Karen Palframan (second on the right) and Cheska Hull (third on the right) join in the handover at Number 10. Credit: Matt Crossick (Fairtrade Foundation)

Karen Palframan, of Fairtrade Bradford and Ilkley, was there at the big handover of the Make Trade Fair petition at number 10 Downing Street on 9th May.

Campaigners, including the “Made In Chelsea” star, Cheska Hull, handed in two petitions containing 75,000 signatures from Fairtrade campaigners and members of the Co-operative.  The petitions call on the UK government to use the G8 summit to support smallholder farmers, to feed the world fairly and sustainably.  Together with the Enough Food For Everyone IF Campaign, this action has a strong chance of bringing about change in the way food is produced and distributed.

Join the IF campaigners in London on June 8th to remind David Cameron to urge the G8 to reform our broken food system.  We need real change so that no one need go hungry.

Check out the handover on You Tube.

IF campaigners at Leeds Market with Fabian Hamilton MP

The campaign calls for the changes necessary to ensure that no one need go hungry.  This includes support for small scale farmers as the Foundation outlines in its Make Food Fair campaign.

Food campaigners Yilli and Jess urge York shoppers to back the campaign

It is important that everyone reading this website signs up to the campaign.

Sign up to the IF campaign now.

On Saturday 8th June, thousands of food justice campaigners will be converging on Hyde Park in London to demand change.  The campaigners hope to influence the G8 meeting that will take place in Northern Ireland in June.  Do you want to be there at this change making event?  Check out the website for more details.

IF is formed by a coalition of different groups including: the Fairtrade Foundation, Oxfam, Christian Aid, CAFOD and the Women’s Institute.

To end hunger, we need to tackle four big IFs:

IF we stop poor farmers being forced off their land and we grow crops to feed people not fuel cars.

IF  governments and big companies are honest and open about some of the things that stop people getting enough food.

IF we give enough aid to stop children dying from hunger and help the poorest families get enough food.

IF we stop big companies dodging taxes in poor countries.

The IF campaign was launched in Yorkshire on 25th January with events in Leeds and York.  Leeds campaigners descended on the Outdoor Market and those in York gathered in the city’s main shopping street, Coney Street.  It was difficult for passersby to miss the York supporters as they held aloft nine foot high letters ‘I’ and ‘F’.

IF campaigners at York Minster

John Whitworth of York Fair Trade Forum & Mark Dawson ,Coordinator Fairtrade Yorkshire, at the IF launch

Dear Fairtrade Campaigner,

The Fairtrade Foundation and Fairtrade Yorkshire are delighted to invite you to the Yorkshire Fairtrade Campaigner Forum on 22 June in Leeds. Join other Fairtrade campaigners from the region to:

• Hear the latest Fairtrade news 
• Be inspired and informed through speakers and workshops 
• Discuss the future of the Fairtrade campaign in Yorkshire and the UK
• Elect a Yorkshire representative for the Fairtrade Foundation’s National Campaigner Committee. 

Yorkshire Fairtrade Campaigner Forum details

Saturday 22 June 10am – 4pm

University House, University of Leeds, LS2 9JS

Lunch will be provided – please inform us of any dietary requirements upon registering. 

Register today to reserve your free place.

The United Nations Millenium development goals were set to be achieved by 2015.

As the deadline approaches, the UN is discussing what sort of framework should be in place beyond 2015.

The Fairtrade Foundation is joining the global Fair Trade movement in calling for a future international development framework that supports concrete means to achieve sustainable and inclusive development.  This should include a fairer world trade system enabling the poorest communities to work their way out of poverty.

Thousands of local leaders across the globe have been contacted by Fair Trade supporters to sign the Fairtrade Beyond 2015 Declaration.

Councillor Cunningham-Cross, the Fairtrade Councillor in York, was eager to get behind the campaign.  She said:

Councillor Linsay Cunningham-Cross and James Alexander, Leader of City of York Council, as he signs the Beyond 2015 declaration.

“I have asked the Leader of City of York Council to sign this pledge and make an important statement about global development and the role York as a city can play in that.  We want a development framework that enables small producers in poorer countries to trade their way out of poverty, a truly sustainable form of development.

It is important that York looks beyond its own boundary in making a contribution to Fair Trade and ethical global development, and this pledge is an important part of that contribution”.

Find out more here:

Fairtrade Beyond 2015

See below for the videos from all the finalists including champions Ireland Wood.

