I strongly believe that I shouldn’t ask anyone to do what I wouldn’t do myself…. Therefore, why should anyone work in unsafe or inhuman conditions, put themselves at risk of pesticides (do you know how much pesticide can go on bananas and cotton?), or not be able to see any positive fruit from their labours.
Forest Row recently became accredited as a FairTrade town – a relatively easy step as several businesses were already stocking FT goods and several more businesses and workplaces signed up to willingly. If you would like to know more about FairTrade – the FT foundation is a good place to start: http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/
If you already support FT you might be interested in the work of Shared Interest, a ‘co-operative lending society’ that grew out of Traidcraft some years ago and exists to offer finance to FT producers who often have no access to bank loans on anything other than extortionate terms (think 100%/week type money). This is often for very short term working capital type use, and the aim is always that they become self reliant. It is a brilliant and truely responsible organisation. See: http://www.shared-interest.com/
My favourite places to shop for FT goods are Traidcraft: http://www.traidcraft.co.uk/
and Natural Collection: http://www.naturalcollection.com/
