First taste of the new Fair trade Directory

We have a new fair-trade directory of the City Centre!!!

New businesses along Birmingham City Centre, new experiences and initiatives have been told by University of Birmingham, groups and associations.  More information about Fairtrade Birmingham and many curiosities about fair trade movement as well.

We are going to enjoy a printed directory next 2nd of June in The Birmingham Big Green Lunch Event on the Botanical Gardens.

Don’t be shy, ask and look for the new Fair trade directory of the Birmingham City Centre next Sunday. 

Sustainability Fair at Botanical Garden

Fairtrade was well represented at this, our main event in 2013.  Fairtrade movement, as always working side by side along other campaigners for fairer and more sustainable trade.

Fairtrade Market and don't forget eggs at Kings Heath

Traidcraft Stall at All Saints Church open on Sundays  

Beautiful sunshine, a morris dancing side and excellent products brought bumper sales for Traidcraft store at Kings Heath Market yesterday.  

Top product to look out for is the real easter egg -  http://realeasteregg.co.uk/

Hurry to put your orders in while stocks last - Gill will take your orders, and you can arrange pick up your eggs from All Saints Church.  Contact Gill on 01216046127.

Sustainable Spring Fair

Saturday 9th March 2013

Birmingham Botanical Gardens, B15 3TR 

T: 0121 454 1860

Climate Week is Britain’s biggest climate change campaign. To mark this event the Birmingham Sustainable Spring Fair is bringing together sustainability practitioners and entrepreneurs in Birmingham to promote and sell their ideas and produce.

Birmingham is striving to become a leading, green city and the Birmingham Botanical Gardens is working on being the Flag Ship for a ‘Green Family Day Out’.

Ball Room Bar Area

Energy Road Show – learn about the latest energy saving techniques, sign up to the Birmingham Green Deal to get your house or community building retrofitted. Other activities include making your own smoothie with pedal power and a children’s artist will be painting energy saving pictorial messages which kids can colour in.

The Fairtrade and Ethical Market will be selling a range of locally sourced produce and crafts from all over the world.

Birmingham Scrap Store – the Birmingham Play Care Network will be supervising children’s play activities using 'scrap' materials.

Swap-a-thon - bring something from home you don’t want (like unwanted books, bric-a-brac, clothes, shoes and toys) and swap it for something you do.

Love Food Hate Waste - cookery demonstrations showing how to make tasty food from leftovers.
Sustainable Transport, Health, other green practitioners will be there to give advice and promote their initiatives.

Ball Room Stage

Dancers, story telling, music and magic!
Terrace
Big games and entertainment on the lawn
Animals and reptiles corner
Living Statues
Get your hands dirty with clay oven building and have a go at 'scrap to craft' activities.
Botanical Garden’s Biodiversity trail for children
Band Stand

Live local dance and music acts will entertain the crowds powered by a bio- diesel generator.

For a free entrance ticket, visit the Birmingham City Council website and download your e-ticket. This ticket is valid for you and your family on Saturday 9th March 2013 only.

www.birmingham.gov.uk/springfair

For more information ring 0121 464 9166

Harry Potter joins campaign for fairly traded chocolate

Harry Potter Alliance have enlisted support of non other than the real Harry Potter, following several 'friendly conversations' with Warner Bros:

"regarding our advisors' concerns that the cocoa was coming from kidnapped children and exploited farmers. Warner Bros responded  citing a report they obtained, saying it negates the "F" grade in the Free2Work report"

Please see the video and visit showusthereport.com to join campaign to keep HP chocolate fairtrade

Keep an eye out for Fairtrade

Found this at sainsbury's Kings Heath.  Great range of Fairtrade sugars, very impressive.  and what's more, when I asked the assistant about them she was knowledgeable too.

Well done everyone at Sainsbury's  

FAB market at Sustainability fair

Excellent day in Victoria Square, as part of Birmingham's Sustainability Fair.  Here are a few photos from the day:

Traidcraft tour Southern India

Gill and John Parkin presents Traidcraft 'Meet the People' tour to Southern India, 2012 
(presented at All Saints Social Justice Group, February):

We started off in Kerala, landing in Kozhikode (formerly Calicut) spending some time in the city
visiting Fair Trade Alliance Kerala and visiting farmers in the hills to the north east of the city.
From there we went south by train to Allepuzha and spent one night on the backwaters before
working our way east visiting a tea growing area and the Periyar wildlife park. From there we
crossed the central Ghats into Tamil Nadu to visit a project called “Reaching the Unreached”
(which is a talk in its own right) and the Meenaskshi Temple in Madurai before travelling by
overnight train to Chennai and then by road to Pondicherry. There we visited various projects,
some connected with Traidcraft.



Fair Trade Alliance Kerala (FTAK) is spread throughout Kerala covering 3,000 small farmers
in six districts.

