Fairtrade Christmas Fair

 The annual Christmas Fair will be held in the Buttermarket on Sunday 27th November this year, from 10am to 4pm, to coincide with the Winter Festival.

Tools for Self Reliance will be there, as well as other regulars Zaytoun (Palestinian olive oil, almonds and dates etc.), Jump for Timbuktu, and Love Zimbabwe.

Other stalls are Fair and Fabulous, selling gifts, homeware and accessories, toys and "plastic busting products".

Eachday Shared sells handicrafts, stationery, batik, toys, jewellery and more, and The Plastic Free Shop sells gifts, recycled wrapping paper, parcel tape and colourful twine!

Fairtrade at the Festival

 Hay Festival is back with in-person events this year, and today Fairtrade Hay is in the Buttermarket with the usual interesting mix of Fairtrade stalls.  It's a bit of a drizzly day, so the hot drinks will be welcome, but quite a lot of people are about in the centre of town.

Fairtrade Fortnight on Market Day

 

Here's Ange, who sells Zaytoun products from Palestine, and Chris of Haymakers, in charge of the Fairtrade Hay stall on the Thursday Market today, with a selection of products on display and lots of information about what Fairtrade is and how it can change people's lives for the better.

Fairtrade Fortnight

 We're in the first week of Fairtrade Fortnight, and Eighteen Rabbit has a basket of goodies in the window for a prize raffle.

The theme this year is Climate Justice, in the aftermath of the COP26 talks last November.  The message is that there is still time to mitigate the most extreme effects of climate change, but only if pledges are turned into action.  Big changes to the global economy are needed.  On the personal level, people can buy Fairtrade products, but action also has to be taken by governments and multinational companies.  The Fairtrade Foundation is already planning what they want to do for COP27, which will be held in Cairo.

Farmers in poorer countries are already feeling the effects of climate change.  In Honduras, Guatamala and Nicaragua farmers have seen their crops of coffee, cocoa, honey and bananas devastated by extreme weather events.