The first video is from King Ecgberts School in Sheffield, and shows the embarrassment that can be caused when bringing non-Fairtrade products to dinner parties:

Next up is this from Miriam Lord Primary School in Bradford, by a group of Year 3 children who made the puppets, props and backgrounds, wrote the script and filmed the video themselves:

Ireland Wood Primary put together this triumphant celebration of Yorkshire’s new Fairtrade Region status:

This video from Lothersdale CE Primary School shows how the choice made in a shop in the UK to buy Fairtrade affects cotton farmers in African countries:

and Withinfields School in Halifax made this animation showing how you can make something useful out of Fairtrade packaging:

View video

Penistone Scouts are teaming up with fairandfunky for World Fairtrade Day in a timely Fairtrade workshop.

“Time for Fairtrade” gets children and young people talking about Fairtrade and food: from growers and producers to the kitchen table. In this popular fairandfunky workshop children find out about Fairtrade issues, and discover how they can take little steps to change the world.

Following role play and discussion the scouts will each create their own clock using recycled materials to take away. To show it is “Time for Fairtrade”; and share the message of Fairtrade.

For more information about fairandfunky and their interactive workshops head to www.fairandfunky.com

 A campaign to help the world’s hungriest people is stepping up a gear.    Launched during Fairtrade Fortnight earlier this year, the “Make Food Fair” campaign, seeks to change the lives of smallholder farmers around the world, and now its Fairtrade Foundation organisers are planning to take a petition to Downing Street.  They will be calling on David Cameron to champion a better deal for the world’s smallholder farmers at this year’s G8 meeting which takes place in June in Northern Ireland. 

A mini marcher

 “Despite producing some 70 per cent of the world’s food, over half of the world’s hungriest people are smallholder farmers who struggle to earn a living from their crops,” says Karen Palframan, chair of Fairtrade Ilkley and Fairtrade Bradford, “and unless they receive support and improvements to terms of trade, they will remain in crisis, due to an unjust food system. The farmers still only get a tiny proportion of what we pay for our food and agriculture needs to be made much more sustainable to create food security.”

The Fairtrade Foundation’s model seeks to show that a minimum price along with access to pre-financing can improve farmers’ negotiating power, empowering them to build business partnerships which in turn enable them to secure fair prices. A minimum price for produce, covering sustainable costs of production, enables smallholders to invest in their farms and communities while protecting them from high price volatility.

Karen and mini marchers

The petition will be handed in just before World Fair Trade Day which is on 11^th May.  To publicise it, a small army of 5,000 paper mini marchers descended on Parliament Square in London in March. The mini marchers could be customised to resemble their real life counterparts, so Jonathan Ross, Eddie Izzard, Amanda Holden and Tulisa were amongst those represented.

And the mini marchers have not stopped yet. Restless in their quest, they are stomping their little paper feet and seeking other allies, travelling around the UK in their efforts to collect more petition signatures.

Mini marchers at Top Withens (the inspiration for Wuthering Heights)

Mini marchers at the Haworth Parsonage

 Chair of Fairtrade Bradford and Fairtrade Ilkley, Karen Palframan, will be heading to Downing Street on May 9th to hand in the mini marchers’ petition to David Cameron.  She will be able to speak to him about the need for global policies to support small scale farmers.

Karen Palframan – all set for Downing Street

An early signatory to the petition, Mrs Palframan was herself represented by a paper mini marcher and has been invited by the Fairtrade Foundation to join the delegation meeting the Prime Minister.

“I am really honoured to have been asked to do this”, she said, “and never dreamt that my support for the ‘Make Food Fair’ campaign would lead me to Downing Street. Our voices can be heard and hopefully we can influence powerful decision makers. Food and hunger are on the G8 agenda, and we must ensure that the farmers providing our food are not going hungry themselves”.

Mrs Palframan added, “Let’s unite and make our voices heard even more loudly then they were during the ‘Make Poverty History’ campaign in 2005. I would ask you to sign the ‘Make Food Fair’ petition and also to buy products with the Fairtrade logo as these guarantee a fair deal for farmers”.

A number of the Make Food Fair mini marchers have already visited the Students’ Union at Bradford College, which will be encouraging students to sign the petition.

Bradford College Student Union members with the mini marchers

 The Students’ Union has an additional campaign underway to gain Fairtrade College status, and SU President, Piers Telemacque, has already collected 1,300 student signatures in support of this campaign. The SU wants to see Fairtrade products used and sold throughout the College, and hopes Fairtrade cotton uniforms can be introduced. If Fairtrade College status can be achieved, Fairtrade would be included in a number of curriculum modules and actively promoted, especially during Fairtrade Fortnight.