Blogging Fair Trade

The Fairtrade Foundation has just announced the latest new big development in the fair trade sector: fair trade vegetables. Fair trade fruit has established itself as one of the most popular consumable fair trade products, with fair trade bananas taking up an ever-increasing area of the fruit and vegetable aisle in many supermarkets.

With this in mind, fair trade vegetables seems like a no-brainer. In fact, it is a wonder that they haven’t been introduced before. I suppose the difference between fruit and vegetables is that the fair trade fruit that has dominated the coverage and shelves has been fruit that you simply cannot grow in this country – with bananas being the obvious example. Vegetables are slightly different…

Climate change is now seen as something that is as important to tackle as poverty and the Fairtrade Foundation has even gone so far as to publish a brochure on fair trade and climate change entitled Why the climate revolution must be a fair revolution. Buying locally sourced produce is an easy way of helping to stop the insane practices of importing apples from New Zealand when they grow just as well in the UK. A lot of people go as far as to argue that we should only eat the fruit and vegetables that are in season.

Personally, I try to buy British apples and to wait for strawberries and other fruit and veg to come into season before buying it, rather than eating Spanish strawberries in winter for example. But this idea of buying locally sourced fruit and veg does not mean that introducing fair trade vegetables to the British market is a bad idea. I believe that as far as fair trade is concerned, it is a case of the more the merrier. People will always look to buy vegetables that are not currently being harvested in the UK and if these vegetables can be fair trade, then they should be.

Fair trade vegetables will be a most welcome addition to the veg aisles at supermarkets across the UK. Eco-activists will still say that we should buy locally farmed produce, but at least if consumers are not willing to make such a change to their diet, they can buy fair trade versions of imported vegetables. It may not directly benefit the environment, but it will directly benefit some of the poorest producers in the world and will help improve their lives that little bit.