Fairtrade Fortnight
Assembly
Introduction
Every year the Fairtrade Foundation runs a two-week campaign to raise
awareness of the Fairtrade Mark, and how buying products that bear the
Mark will help some of the poorest communities in the world.
This assembly explains why there is a need for Fairtrade, and describes some
of the ways in which your students can get involved with Fairtrade Fortnight.
In 2015, Fairtrade Fortnight celebrates its 20th year, and runs from the 23rd
February to the 8th March. This time around, the campaign is asking everyone
to consider where our food comes from, and to see the other half of the story:
the farmers who grow the crops and the huge differences that Fairtrade can
make to them, their families and their communities.
And good news for everyone: they are focussing especially on cocoa, the most
important ingredient in – yes – chocolate.
As always the campaign encourages everyone to be part of the drive to make
trade fairer throughout the world. It could be a first step, like changing your
brand of coffee to Café Direct; or a further step like adding to the number of
Fairtrade brands you buy every week. Or you could take a much larger step,
like organising your own Fairtrade event or becoming a Fairtrade School.
If you, or your students, are interested in campaigning for Fairtrade, then
there is a wealth of information on their website:
http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/
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Or, for more information specifically about Fairtrade Fortnight, go here:
http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/en/get-involved/current-campaigns/fairtradefortnight-2015
For school resources including pictures, posters, PowerPoint presentations,
instructions for running your own campaigns, and information about
becoming a Fairtrade School, look here:
http://schools.fairtrade.org.uk/
Preparation
You will need to find two or three students with good reading voices who are
willing to help by delivering the Assembly Script. Make sure they have time to
practise. If you are going to use microphones, then give your volunteers a
run-through with them or they could be surprised or unnerved by the sound
of their own amplified voices. You might also like to have a run-through with
the accompanying PowerPoint presentation to make sure that you (or
whoever has control of the computer) know when to change the slides.
Take a trip to your local supermarket to buy a selection of Fairtrade and nonFairtrade chocolate. Cadbury’s Dairy Milk has been Fairtrade since 2009 and
there are other brands from Dubble (cheap) to Divine or Green & Black’s (more
expensive).
You’ll also need some blindfolds for the taste-test. Tea-towels are the perfect
length, but make sure they are washed before (and after!).
The PowerPoint presentation that accompanies the Assembly Script can be
found here:
https://www.truetube.co.uk/sites/www.truetube.co.uk/files/resources/fairtrad
e_powerpoint_2015.ppt
Instructions
Begin with the first slide of the PowerPoint presentation which shows the
Fairtrade Mark and ask your audience if anyone recognises it, or knows what
it means. Take a few answers.
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Now ask if anyone knows of any Fairtrade products and again take a few
responses. You could do this Family Fortunes style (remember Family
Fortunes?) and ask if they can guess the top four most common answers. They
are - in no particular order - tea, coffee, bananas and chocolate.
Now hand over to your volunteers to read the Assembly Script. Slide changes
for the accompanying PowerPoint presentation are indicated at the
appropriate points.
You will probably want to take control again when it comes to the Taste-Test.
Have a table laid out with some paper plates. On a few of the plates have
Fairtrade chocolate pieces, and on other plates have non-Fairtrade chocolate
pieces. Don’t forget which is which! (You could write it on the underside of
the paper plate.) Ask a few volunteers to come up to the front – you’ll need
two or three pairs. In each pair, one will be the “Taster” and one will be the
“Feeder”. The Tasters should be blindfolded so the chocolate cannot be
identified by its branding. One at a time, ask the Feeders to give the Tasters
the first piece of chocolate. They should give it a score out of ten according to
how delicious it is. Then move on to the next make of chocolate.
If you want to add a little more jeopardy to the proceedings, have your
volunteers in trios – a “Feeder”, a “Taster” and a “Guide”. Both the Tasters
and the Feeders should be blindfolded, and stand facing each other about two
metres apart. It’s the Guides’ job to hand the Feeders each piece of chocolate,
and then give instructions as the Feeders approach the Tasters with the
chocolate in their outstretched fingers – “Left a bit, up a bit, right a bit, a bit
more, down...” etc. The Tasters have to stand with their hands behind their
backs and their mouths open in expectation. As before, they should give each
piece of chocolate a score out of ten. Have some wipes ready if you are
playing this version of the game!
Tot up the scores for each brand of chocolate – there will hopefully be very
little difference between the Fairtrade and the non-Fairtrade chocolate!
Finally, make sure you are ready to show the film at the appropriate point.
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Film Digest
Trading Fair (4:11)
Topic: Jobs & Money
Sub-Topic: Economy & Business
A film exploring what "Fair Trade" really
means to the producers by interviewing
Greg (who runs Creed, an ethical
jewellery company), Dave (from Divine, a
Fairtrade chocolate company) and
Melanie Cave (from Just Trade, who make
jewellery, clothing & accessories).
The film was made at Greenbelt Festival
09, by a group of young people who
wanted to know more about Fairtrade,
and share their findings with their peers.
Produced with the support of TrueVan.
Resources
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Digital projector (connected to the internet or you will need to
download the films beforehand).
