If, like Akoma, you believe everyone of us has the power to fight poverty and injustice by making ethical choices as consumers, you’ll be as excited as we are about Fairtrade Fortnight.
Fairtrade Fortnight takes place from 26th February to 11th March 2018 and is your opportunity to show support for farmers around the globe, who make the products we enjoy every day.
Topics: Fair Trade
Akoma’s Day out of the Office: Visiting St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Derby
The sun shone last Friday afternoon (10/06/2011) on us all, as we went along to St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Derby. Akoma went to St Joseph’s School and participated in their annual summer fair. It was a lovely day as the children put on their displays of gymnastics and the school choir provided some lovely music and song to our ears. We also enjoyed the tasteful food cooked on the BBQ and watched the children materialise with faces painted as lions and showing off their fake tattoos.
Topics: Events, Fair Trade
Fair Trade is has been defined as “…an organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries obtain better trading conditions and promote sustainability.” The movement has allowed humans in developing nations to receive a higher price for their goods and handicrafts, as well as, afford higher social and environmental standards than would come with mass production and lower prices. Buying cosmetics or other products from companies like Akoma (http://www.akomacooperative.com/Shea_Butter.html ) puts the money into the hands of villagers who can use it to supply their children with an education, or to provide medical care to their people.
Topics: Akoma Cooperative, Certified Shea Butter, Fair Trade
A recent TIME article discussed the Fair Trade coffee, asking if it is really making a difference. Fair Trade was orignally set up to get more money to farmers and farm workers who grow coffee. We have all heard about how capitalism has a trickle down effect, this is the basic idea. The coffee is purchased and sold at a premium and the money is meant to trickle back to the growers. However the reality is that once the farmers pay the Fair Trade co-operative fees the Fair Trade deal is only marginally better than the "standard" one and still leaves the farmer in poverty. Farmers say that Fair Trade prices have not kept up with cost increases.
Topics: Fair Trade
Good Morning!
Topics: Natural Skincare, Certified Shea Butter, Fair Trade, oils
Topics: Akoma Cooperative, Organic products, Certified Shea Butter, Fair Trade
Starbucks have announced that all espresso-based drinks in its British and Irish coffee-houses will be made from Fairtrade coffee. Starbucks have also decided to embark on a multi-million pound billboard, poster and press campaign to reinforce its ethical values.
Topics: Fair Trade
Topics: Organic products, Fair Trade
A High School in Spalding is celebrating after gaining Fairtrade status. The school is believed to be the first in the town to gain the accolade. Pupils at the school were asked to promote Fairtrade, incorporate it into its curriculum, and take action for Fairtrade in the community.
It is great to hear about children getting involved in fair trade. If you start at a young age you are much more likely to continue to care about where your products come from as you get older.
This reminds me of something Martin Luther King once said -
"It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality. Did you ever stop to think that you can’t leave for your job in the morning without being dependent on most of the world? You get up in the morning and go to the bathroom and reach over for the sponge, and that’s handed to you by a Pacific islander. You reach for a bar of soap, and that’s given to you at the hands of a Frenchman. And then you go into the kitchen to drink your coffee for the morning, and that’s poured into your cup by a South American. And maybe you want tea: that’s poured into your cup by a Chinese. Or maybe you’re desirous of having cocoa for breakfast, and that’s poured into your cup by a West African. And then you reach over for your toast, and that’s given to you at the hands of an English-speaking farmer, not to mention the baker. And before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you’ve depended on more than half the world. This is the way our universe is structured; this is its interrelated quality. We aren’t going to have peace on Earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality."
Perhaps it is only now that we truly see we are interrelated and care about each other. I am hopeful about the future as long as we continue educating ourselves and our children about the world we live in.
Nina
Topics: Uncategorized, Fair Trade
