Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council is asking residents to support Fairtrade Fortnight which is set to begin on February 21st.
The Choose the World You Want Festival features a series of virtual events around the urgent message of Fairtrade and climate change, the future of our food and those who produce it.
Fairtrade is committed to fighting trade injustice and protecting the environment, and to highlight this Cloonavin will light up in blue and yellow throughout the two-week campaign.
Causeway Coast and Glens Fairtrade Group is proud to be a part of the global movement, promoting the use of Fairtrade products, including tea, coffee, sugar and biscuits along with thousands of other Fairtrade towns, villages, schools and churches.
The Group’s Chair, Councillor Orla Beattie, said: ‘Poverty and environmental damage in our food supply chains will not end until exploited farmers are paid fairly, have the power to make their own choices and to plan for the future. Only then will they be able to effectively fight the impacts of the climate crisis. This also matters to conscious consumers and businesses. Climate change, and the ability of farmers to grow their produce, is also threatening the survival and sustainability of supply chains behind some of our best-loved imports, such as coffee, cocoa and bananas.”
Fairtrade Fortnight is an opportunity to show solidarity with communities overseas on the frontline of the climate crisis and to stand with farmers in low-income countries who are affected daily by climate change. Together, we can all play a role in ensuring they can benefit from fairer prices, equitable trading practices and the resources needed for tackling the climate emergency.
The climate crisis is the biggest threat to the livelihoods of millions of small-scale farmers and agricultural workers in low-income countries worldwide. Without a fairer income, they are unable to invest in the types of mitigation and adaptation techniques needed to protect the environment, their businesses and earn a living.
Mr Kouamé N’dri Benjamin-Francklin, a cocoa farmer from Côte D’Ivoire and Fairtrade Africa vice-chair board member, says financial support is a vital element of ensuring that farmers in low-income nations have the tools they need to tackle the increasingly destructive impacts of the climate crisis: ‘If we carry on planting when we have always done before, when there is no rain and it is so hot, whatever we try to grow is destroyed. Then there is nothing to harvest. That has been happening now for years and production and our earnings have massively decreased. What is more, the little that we can sell isn’t paid at the price it should be paid. For example, cocoa farmers only earn 3% of the price of a chocolate bar. Being a farmer shouldn’t be a route to poverty.’
Join us this Fairtrade Fortnight and choose to act for climate justice. To find out more about how to take part in 2022, visit www.fairtrade.org.uk/fortnight or visit ClimateSmart on Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council’s LiveSmart story map. #ChooseFairtrade #FairtradeFortnight
Sign-up free online through the Fairtrade Foundation: https://www.fairtrade.org.uk/choose-the-world-you-want/
