In November 2008, St John-at-Hackney became a Fairtrade Church. We are one of about 4000 churches with this status in the UK. The responsibilities of being a Fairtrade Church include selling Fairtrade produce; promoting Fairtrade Fortnight serving Fairtrade tea and coffee at all services and meetings for which we are responsibie for as a church.

Regular Sunday morning stall selling Fairtrade products, is opened at at St John-at-Hackney by Beryl and Peter Ottino.

Fairtrade Fortnight: 22nd February – 7th March 2010

The Big Swap
As a church with Fairtrade status, one of the things we are required to do to maintain this status is to promote Fairtrade Fortnight. This year, the Fairtrade Foundation is asking the nation to join them in the ‘Big Swap’. This does not mean giving anything up or doing anything extra but doing something different. We are being asked to swap the usual products we buy for Fairtrade products instead.

Fairtrade as a way of doing business supports the poorest of the world. There are 2 billion people in the world (1/3 of the population) who live on an average of $2 per day which to us is an unimaginably low sum of money to live on. By promoting Fairtrade it will be possible to lift some of these people out of poverty.

The challenge for us is to swap one or more of the things that we normally buy to equivalent products which are fairly traded. You can recognise such products because they carry the Fairtrade logo

If a product has this logo on, it means that its producers have been certified as meeting certain minimum social, economic and environmental standards and for this they receive a minimum price from their buyers. This price guarantees the producer will be able to cover the cost of sustainable production.

Example of the benefits from selling Fairtrade tea & cotton
In India, tea estates are legally obliged to provide primary education for the children of their workers. By using the money made from fairly trading 5% of its tea to pay teachers’ salaries, the Chamraj Tea Estate in South India is able to support secondary school education as well. Although the workers still have to pay a school fee this is small compared to that which is normally charged. In addition they are able to provide pensions for retired workers.

Some of the farmers who work for an Indian Fairtrade cooperative called Agrocel get 37% more money for selling Fairtrade cotton than they would in the conventional market. They also use this extra money to invest in education for their children. In addition, they have been able to invest in developing their communities and business by, for example, funding training in farming techniques which enables them to improve the yields from their cotton crops.  

What can you do?
Obviously the more things you swap for Fairtrade products, the bigger the impact and benefit for poorer producers in developing countries. There are many food products (eg fruit especially bananas, honey, rice, tea, coffee, sugar) and non-food products (eg cotton, cut flowers, footballs) which have been certified as Fairtrade and which are available in shops in the UK. Some are also for sale at the stall on Sundays in church.

Sometimes these Fairtrade items are more expensive than the cheapest available to buy, so my challenge to you is to swap at least one item and stick with buying that from now on. Maybe you could change from your usual brand of tea to Fairtrade tea or you could buy Fairtrade bananas instead of the ones you normally buy. Most supermarkets sell things like Fairtrade tea, coffee and sugar alongside their normal products. Many even have own-brand products which carry the Fairtrade logo.

So please do think carefully about which things you could afford to swap. You can go to the Big Swap website (http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/thebigswap) and register any swaps you make or you can let me know about any swaps you have done so I can register it for you.

Jane Hutchinson
28th February 2010