On October 9th, 2010, 3 members of the JFIG went to London for the annual supporters conference.  The highlight was a presentation of an award to the Jersey Group for their media activities during Fairtrade Fortnight.   We were in 2nd place and awarded £400.  The photo attached shows Brad Hill of the Co-op and Harriet Lamb of the Foundation with Joy Thomson, Tony Allchurch and Ed Le Quesne

 Here are some notes from some of the speakers and seminars.

Harriet Lamb
Doha Trade round started in 2000. Still not complete.  subsidies by USA Govt for cotton producers is $3bn, in EU about $1 bn. Income for cotton producers in Mali is one-third hat it was in 1970!   FT  Foundation started looking at cotton 5 years ago.  Photo exhibition of models in cotton garments available for hire.  The public campaign will be launched on 18th Nov.
Now have FT wall (Hadrian’s Wall) and Bruce Crowther trying to make a FT Way ( linking  FT  towns). Wellington (New Zealand) declared first FT  town in NZ on the day of the conference.
FT Safari coffee in Kenya, FT wine in S. Africa, i.e. home country sales are starting to take off and very popular with people in the country.
They are looking at FT fish food
FT and Fairmined Gold will be launched on 14th Feb 2011.
AKOMA Shea nuts, used for cosmetics, are gathered in N. Ghana by a co-op of 45 women.  As well as money, they now value themselves.
Being happy leads to success, not vice-versa.
We should have anger at poverty and determination to bring about change.

Caroline Lucas
MEP much more efficient. As  MP given a pink  ribbon to hang her sword!  Speaker has the power to call amendments and amendments can’t be split, to vote for one part not the other.   Though Aid budget is said to be ring-fenced there have been cuts to DfID  and work for Arms Treaty scrapped
Everyone benefits  from fairer, greener  trade. Need to aim to contract and converge on CO2 output .
Govt has cut the sustainable development commission but economic models are limited.  Need to replace GDP with measures that take account of  measures of quality of life.
Need equity for developing countries, perhaps a Fairtrade in carbon emissions.

Andrew Ethuru, Kenyan tea producer for Cafe Direct
It took from 2005 -2007 to get FT certificate. They have 10k farmers in their Co-op.  CafeDirect links the grower more directly with the shopper.
They are diversifying into vegetables.  They have cut their energy use by 30%.
They were selling 5% of their tea to CafeDirect but now less as there is no quality standard for tea and large companies are buying lower quality for their FT tea.
Multinationals have 40% of the tea market.

Seminar on new product development
Aim is to Strengthen - Broaden  - Deepen
Looking for new types of producer and cotton has a large market share. With more variety of products, recognition of the FT mark will be raised.
Producers have to meet FT standards for crop quality and meet FT standards for distribution of funds and bookkeeping.
They have a partner in ARM, Alliance for Responsible Mining.  Also in FSC, Forestry Stewardship Council.
Working on gold.  There are about 100m artisanal small scale miners and already working to bring up their standrds.  Th aim is in 15 years to have 5% of gold jewelry which equals 25 tonnes p.a.
There is a hallmark for Ft and one for ARM.  There will also be two capital letters that will allow you to identify the company.     375 = 9 carat gold (9/24 of gold.)

Abi Petit   Gossypium
Aiming to double sales by 2013.
Needs 2 sq.m of land to grow cotton for one T-shirt
Extreme difference between our lives and those of producers
There is a change from oil-based fibres to cotton.
She has written a book called “The eye of the needle’
Difficult to keep all stock lines complete in her shop.
GM crops keep the pesticides industry busy but cotton can  be grown sustainably
Farmers get about 10p per cotton item.  90% of water wasted. 
There is a race to the bottom in the cotton industry, with farmers bearing the price.
USA c cotton subsidy has been declared illegal by WTO.
USA agribusiness  makes feeble excuses like  ‘affected by the weather’

Damien Sanfilippo, Product manager for cotton at FLO ( Fairtrade Labelling Organization)
It is difficult to get FT cotton as there are many steps to cotton farming.
Often workers can’t join trade unions.
However it has the potential to be biggest crop.