Saturday 21 May 2011

Smallholders Show at the Royal Welsh


The Fairtrade table in the Green Horizons hall at the Smallholders' Show this year is a Powys wide initiative. Today, everyone manning the stall had come from Hay, but tomorrow there will be people from Brecon and elsewhere.
We had Fairtrade chocolate from the Co-op and Divine for people to try (always good for encouraging people to stop and chat), and some campaign material about cotton subsidies. It seems that the EU subsidise cotton growers in Greece and Spain to the tune of seven billion euros every year (!!) even though they only produce 2% of the world's cotton. We had letters addressed to each of the four Welsh MEPs, to encourage them to vote against continuing this subsidy. Meanwhile, cotton growers in West Africa can actually produce their cotton more cheaply, but cannot compete with the subsidised cotton from the EU and the United States. One lady took a whole bunch of these letters to pass around her ladies' group! Another lady praised the Co-op for their labelling after having done a fact-finding mission with her local WI.
It was also encouraging to find that almost all of the children who stopped at the stall said they either belonged to a Fairtrade school, or had recently done a Fairtrade project at school or with the Scouts. Three teachers took leaflets to find out more about their school becoming a Fairtrade school, too.
In fact, the majority of people who stopped to chat already knew about Fairtrade and tried to buy Fairtrade products, though there were still plenty who didn't know that the label went much beyond coffee, chocolate and bananas.
And as you can see from the picture above, it wasn't just humans who were interested in Fairtrade. Here are some local gnomes receiving their Fairtrade stickers!

Monday 16 May 2011

Bunting

On the Fairtrade Blog, there's a post by Harriet Lamb about the Fairtrade bunting that was decorated by supporters of FT all over the country - we did some here in the Buttermarket. It's been up on display in Battersea Park.
Harriet Lamb will be appearing at the Globe as a speaker in their HowTheLightGetsIn festival, which is on at the same time as Hay Festival. With Barry C Smith, Joanna Kavenna, John Naish and Robert Rowland-Smith, she'll be talking about The Famine and the Feast at noon on Sunday 29th May, and at 10.30am on Monday 30th May she'll be appearing on stage with Gideon Rachman, Bonnie Greer, Christopher Hamilton and Simon Glendinning for a discussion entitled The End of Abundance?

Friday 13 May 2011

Future Events Planned

We haven't been idle - just catching our breaths after Fairtrade Fortnight.
Plans are now afoot for a community picnic at Hayfield Garden, in association with the Transition Towns group. The date is now set for Sunday 3rd July, from 12 noon to 4.30pm, with entertainment from Paul Hartley, our local 'gamester for hire', five-stick weaving, face painting, nature art, a plant sale and acoustic music. Anyone who would like to come should bring their own picnic, but teas and coffees (and possibly cake) will be available.
Meanwhile, at the Library, a photographic exhibition will be on display for two weeks from 30th June. This is an exhibition of celebrities wearing clothes made with Fairtrade cotton, and photographed by Trevor Leighton, a well-known portrait photographer.
There will also be a Fairtrade stall at the Green Horizons show at the Royal Welsh showground on the weekend of 21st/22nd May, and at the Royal Welsh Show itself in July. This will be a Powys-wide initiative from all the local Fairtrade Towns.