A Thandi wine tasting evening on Monday, 27 February in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, was a sell-out and a great success. It was held in the stone-arched caverns of The Fair Traders Cooperative. Vernon Henn, Managing Director of South African Thandi wines, led the wine tasting, and talked with great passion about the development of this first agricultural Black Empowerment Project.
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Fairtrade Fortnight Heroes: The link between Oxford and Nelson Mandela
We love this quote from Nelson Mandela, published by Oxford Fair Trade. The quote is from 2004, but the sentiments are just as relevant today and indeed Mandela refers to ‘taking steps to build a more fair economy’, which is right on message for this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight.
Fairtrade Fortnight 2012 Starts Today! « Oxford Fairtrade City.
Fairtrade Fortnight: Take a step with a fairtrade football
As part of The Fair Traders Co-operative’s build up for Fairtrade Fortnight this year, we are promoting sales of Fairtrade footballs from Pakistan. We want to get as many people as possible talking about Fairtrade Fortnight, and so we are encouraging sales of our Fairtrade Fun Footballs (£7.50, or £6.00 to FTC members) so that people can take part in our Fairtrade Keepy Uppy Challenge – how long can you keep up the Fairtrade
Fair Trade Fun Football
football? Continue reading
A Fair Trade Christmas Cake Story
Earlier this year The Fair Traders Co-operative launched a Fair Trade Christmas Cake Kit which contained the key ingredients to make half a dozen Fair Trade Christmas cakes. As we all tuck in to a generous slice of the traditional cake over the festive period, it is worth reminding ourselves of the provenance of its key ingredients, because, as with all our products, each ingredient tell its own story. For example, our Christmas cake is helping Afghan grape farmers and their families rebuild their lives after more than 20 years of fighting.
Afghan Raisin Farmer
Where the free market has failed these raisin farmers, our amazing suppliers, Tropical Wholefoods, have been working for over five years, against the odds, in a war zone, to develop the first Fair Trade product to come out of Afghanistan.
The Shomali Plain, Parwan province is known as Kabul’s Garden and is ideal for the cultivation of grapes, earning the farmers there a reputation in the 1960s and 70s for producing and exporting some of the best raisins in the world. However, during the Soviet era, civil war and Taliban regime, there was heavy fighting in the region. The low-lying grape vines provided perfect cover for fighters and therefore many of them were destroyed and the entire area was heavily mined.
Firstly ,Tropical Wholefoods helped the grape farmers form the Parwan Raisin Producer Cooperative, which has, in turn, helped them get better prices for equipment, seedlings, and materials.
Next, they provided training and equipment to help them resume production. This included grafting and pruning techniques, provision of trellis poles, and drying mats to keep them clean.
They linked the farmers with a raisin processor who could wash and clean the product for export.
Then, they worked with the farmers to improve their yield by over 100% and improve the quality by reducing waste and mould damage.
Lastly, the farmers are paid on time and at a Fair Trade price that is 30% over the current market price; and they are guaranteed a reliable customer year after year, provided we all buy these Fair Trade raisins. The first shipment of 40 tonnes was made last year.
Other ingredients from Tropical Wholefoods in our special Christmas Cake Kit include Fair Trade dried mangoes from a 2800 strong co-operative in Burkinho Faso. Drying mangoes provides local women with valuable paid income during the 5 month mango season from April through to August, enabling them to eat 
well, get their children educated and to buy medicine when needed.
There are also Fair Trade solar dried apricots from northern Pakistan. Drying prevents gluts, and the Fair Trade premium has provided materials and books to schools, irrigation upgrades, a new playground, water tanks, a generator, sewing machines, and school fees for the poorest students.
Our Fair Trade cinnamon is organically cultivated and comes from smallholder farmers in Sri Lanka. The fair trade premium has provided these poor rural communities with drinking water, education facilities, and agricultural tools.