Microphones (if needed, or available).
Two or three volunteers to read the Assembly Script.
Enough copies of the Assembly Script for you and for each of your
readers and PowerPoint operators.
A selection of Fairtrade and non-Fairtrade chocolate for the taste-test.
Blindfolds for the taste-test – tea-towels are good.
Paper plates for the taste test.
Baby wipes (or similar) if you are doing the messy version of the tastetest.
The Fairtrade Assembly PowerPoint presentation, which can be found
here:
https://www.truetube.co.uk/sites/www.truetube.co.uk/files/resources/fairtrad
e_powerpoint_2015.ppt
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Assembly Script
Show PowerPoint slide 1
Most of us are aware of Fairtrade, but don’t know much about it, other than it
has something to do with trade and... um... being fair... and... that’s about it.
So here’s all you need to know about Fairtrade and “Fairtrade Fortnight”
which this year runs from the 23rd February to the 8th March.
So first of all, what is it?
Slides 2, 3, 4 and 5
The Fairtrade Mark was launched in 1994 with just three products: Clipper
Tea, Café Direct coffee and Green & Black’s Maya Gold chocolate. Fairtrade
bananas arrived in 2000, and the range of products has been growing ever
since.
Slide 6
There are now over 4,500 products that carry the Fairtrade Mark, so you can
Fairtrade your whole life:
Slides 7 and 8
Get up in the morning and shower with Fairtrade shower gel; dry yourself
with a Fairtrade towel; get dressed in Fairtrade clothes; have a breakfast of
Fairtrade coffee or Fairtrade tea with a glass of Fairtrade orange juice, some
Fairtrade muesli and some Fairtrade honey on toast; nibble on some Fairtrade
brazil nuts during the morning; have some Fairtrade baked beans for lunch;
have a kick-around with a Fairtrade football in the afternoon; eat a Fairtrade
ice cream afterwards to cool off; pick up some Fairtrade flowers to give to
your Mum on the way home because she’s cooking you a delicious Fairtrade
curry using Fairtrade olive oil, Fairtrade pepper, Fairtrade cardamom,
Fairtrade cloves, Fairtrade turmeric and a pinch of Fairtrade cinnamon. Or
maybe it’ll just be Fairtrade baked beans again.
The Fairtrade Foundation exists because most trade is not fair. World trade is
dominated by the rich and powerful and it’s hard for anyone else to compete,
no matter how hard they work.
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Slide 9
To keep farmers in Europe, Japan and America in business, they are given
billions of pounds a year by their governments. This money is called a
“subsidy” and it means that farmers can afford to charge lower prices than
the farmers in developing countries, who don’t get any money from their
governments. In Africa, India and Latin America, the farmers are forced to
sell their products at the same low prices as their subsidised competitors, or
risk not selling any at all. Sometimes they have to sell their crops for less than
it costs to produce them in the first place. To make ends meet the farmers
have to work incredibly hard and force others to work incredibly hard as
well. Men, women and even children work very long hours for very little pay,
or no pay at all.
This is why Fairtrade is so important. Just by buying a product that carries the
Fairtrade Mark, you are fighting poverty and injustice. However, there are
still people who don’t buy Fairtrade because - for some reason - they think
that the products are of a poorer quality than their usual brand, so we’re
going to have a taste test.
Slide 10
Do the Taste test!
But there are more reasons to buy Fairtrade products, other than just because
they are tasty.
If you buy a product with the Fairtrade Mark, it means that:
Slide 11
First: The producers get a fair price instead of having to sell their products at
a loss to compete with the big subsidised companies.
Slide 12
Secondly: The producers are given some extra money to improve their
organisations and their communities. Farmers have been able buy new
equipment, grow greater quantities and wider varieties of crops; and improve
the quality of their produce. In communities the money has been spent on
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schools, health programmes, electricity generators, clean water supplies, and
even sports grounds.
Slide 13
Thirdly: Fairtrade also makes sure that the environment is protected and
improved. To be awarded the Fairtrade Mark, the producers have to dispose
of all their waste safely and responsibly. Recycling programmes are
introduced and improved. Farmers are encouraged to try a variety of
different crops to improve the fertility of their land. The use of genetically
modified seeds is banned, and the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides is
reduced. In fact, an increasing number of farmers are converting completely
to organic farming methods, which means that no chemicals are used at all.
All this means that small farmers are able to build and keep a stronger
position in the world market so that they can compete fairly with the richer
countries and companies.
Slide 14
Shoppers are able to feel a closer link to the people who produce the things
they buy rather than dealing with faceless companies. Fairtrade is helping to
build an ever-growing community of people who want to bring about serious
change through their shopping habits. They care where the products come
from, who produced them and how they were produced.
Show the film: Trading Fair
But this is only the beginning. There are still millions of farmers, workers,
communities and families that Fairtrade has been unable to reach. More
change is desperately needed.
But what can we do?
Slide 15
Every year, the Fairtrade Foundation runs a campaign called “Fairtrade
Fortnight” to let everyone know about the Fairtrade Mark and why it’s
important to buy Fairtrade products. So get involved...