Carrs Lane Fair Trade Shop

Int'l Dev Secretary praises Wolverhampton’s fairtrade pioneers

Andrew Mitchell, International Development Secretary, is today visiting Wolverhampton
to taste fairtrade coffee from the city’s new pioneers of fair and ethical trading, Revolver
World, ahead of Fairtrade Fortnight later this month.

Meeting Revolver with the Mayor of Wolverhampton, Bert Turner, and the Executive
Director of the Fairtrade Foundation, Harriet Lamb, Andrew Mitchell said:

“Revolver has proved that fair and ethical trading can be both good for British business
and can transform the lives of the poorest. Making a small change to your weekly shop,
like buying Revolver’s superb Fairtrade coffee can make a real difference to those who
farm these everyday essentials. You are also supporting an iconic local company. I’m
delighted that Wolverhampton is leading the way in bringing new, commercially successful
ways to tackle global poverty.

The visit comes ahead of Fairtrade Fortnight, which highlights that fairtrade goods can
guarantee farmers and producers in the poorest countries receive a fair price for their
produce and boosting their families’ income. The British Government supports the
Fairtrade Foundation to help bring similar promising products to British customers.

Paul Birch, Managing Director of Revolver World said:
"Customers know they can make a difference to the lives of people they will never meet,
when making decisions about what they place into their shopping baskets. Music may
have the power to change people's lives, but we at Revolver Records wanted to do
something more tangible - we're working with famers in Uganda and Tanzania to make
Fairtrade coffee, and cotton growers in India to help us make Fairtrade clothes, all of which
helps them to escape poverty."

Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation said: ‘By supporting
businesses who work in a fair and ethical way with small-holder producers in developing
countries, the government is helping farmers to earn a sustainable living. It’s great to see
Andrew Mitchell encouraging businesses to behave responsibly by creating stronger links
with those farmers and workers on whom they depend.

“Fairtrade is a living example of responsible capitalism – both enabling businesses here to
take a step towards tackling poverty, and a means for smallholders in developing countries
to build their own businesses.’

Useful links:

1. Find out more about how DFID supports Fairtrade here: http://projects.dfid.gov.uk/

Fairtrade working with Sports relief

There is an exciting opportunity for Fairtrade Towns and Cities to get involved with the Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Mile flagship events taking place in one of the following locations on Sunday 25^th March:


London 
Manchester 
Edinburgh 
Glasgow 
Belfast 
Cardiff 
Plymouth 
Southampton 
Brighton and Hove 
Milton Keynes 
Bristol 
Birmingham 
Nottingham 
Norwich 
Leeds 
Hull 
Newcastle 
Gateshead


Fairtrade groups in these locations have been offered the chance to take part by having some kind some of Fairtrade presence, eg holding a stall at each of the Sport Relief Flagship events.


Further details can be found on the Sports Relief website at the following link: http://www.sportrelief.com/the-mile#tab3


This offer does provide a great opportunity to Take a Step for Fairtrade beyond Fairtrade Fortnight in 2012.  But time is running short so if you feel able to take that additional step (or should I say go that extra mile?) for Fairtrade Fortnight this year then please contact me as soon as possible and we shall be delighted to send on further details.


Bruce Crowther Fairtrade Towns Advisor Fairtrade Foundation

Normal working hours: 8am - 4pm Mon, Thurs and Fri.

Tel: 01995 601258

Mobile: 07866 541940

Fair trade to Climate Change

As a former employee of Shared Earth, (a fair trading company), which has gone to liquidation on the 16th January 2012, I would like to take this opportunity to give my honest overview of the state of our high street activity and how, despite our setback, fair trade can still and will continue to bring positive changes in terms of reducing our carbon footprint and bringing an equality in terms of addressing poverty and trade imbalance.

People say that this recession is the worst they have seen in their lifetime. We are curbing our spending, rightly so, and one can see the result on the high street as one shop falls after the other like a pack of cards. We are surely in a dire state of affairs and lot of policy changes have to be made if we are to come out strong and healthy in a couple of years. But we need to see things in perspective. Despite our so called recession, we are still far better off than millions in the developing world who still don’t have access to proper education, clean drinking water, hygienic sanitation and so on.

For example in India, probably only one third of the population is in the organised sector while the rest has to survive with atrocious working conditions, earning below the ‘living’ wage. Parents still have to send their children to work on the streets or factories where there are no safety measures in place. Kids have to put up with back breaking ten to fourteen hours a day with no proper breaks and a normal childhood snatched away from their grasp. There is no social security net in place (which I am enjoying now) if one looses work, so the impact is unimaginable. That means a child could go hungry overnight, quitting school, as you still have to pay for books, pens and paper.  Psychological repercussions for the parent are immense and one can easily become a victim of sleazy exploitation.

We have to think, what kind of society we want? Do we want a self centred society where we think of our own good, or we build a culture where we share our resources in a humanitarian way. We have a duty to our fellow beings whether they are from our own local community or an impoverished community in a different geographical location. Fair and ethical trade answers a lot of difficult questions. It’s not fool proof by any stretch of imagination but it, at least, recognises the problem and does something positive about it. There have been recent articles that tried to castigate the fair trade movement and highlighting all the evils associated with it.