Macadamia nuts are sourced from the NESMAC co-operative in the Ntchisi region of Malawi. A fair price and secure demand provide a vital lifeline for poor smallholder farmers in a community badly affected by climate change and AIDS.
Finally, the all important Christmas spirit! The sugar cane from which our rum is distilled is grown organically around Arroyos y Esteros, 60 miles north of Asuncion the capital of Paraguay helping the low paid sugarcane farmers, of whom there are about 1,000 in the area. The cane is milled and distilled locally further benefiting the economy. Their co-operative gives them strength to negotiate with large companies and market their products. Energy intensive milling and distilling is all powered by hydro electricity. The Rum is transported down river by barge to Buenos Aires; it is then shipped by sea to the UK for completion in a small London based distillery. The glass used for our bottles has a 70% recycled glass content. Organic cultivation avoids the health risks of pesticides and organic varieties of sugar are said to have a cell structure and biological make up that is excellent for making super smooth rums-so enjoy the rest of the bottle!
So there it is, a cake with a story, which we hope you will share with your friends, family, neighbours and colleagues over the festive season in the knowledge that you will be helping make a real difference to our supplier communities.
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A case for co-operation in the Holme Valley
The current economic crisis has led a growing number of people to question the suitability of the capitalist system and even our Western democracy to cope with the big issues that confront us today: youth unemployment, climate change and the lack of sustainable new technologies to re-start economic growth. Many of us have already been affected by the accompanying social unrest, reduction in disposable incomes, stress and lifestyle issues, and changes to the environment.
Public services and charitable funding are being cut, and despite the lessons from the banking sector, more and more of us find ourselves dependent on a few dominant, profit driven, global companies for many of the essential things we need such as food, energy, and communications. They offer us choice (as long as we go to their ‘shop’) and often low prices. Often bigger and more powerful than governments, they distort the market in their favour by promising our political representatives jobs and investment, using offshore tax havens, stifling new competition, and more. What government facing re-election in three or four years can risk raising the energy, health, transport, or environmental taxes to the sustainable level that some of these companies should pay to reflect their negative long term impacts on society – both here and in the developing nations? The net result is they continue to grow and, directly or indirectly, crush or buy off anyone who threatens their oligopoly.
Any observer of history can see that this discounting of real costs and risks in the pursuit of endless growth is unsustainable – as proved the case with the banks. The longer it continues, the more painful the inevitable adjustment will be. A co-operative economy offers a genuine proven alternative. In 1844, similar exploitation was going on in the then dominant UK textile industry. Factory workers were often paid in ‘truck money’ – money issued by the mill owner, which could only be spent in his own shops where prices were as high as they could get away with (some might say a bit like loyalty points awarded by some retailers today). In response some consumers got together, each put in what they could afford, and started their own shop. They all had a vote to be sure of a fair deal that put their community first and they jointly decided how to use any financial surpluses. Thus began the co-operative movement and it developed the Values and Principles that co-operatives continue to work to today.
There are now nearly 5000 independent co-operatives in the UK owned by more than 12.9 million members. It has become a global movement and is growing rapidly as consumer trust of global corporations and governments diminishes, and there is increasing recognition of co-operation as a vital ingredient in economic development. The advent of the internet and social media is a big boost for the movement allowing quicker and more effective co-operation amongst diverse groups and enabling the participation of far flung communities with a common need – The Phone Co-op and The Co-operative Energy ventures being good examples.
Can the co-operative approach help the Holme Valley face up to the coming cut backs and build a better community for the future? Well it already is in a small way, and the success of other co-operatives nearby illustrates the tremendous scope for our community to work together, to address some of the key problems we face:
Youth unemployment
Experience has shown that small businesses are vital to job creation. Local, sustainable start ups providing products and services for the needs of today’s consumers offer training and opportunity, and ensure that a fair proportion of any wealth created remains in the region. Compare that with another new supermarket – a few shelf-stackers yes, but management, services, drivers, maintenance, and other skilled opportunities will go elsewhere.
