Skibbereen Fairtrade Town

The food festival season is at a height around now. Near us we have had Midleton Food Festival, and we look forward to Kinsale Gourmet Festival on October 7 & 8. But yesterday was the turn of Skibereen in West Cork to hold its food event, A whole week including an excellent conference on sustainable food production in Ireland. And the Fairtrade Town team were out on force showing off the new Wish4 Fairtrade snacks and confectionery in the open market.

People ask me about whether Fairtrade is better than buying local, or buying organic. And to me it seems these various important initiatives are all part of a move towards making sure we know what good food is, and where it comes from and how its paid for (including environmental costs !). So, unless we plan to grow sugar, coffee, oranges, and cotton here soon, or give up using them, Fairtrade is definitely a good option. Potatoes we can grow, and fatty foods we can give up, but a nice cup of tea and a snack bar with a Fairtrade guarentee should give us the best of all our worlds.

Latest news from Wish4 is that you can now buy Wish4 direct online in the UK from the boys, and it is only boys at Premcrest, in Leeds. I think they have some special offers coming up on Wish4 as well, so not a bad time to click on the link below......

http://www.premcrest.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1

Sainsbury is UK biggest Fairtrade retailer

Bad news for CoOp lovers as Sainsbury is busy plastering its stores with 'No1 Fairtrade retailer' posters. The CoOp has been a bit compromised by its merging with Somerfield, and has thrown out new Fairtrade products and promotion opportunities in favour of 'harder hitting' price deals in the past few months. Sainsbury takes over the mantle, although we'd believe that Waitrose has at least an equally big 'heart' for Fairtrade it just has less stores. Sainsbury too has had offers to fill gaps in its Fairtrade ranging, but has left them empty to date, apparently worried about listing 'unknown brands', despite the fact that the Fairtrade logo itself carries more credibility internationally than anything any grocery retailer can match.

So, who is really committed to Fairtrade....well, the growers of course, and the consumers, and the '100 percenters' who only trade in Fairtrade, and do not compromise their ethics. The price to pay for that seems to be to remain an 'unknown brand' ?