Following on from the "Ethical but cheap" thread, how Fair Trade-aware are you, really?

[roseylea]

I'm a bit of a Fair Trade geek, really!

I'm on the steering group to get my town Fair Trade town stutus, and I'm running a FT Week in my workplace (a school) just after FT Fortnight finishes.

THe thing I've found is that the others in the FT group are so into FT that they can't possibly imagine that many if not most people aren't really that aware of what it means.

So the question is, be honest now, do you buy Fair Trade? Or do you think it's too expensive?

I wouldn't dream of buying any other type of coffee or tea, and I also buy Clipper hot chocolate. We sometimes get Fairtrade bananas (usually buy organic) and chocolate bars, but as yet haven't been able to find Fairtrade fun-size bars or buttons which are what the dds like. I dp buy Fairtrade mini-eggs though. I try to buy from People Tree for clothes sometimes and have seen lots of adverts in Green Parent magazine for childrens' clothes which I am always intending to try. Dd2 is three next mo and I will buy her and her sister a fairy dress each from Susumama which are Fairtrade. As for gift items like jewellery and scarves from Traidcraft or Amnesty, they are madly cheap. Wish Oxfam still did their full range but they only have jewellery and stationery now. We do have a Fairtrade gift shop in a nearby town and I bought quite a lot of my Christmas presents in there.

Apparantly only less than 1% of the choc bought in the UK is FT.

Maybe I'll suggest to Dubble choc bars that they bring out a range of fun-size bars.

Thanks N3! How are you btw? Hope you are well!

Okay. How are you? Did you get my message re my book?

Big Fairtrade choc bars are just too much for my dds - and for me come to that! Def. need funsize.

have you tried fairbreak choc bars? They are choc and wafer in the middle - not quite as small as a fun size, but not a s big as a dubble either? can get them for about £1 for a ten pack sometimes at our church - I put them in DDs party bags.

To answer your q Rosey - always FT tea, coffee, often sugar but not always, mostly FT bananas, but sometimes organic if FT not available. Always buy DH FT choc, and sometimes the dc - mini eggs etc., but not me, I am nut allergic and ft stuff usually contains nut traces - and I have to admit I prefer Dairy Milk

We have stopped shopping at Asda completely because of their ethical policy, and try to shop at the local shops rather than the large supermarket. I read ethical consumer and try to buy clothes from the greener shops, or second hand.