It’s understandable that the words ‘fair’ and ‘ethics’ means different things to different people but fundamentally it tries to do good.  Fair and ethical trade is also about using our resources in a sustainable way. By using less water, generating less waste, promoting sustainable transportation and boosting self reliance in food and energy, we can go on a long way in tackling climate change, that could have a devastating effect on the planet.

There has been a paradigm shift the way we see our lives in the wake of global warming. Whatever we do in our daily lives, we do depend on non renewable fossil fuels from driving cars to printing paper. Although we cannot go back to pre-industrial age, we can do things to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. Scientific evidence shows that global temperature has risen over the past century and more acutely in the last couple of decades. Fair Trade answers a lot of these questions as well as most non food products are handmade with minimal factory production, which in turn has a very low CO2 emission rate. Climate change is increasingly recognised as a major challenge and it’s apt we take a note of it. With regards to fuel usage, vehicle usage, electricity bill, employee travel and sourcing stocks from other countries we can ensure that the whole process emits the minimum greenhouse gases as possible.  And the way to go forward is to have fairness in the heart of our business principles.

Other links:


Fair trade shop Shared Earth to close Birmingham store as company faces liquidation

Aston University Go Green Week

Aston University will be hosting our third annual Go Green Week from Monday 6^th – Friday 10^th February 2012.

The week is intended to raise awareness about sustainability (including issues of fairtrade) and is open to our staff, students and the general public. One of the main events we will be holding this year is an ‘eco-market’. The market will be held on Tuesday 7^th February, from 11.30am – 2.30pm in our Student Guild Hall. In previous years these events have been very popular and we would like to get as many local organisations and people involved as possible - there will be local stallholders, sustainable catering and information stands.

See more - http://www1.aston.ac.uk/about/environment/go-green-awards/

Victoria Johnsen
Environment and Sustainability Officer
Estates and Capital Development

Market Catherine-de-Barnes

LUCIA’s recent Christmas sale in Catherine-de-Barnes was very well supported by Fairtraders and made over £260 for women and children’s projects in Ethiopia!

Traces of Rock (www.tracesofrock.com), Fair Trade Design and Ubuntu all had stalls. LUCIA were selling ethically traded silk scarves and jewellery, plus tickets for their annual Christmas Draw which this year includes two hampers of Fairtrade goods. One of Solihull’s Fairtrade representatives also popped in and was able to chat with colleagues from Birmingham Fairtrade.


Further information on the projects LUCIA supports, and contact details for Christmas Drawer tickets (for the Fairtrade hampers!) may be found at: 


www.luciacharity.org.uk

Community Health and Fair trade

Great to be at the annual Heart of England Community Health fair event this saturday.  I didn't get to see any of the lectures, but there was a friendly atmosphere throughout.  Some great conversations with children and adults at the event raising awareness of fair trade - see my blog for more.

Interviewing one of the volunteers

Our stall at lunchtime

Our new eco-poster

Justice not Charity

If the world were a village

I'm preparing a brief workshop for Kings Heath Primary after-school club, drawing heavily on Stan's cafe wonderful 'Of all the people of the world'.  We'll probably have a few of the figures from a book we've enjoyed in our family for a while - 'If the people of the world were a village' - see video above, as well as some figures the group will be finding.  Who said maths is boring?

We're going to throw in some fairtrade nuts and other foodstuff, a pinch of chocolate (thanks John Boyle and Midlands Cooperative), and look out for more photos on our FAB FOOD Photos!

Please keep sending your photos in - any way we can help support or promote all things fairtrade (or fair trade), please drop us a line.

The Great Debate Working Towards a More Ethical Jewelry Industry

RAPAPORT... The Birmingham Assay Office,  in partnership with International Jewellery London (IJL), will host the fifth "Great Debate," next week to provoke discussion and prompt action towards a more ethically and socially responsible global jewelry industry.  For the Great Debate 2011, there is positive news and some inspiring pioneers will be telling their success stories.

Designer  Stephen Webster will explain his personal involvement with Fairtrade & Fairmined Gold and show a film documenting the conditions he found during a recent visit to the mines of Peru.

Dr. Gaetano Cavalieri, the president of CIBJO, will explain the role of the group's Corporate Social Responsibility Centre of Excellence in Antwerp.

Catherine Sproule, the director of the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) will profile some companies that have now achieved accreditation to RJC's exacting standards.

The Great Debate will be chaired by Michael Allchin, the chief executive of The Birmingham Assay Office, and will be a platform for the audience to ask speakers how they achieved delivering ethical projects thus far.  The event will be held at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in the Inspiration Theatre on September 5, 2011, from 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

See: http://www.diamonds.net/news/NewsItem.aspx?ArticleID=36964&ArticleTitle=The+Great+Debate+to+Feature+Webster%2C+Cavalieri%2C+Sproule+

FAB Food Photos