Friday 2 March 2018

Fairtrade Fortnight

St Aidan’s Church, Winstanley invited people to take a step for Fairtrade today and join them at their annual Traidcraft event.

The event was organised by parishioner Patricia Boyle and attended by local residents and members of St Aidan’s Church congregation. Pupils from St Aidan’s Primary School also popped along to learn more about Fairtrade.

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.

To tackle poverty you need to increase trade as well as give aid. Fairtrade helps millions of people in the developing world. When we choose to eat, drink or wear fair trade products we help change the lives of millions of farmers, workers and their families in developing countries.

I back Fairtrade Fortnight because it encourages people in Wigan to consider the power they have as consumers which does play an important part in changing lives for the better.