is highlighted. Fairtrade Fortnight is the nationwide effort to promote awareness of Fairtrade and urge people to buy products carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark.
Each year has a different theme. Fairtrade Fortnight (25 February – 10 March) will call on the British public to Go Further for Fairtrade in 2013 to look after the food we love and the people who grow it.
Without support now, farmers in developing countries face a difficult and uncertain future, the Fairtrade Foundation will warn. Smallholders in developing countries are increasingly hit by fluctuating commodity prices affecting their income and the prices they pay for the food they buy themselves, rising global food prices, rising production costs, and climate change.
Mike Gidney, Interim Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation said: ‘Companies and governments need to make a stand to ensure small farmers can achieve sustainable livelihoods and play their full role in building fairer, better food systems for the future. Choosing Fairtrade is one way to help secure a better deal for millions of people in developing countries, so we want people to try a new Fairtrade product, create a work of art to ask for change, or pledge their support on our online petition.’
This year thousands of people up and down the country will get creative with their Fairtrade campaigning to highlight the importance of small holder farmers in agriculture and their role in food security. Fabulous sculptures made from Fairtrade product packaging will form the centrepiece of this year’s campaign. Towns, villages, churches, colleges and schools across the nation will create installations, collages or other works of art as protest petitions to deliver to MPs and commercial organisations to ask for change.
Thousands of people will upload their creative activity to form a visual online petition to deliver a call to government to Go Further to support small farmers to achieve sustainable livelihoods and a better deal from trade. Best entries will win a money can’t buy prize.
Stimulating debates will be held across the UK about the need to Go Further to protect the future of our products and the livelihoods of the farmers and workers who produce them.
For further information and to sign the online petition visit: http://step.fairtrade.org.uk/