New co-operatives, which already employ significant numbers in a local context, have started in the Holme and Colne valleys in sectors as diverse as baking, pig farming, Fairtrade retailing, fruit and vegetables retailing, and organic box schemes. Local co-operative members collaborating with the Transition Town movement and other local organisations and business have identified opportunities in education, manufacturing, agriculture, recycling, health and social care, tourism, and renewable energy. Most of these projects involve volunteers with money, experience, or specialised skills taking responsibility and working together in solidarity with younger people, contributing energy, imagination, and flair. Other co-operatives elsewhere are already operating successfully in these areas and are ready and willing to help. Consultancy, legal and financial support is available through the co-operative movement structures.
Climate change and poverty
Small local growers and retailers working together in our area offer fresher food, reduced food miles, lower pesticide and fertiliser use, and less local traffic. Demand is exceeding supply providing opportunities for new growers. Co-operative members have expertise and contacts in green buildings, renewable energy, and recycling schemes that could provide local employment and a quicker, more cost effective way to reduce carbon output than the mega projects touted by multinationals.
The Fairtrade supporter can buy an increasing proportion of their needs from suppliers who can demonstrate a positive social, environmental and economic impact on poor communities. Direct links have been established with these communities and local businesses, schools, NGOs and colleges, leading to collaboration on new fashion and food brands designed, marketed and packaged locally from upcycled or fairtrade ingredients. Aura Que handbags, Oromo coffee and Not Just Rice are examples, all empowering local people to make a difference whilst providing scope for local jobs and fair employment in developing world communities.
Stress and lifestyle issues
Cutbacks in health, social services, and government supported charities, mean we will increasingly have to look after vulnerable members of the community ourselves. Even The Royal College of Nursing warned recently that we may soon have to take personal responsibility for feeding our elderly relatives in hospital. Housing, foster care, palliative care, child care, homecare, and other social and health care co-operatives are operating throughout the UK providing a vital lifeline for communities and volunteering, job and training opportunities. Carers and cared for are treated as equals and have a democratic voice in the running of the service. Such volunteering can help individuals deal with isolation, depression, and unemployment as well as keeping care local.
Political apathy and short termism
There are no short term, easy answers to the problems we face. Tax cuts, debt fuelled spending, enterprise zones, etc so hotly debated by our politicians are increasingly irrelevant in the face of seismic changes in the world economy and environment. Effective local leadership is needed to create a climate where the huge collective talent that exists in our community is encouraged to work together for mutual benefit.
Bottom-up democracy is alive and well in the co-operative movement. Members hold boards to account, decide how to use any financial surpluses, and approve key decisions. They will tend to be active voters and support political candidates who are open, honest, and caring, and deliver for their local community. With over 2000 members of independent co-operatives in Holmfirth alone they have the potential to make their voices heard.
In conclusion, co-operatives are not a panacea, but anyone, be they old, young, unemployed, business leaders, civil servants, asylum seekers, politicians, etc, etc; wanting to do something positive to improve our community, can support and get involved with their local co-operative. Members are their lifeblood and they will welcome expressions of interest from individuals or organisations who wish to join, volunteer their help, start their own co-operative, or explore a partnership opportunity. Combining the talents and energy of our local community with the national and international networks of the co-operative movement offers real hope for the future.
Blog post by Mark Lewis
Although I am a member of the co-operatives listed below, the views expressed above are entirely personal and should not be taken as reflecting the opinion of any particular Society.
The Co-operative Group membership@co-operative.co.uk
The Fair Traders Co-operative info@thefairtraderscooperative.co.uk
Wooldale Co-operative Society info@wooldale.coop
Watch this amazing animated short film by Accrington based Huckleberry Films which uses archive and animated footage to bring the story of the Rochdale pioneers to life and how their beginnings encouraged a global movement which incoporates over a billion members. Watch the New Pioneers film here.
Fair Trader: A Journey of Discovery 