If you desire peace cultivate justice, but at the same time cultivate the fields to produce more bread; otherwise there will be no peace. Norman Borlaug
It seemed such a good thing that more Fairtrade products are finding their way into supermarkets but there’s another side to it:
Paul Chandler’s Message to the Churches (at General Synod, 18th February 2009)
“The support of the UK Christian community is more important to us than ever before.”
That was the message from Traidcraft Chief Executive Paul Chandler when he spoke to an audience of leading figures in the Church of England during the February meeting of the General Synod.
“As a pioneer of the mainstreaming of fair trade, we encouraged people to buy fair trade in supermarkets in order to get big companies interested”, said Paul.
But now we need Christians to prioritise buying Traidcraft branded-products directly or from the Traidcraft stall in church to ensure our distinctive Christian voice is not swamped by competition from businesses which although larger, are not working with the poor in such a direct and effective way.
“Because, after 30 years, we are still ambitious,” added Paul. “We want to transform the world of trade, so that many lives can be transformed, and millions more people can be given the opportunity to flourish as God intended.”
And for that, we need your support.
there is a PP and a text only version of his presentation here
Traidcraft v Fairtrade