London's buzzing with Fairtrade

Dear friends,

This morning saw a protest with a difference held outside Parliament with thousands of 'mini marchers' calling for the government to put smallholder farmers at the heart of its trade policy.

The Fairtrade Foundation has been urging celebrities and members of the public to create a personalised cardboard figure of themselves to demonstrate their backing for trade justice.

You can sign their online petition here.

Meanwhile, we've seen several impressive sculptures to promote Fairtrade being created around London.

At St Paul's Cathedral, you can go and see an amazing model the Diocese of London Fairtrade Group has created using Fairtrade wrappers and packaging. A nice touch is that the fence around the model has the names of all the Fairtrade Churches in the London Diocese.

This picture shows Sophi Tranchell, Chair of Fairtrade London, with Cannon Michael Hampel who is wearing a stole made of Divine Chocolate wrappers made by Fran Chandler, one of the leading people behind the London Diocese achieving Fairtrade status.

Meanwhile, up in North London the Camden Fairtrade Network have been busy making a giant pair of shoes, symbolising the call to people in London to "take a step for Fairtrade". They were on display at The People's Supermarket last week and this week can be found at Budgens supermarket in Belsize Park.

Back to central London where youth chocolate brand Dubble and educational charity Trading Visions have created a 'Fairtrade Warrior', a tribute to some of the companies that are leading the fair trade vision to transform trade.

Its clothes, made with Year 4 students from Tower Bridge Primary School, are made of wrappers from companies like Cafedirect, Divine Chocolate, Liberation Nuts, Pants to Poverty, Traidcraft and Zaytoun - companies that have created entirely new business models with producers at the heart of all they do.

This week sees two really interesting panel discussion events in central London. Tonight's event poses the question 'Can Small Farmers Save the World' and brings together themes around Fairtrade and local food, then on Thursday evening there is a debate asking 'Should Fairtrade Welcome Big Business into the Market?'.

Best wishes,

Fairtrade London Campaign

Panel discussion: can small farmers save the world?

6:30pm-8pm, Monday 4th March
Divine Chocolate Pop Up Shop, 71 Monmouth Street, Covent Garden WC2H 9JW

Whether you find it beautiful or not, small is our only hope. From urban gardeners in central London to Fairtrade farms in the tropics, people everywhere are rebuilding human scale food systems and reclaiming control over food, health and community.

Trading Visions hosts five inspiring speakers for an evening of discussion:

Colin Tudge, biologist and campaigner
Colin Tudge is a writer, lecturer and campaigner with a special interest in food, science and agriculture. In 2009 he launched the Campaign for Real Farming to promote sustainable agriculture in Britain along with a strong, positive food culture.

Mary Appiah and Esther Ephraim, Kuapa Kokoo
Kuapa Kokoo is a Fairtrade cooperative, an association of more than 65,000 cocoa farmers in Ghana set up to develop fairer trading practices and represent the interests of their members. In 1998, the members of Kuapa Kokoo voted to establish their own Fairtrade chocolate company in the UK and Divine Chocolate was born.

Claire Rhodes, Cafedirect Producers Foundation
The Cafedirect Producers Foundation was established to represent and support the smallholder tea, coffee and cocoa farmers that supply the Fairtrade coffee company Cafédirect. They work with 40 smallholder organisations located across East Africa, Latin America and Asia, reaching over 250,000 farmers.

Julie Brown, director of Growing Communities
Growing Communities is a pioneering community-led organic vegetable and fruit box scheme based in Hackney. They buy from sustainable farms as close to London as practicable and grow some of their produce in market gardens in Hackney. They also run a regular farmers market in Stoke Newington.

panel discussion: should Fairtrade welcome big business into the market?

7 March, 6:30pm-8pm

City University London, College Building (Room A130), St John Street, EC1V 4PB

City University London and Islington Fairtrade Group, invite you to discuss: Is there a business model which has the greatest capacity to generate positive impact on the farmers? Should Fairtrade continue to welcome big business into the market? What is best for the farmers in the long term?

On The Panel:

Chaired by Rosalind Sharpe (PhD Research Student)

• Tim Lang (Professor of Food Policy, City University London)
• Dan Crossey (Executive Director, Food Ethics Council)
• Atif Choudhury (Director, Zaytoun CIC)
• Vidya Rangan (Research and Impact Manager, Fairtrade Foundation)
• Ian Bretman (Vice-Chair, Fairtrade International, 2008-2012)

Followed by Q & A with Manal Abdallah from Canaan Fair Trade and Odeh Qadi from The Palestinian Fair Trade Association. Entry: Free (but donations encouraged. For every £4 donated the Palestine Fair Trade Association will plant 1 olive tree sapling in Palestine) City students, staff and the local community are all welcome- refreshments available.

Details and bookings

a double Fairtrade anniversary in Ealing

6:30pm–9:30pm, Friday, 8th March
West London Trade Union Club, 33 High Street, London, W3 6ND

10 years of Ealing Fairtrade Group
5 years as a Fairtrade Borough

Meet supporters old and new!
Look back
Look forward

Eat – drink – be entertained!

If you would like to join us, RSVP to info@ealingfairtrade.org.uk – entry strictly by invitation only.

Please bring with you any piece of empty Fairtrade packaging (e.g. coffee packet or chocolate wrapper), to help us create a “sculpture” out of Fairtrade packaging.

There will be food, drink and entertainment, plus a display of pictures and photos of the group’s activities over the past 10 years. We are inviting the Mayor of Ealing, local MPs, a speaker from the Fairtrade Foundation, a Fairtrade producer, and everyone we can remember that has been involved with the group since we started.

Come and help us celebrate!

make art for fairtrade

2pm-5pm, Saturday 9th March
The Library Lab, Willesden Green Library Centre

Exercise your natural creativity and help build an installation with this free Fairtrade activity. All materials are provided. Children need to be accompanied by an adult.

fair trade speaker workshop

Saturday 9th March, 13.15-16.30
Middle Lane Methodist Church, Haringey, N8 8NT

Fair and sustainable food
Growing locally
Air miles
Ethical consumerism

An afternoon of interest and discovery, including a children’s workshop!

• Sophi Tranchell MD of Divine Chocolate and Cocoa Farmers: promoting fairer ways of trading and sustainable business
• Vicki Hird, Friends of the Earth: Land Use, Food security and Haringey initiatives: food growing and foraging, concluding with the LOAF campaign

1.15pm to 1.40pm, browsing the stalls and welcome tea/coffee, suggested donation for workshop £1, tea/coffee free.

More information phone or text: 07950 054 705. Or visit the website.