Introduction to Fair Trade
Imagine you're a farmer in the Third World - you've managed to harvest your crop but there's only one potential buyer and they're offering you an insulting price. But your children have nothing to eat and you're desperate for the cash so you'll sell at any price, and making a massive loss is better than not selling the crop at all. Right?
Wrong! It's not fair, and it's not fair trade
The Fairtrade Foundation was set up in 1994 to support farmers who find themselves in the situation described above - it's an everyday occurrence in many parts of the world. Often it's the person at the very end of the chain who gets taken advantage of: third world producers regularly have no choice but to accept less for their crop than it cost them to produce, and as a result, whole families are living in abject poverty.
Fairtrade is, however, not a charity - it's a way of ensuring that these families can sustain and develop their communities.
To encourage more people to think about what they're buying and where it's come from, Manchester City Council led the bid to make Manchester a Fairtrade City and the city was first awarded Fairtrade status in March 2005.
Look for the Fairtrade logo, and buy Fairtrade products when you can.
See Cllr Angeliki Stogia explain why Manchester supports Fairtrade.