Fairtrade Limerick reminds consumers that they have the power to ‘Choose the World you want’

  • Fairtrade Fortnight 2021
Jim McNamara, Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, encouraging everyone to choose Fairtrade.

Limerick Fairtrade is reminding people that they can ‘Choose the World you want’ when it comes to ethically produced and sustainable products as Fairtrade Fortnight gets underway with a series of virtual events. The purpose of Fairtrade Fortnight is to raise awareness about the positive impact that Fairtrade has on farmers/ producers in the developing world. They face the same challenges that we do, Covid, climate change and economic uncertainty.

Fairtrade Fortnight is running from 22 Feb to 7 March and the theme is 'Choose the World you want'. The way we can support them is by buying items with the Fairtrade logo.

Fairtrade Ireland is running a number of virtual events as part of Fairtrade Fortnight.

These include: talks on Fairtrade and Covid and women and cocoa; cooking with Fairtrade chocolate with Colm O’Gorman; chocolate truffle making with award winning chocolatier David Greenwood Haigh; an exhibition of photos about climate change and Fairtrade by Sean Hawkey; a school’s choco workshop; a meeting with coffee farmers.

To join any of these events, log on to the Fairtrade Ireland website www.fairtrade.ie, and click on EVENTS and register.

Limerick Fairtrade City Group will host a ZOOM Fairtrade Fortnight Coffee Morning/ meeting to mark Fairtrade Fortnight for their volunteers which will be attended by the Mayor of the City and County of Limerick Cllr Michael Collins. The Coffee Morning/ meeting is taking place on Thursday 25 February from 10.30am to 11.30am and can be accessed here

Mayor Michael Collins said: “I would like to thank the Limerick Fairtrade Group for their ongoing work on promoting the Fairtrade message and encouraging the people of Limerick to think about the products they buy and where they come from. We all have our part to play and we can support those in developing countries by supporting Fairtrade.”

Dolores O’Meara, Chair of Fairtrade Limerick said: “We need to become ethical consumers and be aware of what we are buying. Coffee and chocolate with the Fairtrade logo is our guarantee that the producer is getting a fair price for their product. We can choose the world we want. We can choose a world where there is equality and justice for all. Coming up to Easter, we have a perfect opportunity to support producers who are struggling by putting the Easter Egg with the Fairtrade logo in the basket.

“At present there are many producers struggling around the world. For example drought and typhoons have ruined many coffee farmers in Central America. They have had their coffee farms devastated by coffee tree leaf rust caused by drought and humidity. Cocoa farmers in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire struggle to earn a living due to the poor price they are paid for their cocoa beans. The extreme poverty line is estimated to be €1.90 per day yet cocoa farmers in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire are earning around 89 cent per day.

“We can help them by choosing Fairtrade.”

To promote Fairtrade to children and highlight the good work it does, Fairtrade Ireland has launched 'Bitter or Sweet? A Primary Schools and Fairtrade Action Guide'. This is a fantastic classroom resource with slides for teachers teaching about Fairtrade and chocolate production. It is available for download on the Fairtrade website www.fairtrade.ie.

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