Fairtrade: the lowdown before Fairtrade fortnight

What is Fairtrade?

How many of you drink coffee or tea to get you started in the morning? Or sneak a banana/bar of chocolate to get through afternoon lectures? How many of you wear clothes to uni? Throughout our daily life we reap the benefits of consuming all manner of products made using cash crops – most originating in developing nations. Crops such as cotton from India or Brazil, coffee from Ethiopia or Colombia or bananas from innumerable Caribbean and South American countries. And yet, many of those involved in the production process remain in poverty, strong-armed by the power and resources of multinational corporations they work for or compete with.

Ethical consumerism is not a new phenomenon; increasing numbers of people are willing to pay more for everyday items in the knowledge that they were produced without harming anything. Some even boycott companies due to unsavoury practices, leading many to use Corporate Social Responsibility as another marketing tool. On a less cynical note, there have long been organisations and business movements that have aimed to provide a good service without compromising on ethics. More recently, the trendin ethical consumerism has tended away from simple charity to promoting initiatives aimed at developing infrastructure or economy in a morally sound manner in order to provide a tangible, long term contribution. However, most of these efforts – such as those backed by the Rainforest Alliance or Soil Association – are centred on efficient resource consumption such as energy efficient practices or sustainable agricultural methods. This protects the land, but does not necessarily include the people affected by these issues within their outlook. This is where Fairtrade comes in.

The Fairtrade mark is slowly becoming recognised the world over. The bright blue and green swirls cocooning the triumphant stickman is the stamp that confirms that a product has been bought while adhering to Fairtrade standards (see below). These standards cover a vast array of categories all intended to empower workers to have more control over their conditions of employ, such as:

• All produce must be sold at a minimum price required for workers to earn above the minimum wage limit.

• Working conditions are safe andequitable for everyone including provision of adequate health and safety and the right to join independent trade unions to ensure their rights are always supported.

• Crops are grown in a sustainable manner and without use of certain chemicals that could cause damage if released.

In practice, this means that farmers form co-operative organisations to collectively barter with buyers, allowing them to negotiate from a position of strength and increase the price at which they sell goods well above the minimum. This protects farmers from market crashes elsewhere in the world, and gives them access to more resources from which they can increase both the quality and quantity of their produce. In addition, the Fairtrade premium takes a small percentage of the price you pay and places it into a community fund. From here, the co-operatives can vote where the money is spent. This could be roads, schools, water, or anything else requiring investment.

So how did Fairtrade become as big as it is now? The first Fairtrade organisation was set up in 1987 in the Netherlands under the name ‘Max Havelaar’ and focussed on supporting Mexican coffee growers. From this, the movement spread, and slowly across Europe similar organisations sprouted with the UK’s Fairtrade Foundation being in 1992. However still they were very independent and it took a further five years before the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation was created so as to “unite the labelling initiatives under one umbrella and establish worldwide standards and certification.” From here, the movement has flourished and evolved beyond just food and textiles. You can now pamper your loved ones with Fairtrade cosmetics, as sold by Lush (who will be visiting us during Fairtrade Fortnight) and wear Fairtrade jewellery made from Fairtrade gold. Believe it or not, you can even have Fairtrade sex using Fairtrade condoms!

Slowly the Fairtrade certification process is moving towards certifying entire companies as Fairtrade rather than focussing on solitary products – something that has been helped by companies such as Cadbury’s and Ben & Jerry’s committing to achieve Fairtrade status. This means that all products made by a Fairtrade company contain 100% Fairtrade materials. In addition, towns and universities (including our very own Imperial College) are also earning the right to call themselves ‘Fairtrade’ by virtue of the suppliers they use. There still remains a way to go in the quest to reduce wealth disparity in the world, but by going Fairtrade we choose to use a fair system making us one step closer to eradicating poverty. – Aditya Narayanan

We go to a Fairtrade university

Imperial is one of only a few universities in the U.K with its own student led Fairtrade society. Back in 2007 Imperial became one of the first universities to gain Fairtrade university status showing a clear demonstration of student support for ethics in the trade system. Meeting the goals for this involved setting up a Fairtradepolicy within the university, ensuring Fairtrade products are available at all outlets and events, setting up a Fairtrade steering group with representatives from across the college to influence change and running events aimed at raising awareness through the university. I hope you see where we fit in!

Although the status was lost many years ago, this year we have reclaimed it and as a society we are working hard to ensure that we do not lose it again! In the past we have been involved in the steering group, achieving Fairtrade status and a push to get Fairtrade products into the union shops. The imperial catering departmentis especially supportive in our activities providing much of what we need for our events. We are eternally grateful to them for this.

Year on year ICU Fairtrade has had a growing member base and our presence is being felt more strongly as time passes, we hope you too have felt this. Although we aim to spread events across the year, the main focus of our campaign lies in the next 2 weeks, Fairtrade Fortnight, where we make sure that all of you know everything that we are all about.

Last year many of you may remember the ambitious plans to hold an event on every single day for the whole two weeks. Through the gruelling efforts of a committed team, Fairtrade fortnight 2012 was an incredible success and will stick in the memories of everyone involved. This year however, we take a different tack: focusing specifically on quality rather than quantity, learning through our past experiences of what works (see www.icufairtrade.org.uk/private/wiki) and adding some new variations. We are also spreading efforts wider that before by collaborating with as many other societies as possible to get everybody involved. With all of our efforts, we hope to pull off the best Fairtrade fortnight yet!

• Ben & Jerry’s all you can eat ice-cream nights are pretty self-explanatory so I wont talk too much on that aspect. This time however, to spice things up, the debating society is using the event as a platform for a live debate on Fairtrade to kick off our events.

• Next, I’m sure many of you have enquired into the thrill of knitting but have never actually picked up a set of needles. Join us in the SAF where Knit Sock will show you how to knit the range of winter wear shown in their recent centrefold!

• Cosmetics company LUSH is kindly coming in to show us how Fairtrade influences their products and they will give a short beauty class so you can see exactly what goes into what you buy!

• The Political Philosophy Society has set up a future trade conference where speakers will talk about the current and future structure of trade and how Fairtrade relates to that.

• Divine are sending us some genuine cocoa farmers to give a short talk while we sample FREE chocolate! This is combined with a fine selection of Fairtrade teas, courtesy of Teasoc.

• To top things off, our grand finale: the Cheese and (Fairtrade) Wine night with the standard raffle and quiz, only this time, the event is kindly hosted in BaRCM with live music performed by students of the Royal College of Music! All in all, a good opportunity to enjoy a sophisticated environment with complete with non-Imperial students.

I hope you are looking forwrd to the next two weeks as much as we are. Please do get involved, you may even win a 1kg bar of Fairtrade chocolate just for doing so! We will be selling Fairtrade ICU Fairtrade society T-shirts over the coming weeks which can be purchased from the union website.

Finally, a special thanks to our sponsors who provide us with many of the essentials ingredients for our events: Divine chocolate, Peros, Epona clothing, qi teas, cafe direct and LUSH. –Nicholas Greenwood