Newsbot Posted July 7, 2008 Share Posted July 7, 2008 The Isle of Man is officially named as a Fairtrade island as a certificate is handed over to the Chief Minister. Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/...man/7494484.stm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monasqueen Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 Fair Trade is a great bandwagon that everybody wants to claim they are jumping on. A great example is that great supermarket across Sainsburys. Trouble is, does Fair Trade cover the full Monty? Fair Trade, but how far? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triskelion Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 This is a common problem with overseas manufactuer however, especially when those clothes are made on the subcontinent. Simply put, Indians don't understand why you would want to pay menial workers more money. A friend of mine, working for a food company, once went out there and tried to persuade their supplier to pay the workers more money. The chauvanistic all-male management, however, simply had no concept of why you would do this. This is actually executive greed, but rather a reflection of the caste system in place in these countries. Why bother to pay the lowest class of workers more when they cannot better themselves? It seems very alien, but trying to change India's culture from the outside is fairly impossible. In the end, fair-trade represents 'as good as we can get' and shouldn't be shunned just because it is imperfect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Tatlock Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 *The Isle of Man is officially named as a Fairtrade island as a certificate is handed over to the Chief Minister. Just checking the small print... * excludes most island businesses, and especially those associated with travel and utilities or government expenditure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amadeus Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 Correction: The BBC would like to apologise for a mistake in the previous coverage concerning the Isle of Man being officially named as a Fairtrade island. This statement is incorrect. The correct headline should have read: The Isle of Man is officially named as a Fairytrade island The new fairy shop under the fairy bridge is now open for business after Tynwald approved the Fairy Trade Act 2008. A government spokesperson commented: "We politicians have often been said to be living in Lala-land and running toytown like a mickey mouse state. Now, with the approval of this act, we can finally say that these statements are not true - we actually live in fairyland and everyone can have one now." Customers are reminded that it is not allowed to purchase more than two fairies at a time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcCann Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 I only ever buy fairtrade stuff *puts on Nike trainers and Primark top* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triskelion Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 *The Isle of Man is officially named as a Fairtrade island as a certificate is handed over to the Chief Minister. Just checking the small print... * excludes most island businesses, and especially those associated with travel and utilities or government expenditure Its a brand, not an ideology. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grianane Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 I've always been somewhat cynical about the fair trade lobby. I can see the point of the fair wage ideal but whats fair in the UK economy is nothing like whats fair in other countries. Of more concern to me is that despite the logo the cost of these products is high, me thinks your paying more for the feel good factor, your probably lining the pockets of the shop keeper whose markup reflects the price they can get for the item rather than its value. I'm intrigued to see fair trade outlets offering the same goods as other retailers but at a higher price, is it conceiveable that different suppliers are making the same products for different shops, I think not, yet only some have the fair trade label. IMO fair trade is not occuring right along the supply chain. On a similar point why is there no UK or European manufactured fair trade products. It makes you wonder whether the whole fair trade business hasn't been created to enable fair traders to benefit from the sale of goods manufactured in third world countries through the generation of a market place of go gooders who think their saving the planet but are really only investing in fair trader profits. Is the bubble about to burst though - with fuel prices on the up you wonder why we should be fairtrading at all - the carbon footprint of fair trade manufactured products must be immense - it is hard to justify paying third world countries to produce goods which could just as easily be manufactured in the UK at a lower carbon cost when you consider the global damage that shipping must be doing. The message must be BUY LOCAL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triskelion Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 That's a load of rubbish though. Where in the UK can you grow tea or coffee or cocoa? You don't find banana trees growing very productively in Lancashire. Look at the goods you can actually under the Fairtrade brand. They are all basic goods. Just because these things 'could just as easily be manufactured in the UK' doesn't mean there are, will be or that this would be better. The motivation behind Fairtrade goods is that it doesn't pay farmers and some other producers at the price set at the World commodity markets. Instead, the farmers in the developing World get enough not only to subsist, but to improve their farms and invest in the community. Farmers in Europe, the UK and the Isle of Man get subsidies to compensate for low food prices. What do you mean 'some shops selling the same goods at higher prices'? Do you mean Dairy Milk is cheaper than a bar of Divine? Or that the latter is being sold at different prices in different shops? You have to remember the volumes involved. Because the market for Fairtrade goods is relatively small, manufactuers and outlets cannot buy in sufficient bulk from either their suppliers or farmers to make Fairtrade foodstuffs (and other products) as cheap as their non-fairtrade. It's got nothing to do with price-gouging. By all means buy local, but you aren't going to get Ballapaddag coffee any time soon, so when you are buying these imported goods, surely it is better to show some humanity and buy Fairtrade, which I haven't found to be very much more expensive on foodstuffs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monasqueen Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 By all means buy local, but you aren't going to get Ballapaddag coffee any time soon But you can buy Fairy Bridge tea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triskelion Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 Smart arse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insomniac Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 By all means buy local, but you aren't going to get Ballapaddag coffee any time soon But you can buy Fairy Bridge tea http://www.manxteaandcoffee.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Tatlock Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 *The Isle of Man is officially named as a Fairtrade island as a certificate is handed over to the Chief Minister. Just checking the small print... * excludes most island businesses, and especially those associated with travel and utilities or government expenditure Its a brand, not an ideology. I thought it was supposed to be both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triskelion Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 Whatever, it applies to producers, not consumers, so your criticism of Island businesses is somewhat misplaced. Unless you think we aren't paying the Steam Packet or Flybe a price that would allow to do more than subsist? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Tatlock Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 Whatever, it applies to producers, not consumers, so your criticism of Island businesses is somewhat misplaced. Unless you think we aren't paying the Steam Packet or Flybe a price that would allow to do more than subsist? Brands and ideologies apply equally to both consumers and producers. Without one the other wouldn't exist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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