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TO BUILD A MORE JUST WORLD
OUR COMMUNITY CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
We are often unconscious accomplices to an unjust exploitation of other people and of natural resources through our life style and our patterns of consumption. This can be changed.
* We can consume less, and consume more economically
* We can change our habits and patterns of consumption as individuals persons and as a community
* We can choose what to consume and how to invest using ethical and evangelical criteria
When we purchase we are encouraged to favour an economy that respects human rights, non-polluting products, justly paid labour, education and literacy for everybody.
HOW?
We can start by:
* Diversifying 10% of our expenses to buy products coming from fair trade, from cooperatives of biological agriculture and from chains of producers who respect social and environmental rights.
* Diversifying 10% of our investments to banks and funds that are transparent and attentive to social and environmental questions.
HOW COFFEE CRISIS LAUNCHED COMMERCE WITH A CONSCIENCE.
(A report of success in the United Kingdom. Approximate exchange rate UK£1 = US$2.)
The plight of Mexican coffee farmers in the late 1980s gave rise to one of the most successful consumer brands of modern times.
Faced with rapidly dwindling prices for their beans following the signing of the International Coffee Agreement that handed the market power to the giant buyers, the growers decided it was time to fight back.
With the help of British charities such as Oxfam, Christian Aid, Cafod and the international World Development Movement, the FAIRTRADE mark was born.
The first product hit the shelves in 1994, a bar of the "Green & Black" brand Maya Gold chocolate. It was followed swiftly by Clipper Fairtrade tea and Cafedirect coffee.
A consumer revolution was born. Overall ethical consumer market in the United Kingdom - including banking and FAIRTRADE products - was worth £25billion in 2003.
Since launching its first products, Fairtrade has persuaded everyone from supermarkets to members of parliament, charities and councils to stock its growing range.
With growth averaging between 40 and 50 per cent a year, sales topped £140 million in 2004. FAIRTRADE is a specific system to make sure trade tries to reduce the imbalance between rich and poor.
is a specific system to make sure trade tries to reduce the imbalance between rich and poor.
It is about creating a sustainable system of intervention, building wealth from the bottom up.
Last year the amount of money put into UK ethical savings and investments broke through the £10billion barrier for the first time.
Co-operative Financial Services said the level of ethical investment rose 18 per cent to £10.6billion during 2004.
A total of £5.5billion had been put into "socially responsible" funds and £5.1billion deposited in ethical banks and credit unions.
We are often unconscious accomplices to an unjust exploitation of other people and of natural resources through our life style and our patterns of consumption.
This can be changed. We can start by: is a specific system to make sure trade tries to reduce the imbalance between rich and poor.
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