The Big Smoke and Fairtrade

Hiya and welcome to my blog about London’s journey in becomming a Fairtrade City.

You’ve probably heard a lot about Fairtrade in the press and rightly so. According to the organisation’s website:

“Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices (which must never fall lower than the market price), Fairtrade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers. It enables them to improve their position and have more control over their lives.”

By purchasing Fairtrade products in shops, supermarkets or drinking/eating Fairtrade in cafés and supermarkets, poor communities across the oceans are benefiting from higher standards of living and more money injected into local projects such as schools and education.

So how does this affect London? Well in March 2003 the Mayor of London (Ken Livingstone) launched a campaign to make London a Fairtrade City. Ken’s website states that:

“The aim of the Fairtrade London campaign is to dramatically increase the availability and take-up of Fairtrade products by every Londoner, and make the city’s commitment to Fairtrade visible and understood by as many residents and visitors as possible, whether in the shops, at work, in a public institution, or whilst out and about. For London to achieve Fairtrade City status, it must meet a series of targets agreed with the Fairtrade Foundation. Primarily the work is being carried out in the boroughs with the support of local campaigners (one of the goals is for 50% of London boroughs to reach Fairtrade status)”

My aim is to follow this progress updating you on any news and events as well as finding out what your opinions are. Is becomming a Fairtrade City a plausible and realistic idea for London? Does anybody object?

Southwark Council are one London Borough that are taking this initiative very seriously, with regular meetings on what they can do to help the progress. Southwark were awarded Fairtrade Borough status in 2007 after their help towards increasing the number of shops and outlets who stock Fairtrade, as well as agreeing to use it in their Town Hall food services too.

Feel free to leave comments/suggestions as they’re always welcome and we’ll speak again soon!

Click the banner below to go to Fairtrade’s website