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Slide 16
First of all, go shopping. During Fairtrade Fortnight, choose to buy a Fairtrade
product. If you already buy Fairtrade, then try a product you’ve never bought
before.
Persuade your family to do the same. Roughly 70% of British households are
regularly buying at least one Fairtrade product, so that’s 30% who could start,
and 100% who could be buying more. And it doesn’t mean spending extra,
just switching brand.
Slide 17
Become a Fairtrade school. We could have Fairtrade food served in the
canteen, Fairtrade coffee and tea in the staffroom, and even Fairtrade school
uniforms.
Slide 18
Buy Fairtrade clothes made of cotton. Some of the poorest countries in the
world depend on cotton, but have to compete with the subsidised farmers of
rich countries like the USA.
Slide 19
We all wear cotton. You’re wearing it right now. Whole outfits are made from
cotton: jeans, skirts, shirts, T-shirts, pants, socks. It can be bought very
cheaply, which is good for us, but not so good for poor families in Africa, Asia
and Latin America who have to sell their cotton crop at a loss.
Slide 20
Buy Fairtrade bananas – one of the biggest selling Fairtrade products.
Bananas are brilliant. They are packed full of potassium, vitamin B and fibre,
and amongst other things they help to keep help our hearts healthy, our
bones strong and our digestive systems flowing nicely. And bananas are the
snack of choice for athletes because their high sugar level gives a rapid energy
boost just when it’s needed.
Slide 21
Bananas are the fourth most important food crop in the world after rice,
wheat and maize. We munch 13 million bananas a day – that’s over 5 billion a
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year, spending an eye-watering 550 million pounds on the funny-shaped
fruit.
So bananas are big business – and so the big businesses control most of the
banana-farming in the world. And that’s a big problem.
Slide 22
The supermarkets compete with each other to see who can sell the most
bananas and so it’s worth their while to drop the price a little to shift a few
more. In the last ten years the average price of a banana has halved - which is
great for us - but the cost of actually producing them has doubled, which is
bad for the farmers across the world who are trying to make a living.
Slide 23
The supermarkets buy so many bananas that they can put pressure on the
farmers to supply them cheaply. The farmers have to give in or risk losing the
business altogether: either they sell their bananas for a low price, or they don’t
sell any at all, because there’s always someone who can undercut them.
Slide 24
The larger farms have the money and resources to cope. They have machinery
to do a lot of the work and use chemicals to reduce the chance of disease or
greedy insects getting at their crops. Small farms and those who want to use
organic methods are struggling – often having to sell their bananas for less
than it costs to produce them.
But it isn’t fair, and it isn’t sustainable – or to put it another way, if the cost of
producing bananas continues to outstrip the money they make, then even the
big farms will eventually go out of business.
Slide 25
At the moment 1.2 million Fairtrade bananas are sold in the UK every year,
but that is still only one in three of the bananas we buy, so there’s still more
work to do.
Slide 26
This year, the people at Fairtrade Fortnight are asking us to think more about
chocolate. Not a problem. Or... to be completely accurate, they want us to
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think more about chocolate’s main ingredient – cocoa – and the people who
produce it.
Nearly everyone loves chocolate (and those who don’t are a bit strange) so the
business is worth a lot of money - over 50 billion pounds every year. There is
a handful of huge companies that dominate the market, but to meet the
worldwide demand for melt-in-the mouth yumminess, they depend on over
six million small-scale family-run farms across West Africa, Latin America
and Asia to grow, harvest and process about 3.5 million tonnes of cocoa every
year.
Slide 27
The demand for chocolate continues to rise and so cocoa is becoming more
and more valuable. Suppliers are able to sell it at a higher price, but the extra
money isn’t being passed on to the farmers.
This bad news for chocolate lovers everywhere because young people in
tropical countries aren’t following their parents into cocoa farming – why
would you, if you saw your parents working very hard for very little money?
The average age of a cocoa farmer is 50, and it is going up. Then there is Black
Pod disease which is killing 1 in 10 cocoa trees, and the farmers do not have
the money and resources to fight it.
Slide 28
Something will eventually have to be done, but buying Fairtrade chocolate
now will help, because it means that the farmers will get a fair price for their
cocoa and some extra money to help them deal with the problems caused by
Black Pod disease.
Slide 29
And it’s not difficult: companies such as Divine, Plush and Green & Black’s
only sell Fairtrade chocolate; and many other companies have Fairtrade
products: Cadbury’s Dairy Milk is Fairtrade, Nestlé’s Kit Kat is Fairtrade and
Sainbury’s Taste the Difference range is Fairtrade. Just look for the Fairtrade
Mark.
Slide 30
And after Fairtrade Fortnight is over, it’s important that we continue to buy
Fairtrade products throughout the year – and not just bananas and chocolate.
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The poorest people in the world will benefit, the environment will benefit,
and it will cost us and our families no more than we usually spend. It just
means switching brands. The more people who buy Fairtrade products, the
more the bigger companies will realise that they will have to trade fair to
compete with Fairtrade. Together we can change the world we live in and
make it a fairer and happier place for everyone.
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