Stepping out for Fairtrade Fortnight

SPONSORED POST

 Viral video by ebuzzing

It can be hard at times to truly stick to the Fairtrade philosophy all the time: you know you should, but every time you promise to take steps to help small producers over big consumerist conglomerates, it never quite happens. That branch of Waterstones is always so much closer than your local bookshop, or Amazon just seems so much faster and cheaper. To promote the Fairtrade movement, celebrities are going to even greater lengths this Fairtrade Fortnight (27 February to 11 March 2012) to raise awareness, with luminaries including Louisa Lytton, Alistair McGowan and Simon Webb all starring in Youtube videos to encourage others to take steps to go Fairtrade.

Through the ‘Take A Step for Fairtrade’ campaign, the Fairtrade Foundation wants to see more individuals and businesses buying and selling Fairtrade products in the UK, The public are being asked to think about what they can do every day, every week or every month throughout 2012 and take a step to make a difference to the lives of farmers in the developing world who produce the products they buy.

With Fairtrade every step counts. In Malawi, for example, sugar farmers earn an extra $60 for every tonne they sell on Fairtrade terms. As a result, farmers in Chinangwa village have been able to bring clean water and electricity to their homes, afford roofs for their houses and school fees for their children.

The more people that support Fairtrade, the more farmers and workers will be able to improve their lives through the better terms of trade it offers. And there's really no excuse for not knowing about it: as well as buying books from high street retailers that support Fairtrade, such as Oxfam, there's also an array of books on the subject of Fairtrade itself, on sites such as TheFairTradeStore.co.uk and Fairtrade.org.uk. Some of these books are priced as low as £4.99; who says you can't have a bargain just because you're buying Fairtrade? There's even a free ebook, "50 reasons to buy Fairtrade", that's downloadable here.

The Fairtrade Foundation encourages everyone to start their journey at www.fairtrade.org.uk/step, and to check out the rest of the mini-series on the Fairtrade YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/Fairtradefoundation. You won't regret it!