Brighton Peace and Environment Centre
Under Fair Trade regulations, environmental protection is an important part of farm management. Fair Trade producers are required to implement a system of Integrated Crop Management (ICM), which aims to balance environmental protection and business results by monitoring environmental parameters. They must minimise the use of fertilisers and pesticides. They must also protect natural waters, virgin forests and other eco-systems.
Coffee is one of the most traded commodities in the world, and is vital to the economy of many countries.
The price of coffee beans is falling, but retail prices are staying high - the retailers make profits, whilst the growers lose money. Many coffee growers have been forced to move away from traditional, sustainable practices in favour of methods that will increase production.
Traditionally, coffee is grown in the shade, underneath rainforest canopies, maintaining the rainforest eco-system. Fair Trade supports this process by building markets for organic and shade grown coffee.
More profitable and aggressive sun cultivation methods require clear-cutting of rainforests,
causing landslides, flooding, and huge decreases in the diversity of eco-systems.
To be able to tolerate the increased sun exposure, the coffee has to be of a high-yielding hybrid variety which relies more heavily on chemical fertilisers and pesticides. This pollutes the local water and is detrimental to workers' health.
In contrast, Fair Trade gives assistance in sustainable farming methods such as soil improvement, agro-forestry, organic production, composting and environmentally friendly processing techniques.
It encourages farmers to use sustainable post-harvest processing (such as producing compost coffee pulp rather than dumping it into local waterways).
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4.6% of the Palestinian Gross Domestic Product comes from olive trees. They are the sole source of income for many small farmers. Between 2000 and 2004, the Israeli army uprooted over 100,000 Palestinian olive trees, and the new Apartheid wall will cause Palestinians to lose access to thousands more trees.
Fair Trade supports Palestinian farmers - for more information see
(External)
Zaytoun
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Bananas are grown with plastic bags wrapped around them for protection. After the harvests, the plastic bags are dumped, contaminating soil and water with the chemicals they contain, and harming wildlife and vegetation. Fair Trade regulations forbid the careless disposal of bags. Farmers work together to collect their own and their neighbours' bags.
Fair Trade has had a myriad of positive effects on these communities. Find out more at (External)
Fairtrade Foundation
Brighton Peace & Environment Centre,
Address: 39-41 Surrey Street, Brighton, BN1 3PB. United Kingdom.
Tel: UK (01273) 766610
Email: info@bpec.org
Web: www.bpec.org
Company Registration No. 6166971